Willravel

What are your culinary traditions for Christmas? Are you goose-folk? Honey-baked ham, perhaps? Or are you ready for more turkey? Maybe you're a free-spirit and have Chinese?

We have an extravagant dip with chips and quesadillas on Christmas Eve every year, which I've come to love.

Layer One: Refried Beans
Layer Two: Guacamole
Layer Three: Sour Cream
Layer Four: Salsa
Layer Five: Grated Cheeses (Monterrey Jack, Mozzarella, Cheddar)
Layer Six: Chopped Olives
Layer Seven: Chopped Green Onions

And when we're done, S'mores.

What's your tradition?

snowy

My SO's dad makes prime rib. He is a master of meats, and his prime rib is herb-rubbed and studded with garlic. Somehow he always manages to get it just right, so everyone gets the bit they want, to the doneness they desire.

Christmas Eve is usually clam chowder, but this year I'll be at work until 8pm.

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savmesom11

Christmas has been Italian food for as long as I can remember. It's nice because everyone brings their own specialty dish and you get a little of everything.

I enjoy the non-traditional route with X-mas food; with Thanksgiving having just passed I get all the turkey and ham I can handle from that day alone!

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sapiens

For as long as I can remember, Leverpostej (a Danish liver pate), Rullepølse (a Danish meat roll), and homemade zwieback (lots of butter, lots of sugar, and lots of cinnamon) have had places in our Christmas morning breakfast. I never have them at any other time of the year.

guyy

I once had a Christmas dinner with someone of native american descent, his Jewish wife, and 2 atheistic communist types. I made a salad with pears and a mustard based dressing. That's become something of a tradition of mine.

I'd prefer to go out for Chinese food or something, but my family would hoot & holler so much that it's not worth it.

Eweser

We don't really have a traditional meal anymore...and I go to at least four different ones, so you think I would somewhere but we seem to have something different every year. It used to be a tradition to have lasagna at my mom's mom's house. The frozen kind you pop in the oven. It was easy and easy cleanup.

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Charlatan

Our tradition was always Turkey with all the usual stuff on Christmas Day and then a Ham at my Dad's place on Boxing Day.

Unlike the US, our Thanksgiving is in October so there is sufficient time between Turkeys.

That said, I am in the middle of deciding what to do for Christmas this year. I am thinking of making a roast goose or maybe a shoulder of lamb. I'd do both but the oven here is too small to accommodate two roasts.

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ColonelSpecial

We have homemade potica (eastern European nut roll; every country in the area has their own recipe) for breakfast with coffee and milk.

Dinner is varied except for the twice baked potatoes my dad makes every year. I don't eat them anywhere else because they are never as good.

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Baraka_Guru

The only thing I can think of that's out of the ordinary is my sister's take on my late grandmother's mushroom and green bean casserole. I think I'm the only one who absolutely loves it, but it's a tradition, nonetheless.

I can't wait!

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Magpie_1

On my mothers side we usually dine on home made porgies. My Uncle Tarry use to always be the one who makes them. Now he has passed on the recipe down to my sister Candace.

On my fathers side we will always dine on Cheesy Potatoes. Also known by most as hash browns. I love that stuff.

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cj2112

I grill a prime rib every year. I used to take my parents out to dinner on Christmas Eve, however taking the wife, the kids the in-laws and the parents to a nice dinner would run about $400.00 so we're doing the prime rib on Christmas Eve this year, and a traditional ham dinner at the inlaws this year.

World's King

Christmas Eve is always all seafood. It's an Italian thing.


Christmas day we don't really do much. A big breakfast then a small dinner. It's too much a pain to cook for 30+ people two days in a row.

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Grasshopper Green

We eat at my Dad's on Christmas Eve and there's always a turkey and home made rolls, the rest varies from year to year. I make a french toast casserole Christmas Eve and put it in the oven on Christmas morning. It bakes while everyone opens presents.

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highthief

On Christmas Eve it's too my mother-in-law's place where a smorgasbord of dishes tend to be served including various Chinese and Caribean fare, along with shrimp (the shrimp are for me!)

