Christmas in July 2019 - Day Twenty-Two

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PamelaG

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Christmas Eve and Christmas Day Menus. Are you a turkey, ham, prime rib, goose, or duckling family? Or something else?
 

AuntJamelle

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Christmas Eve/Day is just DH, DS and I - all our visits/celebrations with family and friends are either before or after the actual days of the holiday.

As such, we tend to just have things we really love - usually something we only make once a year.

This year we are going to have Chicken Pie with Cornbread Topping for Christmas Eve Dinner. It's SO good. Lots of butter and cream in the thick sauce - chicken plus veggies plus the bread on top make it a one dish meal. I'll make some Pimento Dip (one of DH's favorites) as an appetizer.

Christmas Day Breakfast will be a Sausage Strata that sits overnight in fridge before baking - I just top it and pop it in when we get up in the morning and it bakes while we are opening presents. I save a pan of iced cinnamon rolls in the freezer for us to have - just get them out to thaw the day before. Fresh fruit and juice and we are good!

Christmas Day Dinner is probably going to be a PW Pot Roast this year - haven't decided yet. Or we might make a small turkey - that might be really good actually. But with either we can have our favorite "traditional" sides:

- PW Mashed Potatoes
- Sage Stuffing
- Cheesy Green Bean Casserole (I add Velveeta and Sharp Cheddar to box recipe)
- Rolls

I don't plan on making anything extra for dessert - maybe a pie - we'll see :)
 

PamelaG

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Christmas Eve/Day is just DH, DS and I - all our visits/celebrations with family and friends are either before or after the actual days of the holiday.

As such, we tend to just have things we really love - usually something we only make once a year.

This year we are going to have Chicken Pie with Cornbread Topping for Christmas Eve Dinner. It's SO good. Lots of butter and cream in the thick sauce - chicken plus veggies plus the bread on top make it a one dish meal. I'll make some Pimento Dip (one of DH's favorites) as an appetizer.

Christmas Day Breakfast will be a Sausage Strata that sits overnight in fridge before baking - I just top it and pop it in when we get up in the morning and it bakes while we are opening presents. I save a pan of iced cinnamon rolls in the freezer for us to have - just get them out to thaw the day before. Fresh fruit and juice and we are good!

Christmas Day Dinner is probably going to be a PW Pot Roast this year - haven't decided yet. Or we might make a small turkey - that might be really good actually. But with either we can have our favorite "traditional" sides:

- PW Mashed Potatoes
- Sage Stuffing
- Cheesy Green Bean Casserole (I add Velveeta and Sharp Cheddar to box recipe)
- Rolls

I don't plan on making anything extra for dessert - maybe a pie - we'll see :)
Are the sausage strata and cinnamon roll recipes in the archives here?
 
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FrostyShimmer

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Christmas Eve for us is usually pizza or, on the odd occasion, Happy Meals. Our holidays have been hectic the last number of years, and usually the kids just want something quick to eat so they can get to enjoying preparing for Santa or going around to look at the lights. Last year I made gingerbread with lemon sauce for dinner on Christmas Eve, and the kids loved it, so that might be a new tradition.

We started a new tradition this year of filling a crockpot with apple cider, adding sliced citrus, cinnamon sticks, etc, and putting it on low to simmer overnight. The kids loved it and said they want to do it every year from now on. I have to admit, there was something really nice about waking up to the smell of simmering cider on Christmas morning. (Incidentally, my parents were visiting and I couldn't convince my mother to try any Christmas morning because she thought it was too early to be drinking. I told her I'd made it myself and there was no alcohol in it whatsoever as I was even giving it to my children, but she still had it in her head that cider was an alcoholic drink, lol)

Christmas Day is turkey for us with all the fixings. It is either for lunch or for supper depending on whether or not company is coming. (Often if people are coming over they prefer to have the meal at lunch time so they don't have to drive back on icy roads in the dark). i don't usually give to much thought to dessert on Christmas as the kids have usually had enough treats, but I'd like to think of something fancy to only have on Christmas as they get older.
 

MrsSoup

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Love the idea of warm cider Christmas morning, might have to try that! I usually make a sausage breakfast casserole that we always had when I was growing up. Last year I made something else to go with, i'm thinking homemade cinnamon rolls (Pioneer Woman's recipe), but I can't remember exactly. I assemble the casserole the night before and then put it into the oven when we get up and it's ready by the time we're done opening presents and such.

We don't really do a Christmas Eve dinner persay, we just have whatever is on the menu for that night or whatever our plans are. For Christmas day it's kind of the same thing. We don't have one meal that is our go to. It's not a special, annual meal like Thanksgiving. We change it up every year.
 

AuntJamelle

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Pamela - The strata recipe is the same as snowangel00 posted called Christmas Holiday Breakfast Casserole

I add 6 eggs instead of 4 :) but otherwise it is exactly the same. The recipe I got from a coworker was missing any mention of eggs so I just guessed at 6 and it works fine - been making it for years!

