What's Your Favorite Christmas Meal?

The week of Christmas I always do meals that I can make ahead and freeze. I've made chili for Christmas Eve. I bought tamales to have with them. Both of them are frozen. I will make my dressing today and freeze it.
I made a creamy chicken casserole last week and froze it. It is from Southern Living. (wild rice, french style green beans, chicken, mushrooms, cream of celery, etc.)
I try to cook ahead, so I can enjoy my company. I will cook sausage today to have with breakfast on Christmas morning. I do as many things ahead. Have a joyous Christmas.

We do gumbo on Christmas Eve and finger foods Christmas Day. Everything is low stress - makes it easier to relax and enjoy.

Our familly does the traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving....For Christmas we do all finger foods and desserts. Little sausages, Queso, Taquitos, Shrimp ect... All appitizer things-that way we do not have long cooking times and can snack all day.

We have all the relatives that want to come over for Christmas brunch. So we have eggs/bacon/biscuits/usually some kind of casserole/fruit around 1130a or so. Since the kids get up so early they usually have a bowl of cereal earlier- after they have torn thru Santa. Dinner is something easy- some years I pick up a ham and some years it is just soup and sandwiches. Our kids are teens now so they tend to scatter on Christmas day. And Christmas eve has ALWAYS been a movie and Mexican food out! We started that when the kids were little because it gave them something to do on Christmas Eve without driving us crazy- and filled those last few hours until bedtime!!! This year will be our first to change the routine as we are flying to a new place in Colorado. Wonder if there will be a movie theater open on Christmas eve in the little tiny town we are near???

Sounds like most of us do the same things. This year since two of my grandchildren go with their father at 2:00 pm, we are having a brunch. I personally like this better as we have an egg casserole, bacon, sausage, homemade salsa, biscuts and cream gravy, fresh fruit, a baked french toast (Paula Deen recipe) and we bake a small turkey and ham along with dressing and gravy and all kinds of pastries and cookies. What I like about this is you make most of it the night before and bake only the biscuits an make the gravy basically the following morning and heat up the rest. We will also serve mimosa's have coffee with different syrups, spices etc. to add if you like and juices. Believe it or not this is less stress than the traditional baking all day the day of something. We assign what each person is to make and bring that way I am not the one doing it all and being under so much stress. Of course we are in Texas so we will have some tamales. Later in the evening we will eat left overs or make sandwiches etc. Good Luck to you on whatever you choose to do and always remember it is a wonderful time for family to get together and enjoy. Don't make it stressful. Merry Christmas to you and your family.

We usually do something like gumbo or beans and sausage. Thanksgiving is the turkey and all , new years is the black-eyed peas, cabbage and ham.

I usually make a big pot of spaghetti and garlic bread for Christmas. Thanksgiving we do the traditional turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, etc... New Year's I usually cook a ham, black-eyed-peas, coleslaw, deviled eggs, potatoe salad, yams, cornbread.

We always have tamales, beans, nachos, on Christmas eve. After a day of shopping will usually have grilled cheese sandwiches or ham or turkey melt sandwiches with chicken noodle soup or tomato soup. Just simple meals, since there is such an over abundance of rich foods all around.

Merry Christmas

For Christmas Eve we are doing a Shrimp Boil with Jalapino Bread and for Christmas Dinner, Brisket, corn casserole, yellow rice, red potatoe salad, rolls and pecan pie. We do a traditional Thanksgiving so I like to something different for Christmas. Good luck finding ideas and Merry Christmas!

We usually do fried catfish, gumbo or jambalaya. Last year my mom did enchiladas and barracho beans.

Margaret :)

We do the traditional stuff - turkey and dressing, mashed potatoes, candied sweet potatoes, etc, etc. But, sometime during the winter (sometimes more than once), at my parents house, we used to set up a complete picnic on the living room floor (tablecloth, plates, glasses, chips, the whole thing) and roast hot dogs in the fireplace, with s'mores for dessert. Summertime and wintertime fun, all rolled up together! Great if you're having kids over. And fun nostalgia for the parents - when was the last time you made s'mores with marshmallows you had roasted over a fire, and not just heated in the microwave?

Our meal tends to be secondary to dessert. This year I picked out an amazing looking berry trifle to make. It is so impressive looking and on line all the reviews were topnotch!

Dear L.,

I am a traditional gal, so I like the turkey or ham and sides, however, I do a twist on some of the sides - mashed potatoes with grated granny smith apples and blue cheese! YUM, also, I heat the milk, blue cheese and butter so that the cold from those ingredients doesn't cool down the potatoes too quickly. Green bean casserole is a must for me.

I also like to start with a selection of cheeses and veggies with dip so that starving folks aren't picking at dinner before it is ready. Some of my favorite starters are creme cheese (room temp) with jalepano jelly on top or creme cheese (room temp) with cocktail sauce and canned crab meat on top YUMMY!

On Christmas Eve we will do enchiladas, chili or pizza since we will have leftovers of the big meal for days!

I hope that you have a great Christmas.
blessings,
Stacy

For Christmas I always do a honey ham, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, cheesy biscuits, and of course pies! :)
Leftover honey ham slices make excellent sandwiches too.

For the past few years my husband has been frying a tureky (read all safety instructions!) and it is super delicious. We usually have all the normal fixins, mashed potatos, sweet potato, corn, carrots, green beans, stuffing and baked glazed ham.

My favorite family tradition is I cook a huge Christmas breakfast which includes gingerbread pancakes, french toast strata, sausage, eggs hashbrowns, bacon and bisquits! Sometimes we invite the family over but sometimes it's just the 3 of us!

Hi L.,
We are having my mother-in-law over for the first time for Christmas Eve this year. I am making a roast with potatoes, carrots, and some baby onions. It's great because it feeds a lot of people. We have 3 children, a room-mate, my cousin (who's also coming that day to visit), and my mother-in-law, plus myself and my husband. So large quanity and quality is key. I want everyone to be happy! Good luck. I look forward to seeing everyone elses response as well! This was a great question. I always kind of thing of roast around Christmas time. It's something my parents almost always made for us around this time, so I guess it's only natural I make it as well!

Good Luck!
D.