On Christmas Day it is usually at my aunt's place where we get a traditional English roast dinner with turkey, veggies, potatoes, cranberry, stuffing, etc - with various custards, puddings and pies for desert.

However, this year we are at my brother's place and I despair over what horrible dishes are likely to be on offer. I mean, I'm into fitness and eating properly - but not at big occasions like Christmas, etc. Alas, his wife thinks we should be eating protein bars 365 days a year - whatever is served, it's not going to be well received.

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Charlatan

Highthief... I really hope you don't have to suffer through bad food at Christmas. My fingers are crossed for a Christmas miracle!

I decided to make a roast loin of pork with the skin on... I've never made crackling before so I too am hoping for a Christmas miracle. I might just roast some chickens or a roast of beef as a back up.

The rest of the food will be roast veg and all the rest...

The only remaining issue is figuring out what to make for my vegetarian wife... I can always fall back on a veggie pasties if necessary.

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dworkin31

Doesnt anybody have honeybaked hams anymore? We get them only once a year, for christmas eve. We make a bunch of other stuff to go along with it. Once a year is enough. After 2-3 days of eating that damm thing, we get sick of it. By nov/dec, we get our cravings back.

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SabrinaFair

One of my favorite Christmas food traditions is Christmas morning breakfast--"Meat Fest". My dad, who doesn't eat breakfast 364 days of the year, makes a huge breakfast with bacon, sausage, eggs, biscuits, and hash browns. It's not so much that it's a wonderful meal--it's just a good Southern breakfast--but my dad gets so excited about it. It's an infectious enthusiasm.

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little_tippler

The Portuguese have several traditional foods for Christmas, both savoury and sweet, and these change depending on the region of Portugal you're in.

In the Lisbon area the tradition is either turkey or cod. Some people have roasted octopus, roast lamb or goat. In my family it's usually cod, and occasionally turkey. Turkey is a relatively more recent tradition.

The traditional cod in most homes is very plain and I used to hate it as a child. The meal consists of boiled salted cod, potatoes, carrots, and greens (usually cabbage). This is served as is and drizzled in olive oil. It's not awful but far from my favourite.

These days homes have become more modern and since a lot of people find the cod prepared this way boring, usually people will serve what I can translate literally as cod with cream. This is much tastier and I quite like it. It's what I'll be having this year for Christmas Eve. It consists of boiled salted cod, broken up into flakes, then sautéed in olive oil with onions, and layered with cubed fried potatoes then covered in a white cream sauce, and grilled in the oven.

As for sweets, in my home they aren't very common, but the tradition is to have several different sweets that are egg based. Not really my thing.

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Whether we write or speak or do but look
We are ever unapparent. What we are
Cannot be transfused into word or book.
Our soul from us is infinitely far.
However much we give our thoughts the will
To be our soul and gesture it abroad,
Our hearts are incommunicable still.
In what we show ourselves we are ignored.
The abyss from soul to soul cannot be bridged
By any skill of thought or trick of seeming.
Unto our very selves we are abridged
When we would utter to our thought our being.
We are our dreams of ourselves, souls by gleams,
And each to each other dreams of others' dreams.

Fernando Pessoa, 1918

spindles

Pork with crackling done in the Weber. Way to hot here to cook too much stuff in the kitchen. Otherwise, Christmas dinner is a made up affair. We usually decide weeks in advance who is bringing what. My wife and her mum are doing side dishes (roast veges and salads), I'm doing the Pork and my sister in law is doing dessert.

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tcm_eternal

Kind of a laid back tradition, i like to cook a big meal, the sit-around-the-table-together type. What i cook doesn't really matter, i did a big ham last year. As long as it involves a large piece of meat and about 30 other items, i'm happy.

Meditrina

My mother-in-law is Polish and it is her tradition to make seafood for Christmas Eve as well. We go to her house for dinner that night. I can hardly wait. Seafood is not something I find easy to cook, but always enjoy eating it.

Christmas day will be just the four of us this year. I plan on making lasagna, and whatever my son will eat.

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