christmas eve dinner/tea

Fruball

We have salmon with new potatoes and peas, often have a prawn cocktail starter (no starter on xmas day as its too much) or our Christmas ham with toast, pickles, pork pies etc and these come back out on Boxing Day

Tibbie's_mum

This has really got me thinking..........so I've decided on a buffet, I'm going to make the lamb doner meat from The Takeaway Secret book which is really yummy amongst other things. I've got my niece and her children coming to stay for the next two weeks (snow permitting) and they are muslims so there's no big ham or pigs in blankets or bacon/sausagemeat stuffing this year, must get my thinking cap on for alternatives.

ginvzt

Were I am from, the Christmas Eve meal is very important, and we don't have meat or dairy on that day - that is the tradition. Also, there have to be 12 dishes on the table!

Usual things that we have are fish, mushrooms, vegetables.

I understand that it is not for everyone, but I like it this way. Then on Christmas day we would have a nice roast (goose or dusk, or veal or something else) and the meal will go on the table for lunch and will stay there till the evening (oh, and there will be lost of cold stuff around as well).

stiltwalker

We always make a big buffet for Christmas eve, quiche, sausage rolls, ham, salad, the works - then this combined with the cold cuts from the turkey, stuffing, bread sauce, pigs in blankets etc that we also always make too much of comes out of the fridge for the next few days for lunches and as part of meals so that there is hardly any cooking needs doing for the few days after Christmas and we can all just chill. My parents both used to be teachers before the reired and what with scool plays, carol concerts, kids christmas parties not to mention dealing with 30 kids in Christmas mode! right through December then once they broke up it was me and little brov and all our Christmas stuff to organise it made a lovely Christmas for them to know that once Christmas Dinner was done they had very little to do for the next few days. Now I'm grown with a family of my own I appreciate the few days off myself!

LandyAndy

My parents arrive on Christmas Eve as well. I usually make a cottage/shepherds/fish pie. In fact I made the filling for this year's shepherds pie earlier this week and froze it. Christmas Eve all I neeed to do is mash some poatoes for the topping and cook some veg.

LandyAndy

stiltwalker wrote: »

We always make a big buffet for Christmas eve, quiche, sausage rolls, ham, salad, the works - then this combined with the cold cuts from the turkey, stuffing, bread sauce, pigs in blankets etc that we also always make too much of comes out of the fridge for the next few days for lunches and as part of meals so that there is hardly any cooking needs doing for the few days after Christmas and we can all just chill. My parents both used to be teachers before the reired and what with scool plays, carol concerts, kids christmas parties not to mention dealing with 30 kids in Christmas mode! right through December then once they broke up it was me and little brov and all our Christmas stuff to organise it made a lovely Christmas for them to know that once Christmas Dinner was done they had very little to do for the next few days. Now I'm grown with a family of my own I appreciate the few days off myself!

Same here.:)

lostinrates

We have a buffet on Boxing Day and sometimes New years. Sometimes we've had the big family mealon Christmas eve but more often its the day the ham gets baked, so that it can be eaten with the buffet on Boxing day. Also, we don't tend to want to eat very heavily but do want something warm, particularly if any of us are going to midnight mass. This year I think it will be a cheese and leek or maybe a salmon souflee, followed by ham,roast or mashed Jerusalem artichokes, and probably red cabbage. Pudding is likely to be panetone and zabaglione and spiced plum compote.

OrkneyStar

Mini homemade pizzas/quiche, tattie salad and some cold meat (eg gammon slices)- that way people can take as much as they need but you could freeze leftovers (except tattie salad ). x

La-Cara

We also always have gammon on Christmas Eve with egg, beans and chips, then it's ready for part of the main meal on Christmas Day. There's usually mince pies or fairy cakes on the go for people to nibble on in the evening.

Loulou2010

am i the only one who doesnt have dinner on christmas eve? we're normally so busy that we just grab bits and pieces here and there