What's your traditional Christmas dinner?

[KSRBEvans]

Growing up in my little corner of Kentucky, the centerpiece for Christmas dinner was ham. Turkey was something we had for Thanksgiving.

After moving on and seeing some of the other traditions, I saw there's so much more people do: turkey, standing rib roast, tenderloin, the Feast Of The Seven Fishes for Christmas Eve, etc.

When I was stationed in Puerto Rico I loved all the specialties families would make for Christmas and 3 Kings Day like arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas), pernil (roast pork) and pasteles (a Puerto Rican tamale).

So wondering what everyone's traditional Christmas meal is. In our house we do

Honeybaked Ham (it's our big splurge, once/year)
Sweet potato casserole
Mashed potatoes
Broccoli casserole (4 ingredients--chopped broccoli, velveeta, ritz crackers, butter. Completely offsets any nutritional value gained from the broccoli, but is it good)
Caesar salad (Mrs. BEvans insists on a fresh veggie of some sort, like nutrition should be part of the equation or something)
Yeast rolls
Fresh apple cake (Mrs. BEvans' specialty--her grandmother's recipe)

[dan_bgblue]

My Mother started this tradition years ago, and even though she and Dad have passed, my Brothers family and mine still enjoy this.

Southern KY prepared hot tamales steamed to cook
Vegetable tray with celery, brocoli, carrot sticks, grape tomatoes, and cauliflower.
My aunt's recipe for chess pie which I cook that morning
Crackers with 3 different smoked cheeses prepared by my Brother and thin sliced summer sausage.
Egg Nog

Mother always went all out for a Thanksgiving meal, but she said Christmas was not about a big meal So she was not going to spend her time cooking as it was about family and rejoicing the birth. Said we could eat cold cuts and chips and be just as happy.

[MickintheHam]

Oh Dan, chess pie! My mother would make that and lemon meringue pie for Christmas. I miss her and the pies dearly.

As for me I have been doing a beef tenderloin for over 32 years. Tomorrow I will head up to my butcher in Bluff Park, Alabama, pick it up and take it to Versailles for Christmas. I will take a Hummingbird cake and will see to it that someone brings corn pudding.

[suncat05]

My two sides of the family could not have been any more different as far as Christmas cuisine was concerned. BOTH were very traditional, but the clash of cultures was very evident.
On my Mom's side, it was smoked ham, roast beef and turkey with scalloped potatoes, green bean salad, corn, sweet potatoes, apple & pumpkin pies, homemade rolls, and tons of homemade fudge and bourbon balls.
To this day I will not eat ham or sweet potatoes, as my maternal grandmother used to force me to eat that stuff. But that is another story.........
Now, on my Dad's side of the family, well, let's just say that the Sicilian in them came out at Christmas. Everything was homemade. Pasta. Sauces, with or without meats. Lots of Romano & Parmesano & Asagio cheeses. Veal parmigiana, Italian roast beef, eggplant parmigiana, scungili, salat, manicotti, pizzas with various toppings, biscotti, annisette, and on and on. My grandparents had this custom made table that wrapped around the room that they put all the food on, and there was a huge table in the middle of the room where we all ate.
The aroma alone was heavenly. Good times and good memories.

[Darrell KSR]

I'm going to cheat and talk about Christmas Eve dinner first. Some recent Christmas Eve dinners:

KFC chicken pot pie
Guadalajara fajitas and margaritas
Chicken parmegan, eggplant and pasta
Mo shu pork, hot and sour soup, egg rolls, pot stickers

All of those have been recent Christmas Eve dinners for parts, or all of my family. We go to 4pm Mass, and then head to dinner, usually whereever we can find (we learned a long time ago to find out in advance, of course). My favorite was Mexican food at Guadalajara with a mariachi band playing "Feliz Navidad," and other Christmas tunes. Would love to do that again.

The KFC one was one where my son had to work Christmas Eve, and we were spending Christmas in New Orleans, so I stayed with him until he got off. We went to Mass together, and then just made it to KFC before they closed at 6 right off I-65. Had a great father-son experience of Mass, dinner and the trip that I will never forget, and I hope he won't either. Got to New Orleans about 11 Christmas Eve and joined the family. I swear it was the best chicken pot pie they've ever served; something very tasty about it that evening. What camaraderie we shared with those working, who were as pleasant as I've ever seen workers at a fast food establishment. I'd love to do that again, too.

For most of the years, we spend Christmas Eve dinner with good friends of ours. They have four girls that are like our quasi-daughters, and our children are their pseudo-children, too. We make reservations at whereever we can find that can accommodate us, and have a great time. One of their girls was one of my "Navy Blue Angels," and she married this year, and moved to Mobile, but I'm hoping they will return.

I have more memories of Christmas Eve dinners than I do of Christmas dinners, but our traditional fare is ham (turkey this year, but often ham), broccoli cheddar rice, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, rolls, and something or another, I guess. Desserts vary, but this year will be chess squares and pecan pie.

[CitizenBBN]

i miss my grandmothers dinners.

