Christmas Eve meal?

red_devil

we work on that day and are very busy. We will have made a meal and frozen some of it so we only have to reheat.

SugarSpun

We've always taken my grandmother out for Christmas Eve dinner because it was her birthday. She passed away in April - I don't know what we'll do this year. After her funeral we went to a restaurant she liked and talked about her, maybe we'll do the same again.

hellokitty08

Well it been tradition in our family to not only all get together on Xmas day, but also on Xmas eve, although on a more informal basis. We had takeaways for a while, but then it ended up being difficult to organise, who was paying for what.

Now I cook chinese dinner for the whole family at my nans, it does take ages to do, but takes the pressure of my nan who does christmas dinner and we always leave the kitchen clean and tidy afterwards. Plus I try to do as much of the prep at home as I can the day before.

For dessert you can do easy peasy chocolate triffle. Break up some muffins / Chocolate cake in the bottle of a bowl, as some cherrys in syrup if you like, top with chocolate custard, add some whipped cream (bailys or cheaper brand in the cream is optional) crumble a flake on top. As long as you dont have to make the custard it should take 5 minutes.

morganlefay

We've always had fish pie which I make the week before and freeze, with frozen peas. It has the advantage that my OH thinks that fish isn't really filling so he thinks he's not eaten much in preparation for Xmas day (I think it's very filling !) and that you can spend as little or as much as you like. Sometimes I make it with a mix of ordinary and smoked fish, or just one or the other, if I'm feeling flush I'll add a few prawns, I always have a couple of boiled eggs quartered in there but I have to leave one corner without as OH won't touch them, and sometimes I put cheese in and sometimes I don't. We always have mash on top and it has to be made very fluffy with lots of butter (I do it with an electric hand whisk) and occasionally I'll make a thick cheese sandwich, whizz it in the processor to make buttery, cheesy breadcrumbs, and sprinkle that on top. If I did anything else now DDs would be very cross, but you can get it all sorted in advance (and the extensive washing up done) and you just have to thaw it during the day and cook. (Don't think it would be good to cook it from frozen as it's usually very big and solid). Yum....I'm quite fancying one now !!!!

PS ice cream for pud. Nothing else.

Little_Otter

we go out for the day to a traditionally festive village to see the lights and have a pub lunch - or we will have a taxeaway in the evening (usually chinese or indian) we have no kids/responsibilities yet so xmas eve is our big night out - prefer that to NYE.
I like your chilli idea - my OH isn't a fan of rice so I do a big chilli with tortilla chips and sour cream - (like nachos) its fab!

borokat

We always have a big salad - either a ham or chicken, green salad, coleslaw, garlic bread, quiche, new potatoes, pickled onions, beetroot, a tin of corned beef sliced up, some hard boiled eggs, and bowl of grated cheese. Not really that 'light' or 'easy' but most of it is pre-prepared stuff and my mum now has 2 adult daughters to help her with the Xmas cooking but I can imagine it must have been a nightmare to do all that when we were kids.
If I wanted to do something easy I would make either bolognese, chilli or curry a few weeks before, stash in the freezer along with some garlic baguettes and serve with some salad, and plenty of wine for the adults.
Dessert - it could only be mince pies I'm afraid! Who would eat anything else on Christmas Eve?

ajmoney

We have always had Shepherd's Pie on Christmas Eve, a traditional religious affair, especially as we with picking up relatives takes away from the religious side of things on the actual day. You could probably do a lot of this before the day to cut down on hassle.

When we go to OHs family we have a cold buffet. Their mum was German and they always celebrate the night before more than the day itself. Even though she has passed away they still carry on with their tradition.

hannahsmummy1

we nearly always have a buffet- but this year as there are loads of us going to be there- i will be making a pig pot of soup- with crusty bread most probably! Something i can just chuck a load of stuff into a pot/slow cooker & forget about it whilst i wrap pressies etc!

JaneLiz

We just tend to have something light and simple - salad or maybe something pasta-ish... We've been known to have take aways too though!

Metranil_Vavin

I'd do a big pot of homemade curry...maybe a madras..something a bit spicy and juicy.

Nice and easy to do...just a case of pre-prepping the curry paste which is fairly straightforward. Then just throwing it all together and popping it on a low heat for an hour or so. So you can get it all ready and on the go and then be able to have a few cheeky ones before its ready!