Christmas Eve meal traditions!

[RaisingABabyBell]

Sorry to use the C word already, but thinking of starting a new tradition for Christmas Eve! My husband and I have always done a spread of party food - pizza, mozzarella sticks, spring rolls etc. What else do you guys do? All suggestions and ideas welcome 🥰

Salmon en croute, potato dauphinoise, Caesar salad followed by passion fruit pavlova has been our Christmas Eve meal for the past 3 years.

Butcher made and bought steak pies, with homemade mushy peas!

The kids and their partners...I say kids. They're 27 and 29, 21 and 21, 17 and 17 go and pick up our pre ordered Chinese and then we do the match pj's. This was a tradition we started on 2018 after having to get emergency housing...thankfully all in a much better place now. This is the first year 2 oldest have their own homes and me and youngest live with new husband, so I'm not sure how it plays out this time tbh!

Risky duck and pancakes. No idea why it started but it's been going strong for 20 years.

Our family tradition is a starter of smoked salmon & prawns, followed by a chestnut cauliflower soup, and finished off with pumpkin pie.

Our main family Christmas meal is on Christmas Eve as DH is Scandinavian. We typically have a mixed table load of traditional foods from his home country, along with some token items pigs in blankets to keep the 3 assembled Brits happy.

On Christmas Day we graze on cheese & charcuterie from early afternoon and throughout the evening. No cooking required for anyone.

Either chippy or Chinese takeaway i worked in retail when dc were younger and dh is a hgv driver for supermarket so busy time of year for us both so I used to pick it up on my way home from work and it's just continued so kind of a tradition

Like a few pp, I roast a gammon on Christmas Eve, so pop in some jkt pots and also cook the red cabbage at the same time. The gammon and cabbage then last us a few days over the different Christmas meals. Think we’ve done this since we had dc1 so at least 17 years now!

Fish stew and warm crusty bread. Pudding normally involves brandy snaps or poached pears.

We also have mulled wine and roast some chestnuts at some point in the afternoon.

We see family for buffet food usually
We bake something sweet
Have our fave films in the background
Home for a bath with Lush bath bombs
New Christmas Eve pjs
Christmas Eve box
We watch The Snowman
Leave a mince pie, carrot and a can of Coca Cola for Santa - He’s lactose intolerant in our house

We’ve had the same traditions for over 15 years.

I read the post wrong but this still sort of counts 🙂

Chinese, the last 16 years, only didn’t have it the year of covid as they got covid… they are usually closed on a Tuesday and this year Christmas Eve falls on Tuesday so I’m hoping they change it and open… it’s literally thier busiest day. It’s so much better getting a takeaway, no cooking, only prep for Christmas Day. Then we chill Afro the evening

Salmon quiche with new potatoes and salad.

Since we started dating we’ve always done Christmas Eve meal out somewhere.
however, we are due baby #2 a couple weeks before Xmas so we will not be doing that this year!

not sure what we will do but a cheeseboard, wine after a takeaway sounds about right.

The risk's paying off.

We spend the day with my Nana as it's her birthday, but we're home by the evening and have a picnic under the Christmas tree. It's a cheesy tradition we started when DD was 1 but we love it :)

Nachos. Full on luxurious nachos for the last few years.

Home cooked ham with raclette, salad, pickles etc It’s fium and social cooking at the table and very little work 😂 Yule log for pudding.

Growing up, when everything closed at midday on Christmas Eve, our tradition was to go out to the local Chinese restaurant for dinner before midnight mass as it was the only place open. The town was empty and eerily quiet. It felt so exciting being out so late when everyone else was at home.

I have been known to make a large shepherds pie or cottage pie, then present it at the table with a single round glacé cherry on the top.
It's Rudolph Pie.
Did it one year when the kids were being little shits a bit difficult, and we'd jokingly threatened to cancel Christmas, and now it's family folklore.

We used to do a buffet but now the kids are older we always go out for a meal and get all dressed up, I love it makes me feel really festive.

This is so cute!!!

You made them eat Rudolph?

Duck in orange sauce and dauphinoise potatoes. DP cooks. Using every. bloody. pan.

We have the Christmas ham, chip shop chips and eggs

Prawn cocktails

@PhilosophicalCheeseSandwich Your comment really made me laugh 🤣

Every Christmas Eve we go to the local family pub with friends and all of the kids. We have a few drinks and some picky bits like crispy chicken strips, onion rings, chilli cheese bites and pulled pork nachos.

Later on in the evening, we eat our absolute fabulous platter. A small local business makes them and they’re to die for. Cheese, crackers, homemade chutneys, home made pork and apple sausage rolls, mini ham and mascarpone pizzas, whipped goats cheese with pistachio, sticky glazed sausages etc… And it also has some beautiful home baked bits in like Cadbury’s Roses brownies, white chocolate and raspberry blondies etc….

I open the fizz and usually throw a camembert with crusty bread in too.