Turkey and country ham, dressing and gravy. Beaten biscuits. "Cheese" potatoes, brussell sprouts, green beans with ham, lima beans, corn pudding. I'm forgetting some of the things I didn't eat as much, but it was a lot of stuff.

[KentuckyWildcat]

Ours is Thanksgiving part 2...

Thankfully, my mom, has started doing finger foods. And her mom has started doing something different each year. But at the in-laws primary get together it is turkey, ham, dressing, mashed potatoes, etc...very traditional.

Citizen, I miss my grandmothers also. I tell my mom all of the time that my kids will never experience grandma's homemade biscuits. I experienced them from my grandma and my great grandma. My mom, just can't figure out homemade biscuits :)

[MickintheHam]

My two sides of the family could not have been any more different as far as Christmas cuisine was concerned. BOTH were very traditional, but the clash of cultures was very evident.
On my Mom's side, it was smoked ham, roast beef and turkey with scalloped potatoes, green bean salad, corn, sweet potatoes, apple & pumpkin pies, homemade rolls, and tons of homemade fudge and bourbon balls.
To this day I will not eat ham or sweet potatoes, as my maternal grandmother used to force me to eat that stuff. But that is another story.........
Now, on my Dad's side of the family, well, let's just say that the Sicilian in them came out at Christmas. Everything was homemade. Pasta. Sauces, with or without meats. Lots of Romano & Parmesano & Asagio cheeses. Veal parmigiana, Italian roast beef, eggplant parmigiana, scungili, salat, manicotti, pizzas with various toppings, biscotti, annisette, and on and on. My grandparents had this custom made table that wrapped around the room that they put all the food on, and there was a huge table in the middle of the room where we all ate.
The aroma alone was heavenly. Good times and good memories.

Suncat, when are you going public with the Secret Marinara Sauce recipe? Traditionally, I fix Italian on the Sunday Dinner before Christmas. This year I had homemade meatballs, sauce and Ravioli. But the Meatballs are what everyone has come to expect. I learned to make them from my next door neighbor's mother a first generation Italian American. That woman flat out had a spread at Christmas. Cookies and cakes as good as I have never tasted. I fell in love with that woman. If she had had a granddaughter my age, I would have married her.

[suncat05]

The secret is the extra virgin olive oil, onions & garlic. And Nonna made me promise to never give the recipe away. Sorry!

[Catfan73]

Country ham (learned how to trim, bake, and slice one from my dad), smoked turkey from Honeybaked Hams, yeast rolls, and figgy pudding. At the in-laws it's Italian dishes like pork tenderloin in red sauce. Just kind of depends where we are.

Just kidding about the figgy pudding.

[dan_bgblue]

You made me do a google search. Had no idea what figgy pudding was

[blueboss]

We've got double duty, starting off on Christmas Eve morning at Mrs. boss's side. When her family gets together there is always way too much food. Eve dinner will be centered around a honey baked ham, surrounded by everything you can imagine. Desserts will be off the chart for me the key will be one of Mrs. boss's niece's cherry pie, one of the other niece's makes chocolate and white chocolate truffles and always slips a container of them in my car just for me.

My side of the family is more scattered. Since my mother passed 11 years ago our dinners have lost their traditional flare. Now we just do party tray foods, shrimp tray, cold cut tray, veggie tray, assorted cookies and cakes and homemade egg nog.

I miss my mother's cookies and cakes... gum drop cookies, oatmeal and raisin cookies,bourbon balls, divinity, orange slice rum cake, two kinds of fudge, and her home made egg nog with touch of bourbon folded in. Her bourbon balls were more lethal than the nog.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!


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[jazyd]

Dinner at our house on Christmas day with be a ham my wife does in the oven, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole...home made with Vardaman, Ms sweet potatos....corn, rolls, fruit of some kind, layered salad, and a simple dessert this year since we are all leaving the next day for St Louis and my family and don't want left overs.

At my sisters it will be beef tenderloin, twice baked potato, corn, string bean casserole, rolls, mashed potato's, and the real kicker a home made French Silk Pie that is to die for and no calories :) All kinds of home made fudge, martha washington balls, oreo balls, haystacks, thumb print cookies. I take an extra pair of pants in a bigger size to wear home.

Merry CHRISTmas

[Darrell KSR]

As I'm eating a frozen taquito reading this thread, suddenly I am getting very hungry...

[Doc]

Got my prime rib roast yesterday. Will go on the rotisserie Sunday morning. Paired with homemade bacon Mac and cheese, mashed garlic potatoes and fresh biscuits

[CitizenBBN]

As I'm eating a frozen taquito reading this thread, suddenly I am getting very hungry...

I'll likely have something very un-Christmas for actuall dinner, like shrimp or pizza or who knows what. not complaining, but I do miss my Mama C's cooking. I can replicate almost all her stuff and my mother knows the dishes I don't, so i'm going to set aside a couple of days to master those and make the meal myself. Won't have to be for a holiday either, just a weekend I have any kind of time.