The cinnamon rolls are all Ree Drummond! I would check out her website:

https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/cinammon_rolls_/

So many variations are possible but the original recipe is what I make every year!!!
 

Minta

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Love the idea of warm apple cider in the crock pot. I may have to try that for Thanksgiving morning since we will have a house full starting that morning and all the kids love apple juice/cider.

Each Year Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinner vary depending on how many we have as guests. This year I want to do an open house with a buffet from 4 pm to 9 pm on Christmas Eve. If we go that route then we will have a lunch meat platter, meatballs in a crock pot, various sides. If we do a sit down dinner then I will make stuffed shells or lasagna. Christmas Day dinner will either be a ham and baked mac n cheese or a turkey with all the sides. Christmas Day dessert will be Cool Mint pie and a fruit pie.
 

Miss JoDee

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Depending on the schedule we will have Deep dish pizza or a ham dinner with green bean casserole, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, and salad. I may change it up this year just don;t know when or where Christmas will be this year.
 

PamelaG

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Pamela - The strata recipe is the same as snowangel00 posted called Christmas Holiday Breakfast Casserole

I add 6 eggs instead of 4 :) but otherwise it is exactly the same. The recipe I got from a coworker was missing any mention of eggs so I just guessed at 6 and it works fine - been making it for years!

The cinnamon rolls are all Ree Drummond! I would check out her website:

https://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/cinammon_rolls_/

So many variations are possible but the original recipe is what I make every year!!!
Thanks, will definitely try them both.
 

Lana

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Our menu pretty well stays the same

Christmas Eve we do Cheeseball, shrimp, little wieners, meatballs, punch, ham, olives, dill pickles, horseradish pickles and others bring a side. At times I do mac and cheese or potato salad and I always do a dessert.

Christmas Day is turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, macaroni and cheese, cream corn and rolls.

This has been for probably 25 years or more. Might need to change it up.
 

GrammaDeb

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For 45 years we celebrated nearly every Christmas with my parents - our Christmas breakfast & dinner was the same as I had while growing up. Breakfast was dried beef gravy on biscuits. Dinner was ham, candied yams, baked beans, green beans w/bacon, jello salad, deviled eggs, celery stuffed with peanut butter or cheese, and pies & fruitcake for dessert. Peanut butter fudge, chocolate chip cookies & butterscotch chip cookies.

The last 2 Christmases have been with dd's family, and we get dsil's traditional meals. Belgian waffles for Christmas breakfast, topped with sliced strawberries & Cool Whip. Ham on Christmas Eve with crackers & cheeses, chips & dips, pickles & olives, nuts & cookies, a big box of mandarin oranges. Turkey on Christmas Day, with mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, cranberries, creamed corn, and pie & cookies for dessert.

I am definitely going to fix cider in the crockpot - I can smell it now!
 

DahliaDoll

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Our family traditions have flown out the window with DDs married with their own families. It's difficult to get us all together for Christmas.

What we used to do, though, is to have a lovely dinner, usually ham with some favorite sides, on Christmas Eve, then go to the late church service. Christmas mornings would then be quite casual having DH's sausage and egg surprise casserole (make ahead, bake in the morning) with fresh fruit. Later in the day, we would munch on leftovers. No great cooking plans for Christmas day.

Now, we either go to one of our DD's homes or, one year when that wasn't a good option, we went on a ski trip.
 
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Miss JoDee

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Our family traditions have flown out the window with DDs married with their own families. It's difficult to get us all together for Christmas.[/QUOTEF
Fly out the window is for sure when they move away or marry. I find it a huge change. We have facetimed and skyped over the years but not the same as being together. This year will be the first year are without any of the kids living in our home. Mom is in need of more help which is what we will probably do for Christmas (it will not be like "home" being at her house with people (relatives) going in and out all day. I love'm but my kids won't be there. Yes, this transition will be hard, but will make the most of it. It is not the calendar date that matters so we will figure out something for the immediate family for sometime December.
 
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sweetpumkinpye

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Christmas Eve we have something quick and easy here as all of us have usually been working that day.
This year will be a platter of fresh fruits such as grapes, strawberries, pineapple, cherries, kiwifruit and watermelon. I do a cheese and meat plate and I served that with crackers. We will drink cold apple cider.

Christmas breakfast is cereal (the really unhealthy sugary kind), hot croissants and hot doughnuts and any left over fruit from Christmas eve. We have juice and coffee. I serve this buffet style and the kids grab what they want.

Dinner is at my mum's and we have a feast.
Cold ( Summer here). Turkey, ham, corned silverside, chicken and cold meats (salami etc).
Green salad, corn, beetroot, olives, potato salad, pasta salad, coleslaw etc. Bread rolls and butter.
for dessert, fruit pudding, icecream and cream and another dessert such as trifle or pie.
We drink a simple fruit punch and sparkling apple cider.

A bit different from when my dad was with us, he loved a traditional hot pork roast with all the trimmings. My mum was a miracle getting it all prepared in her tiny kitchen and managing to serve it hot.
 
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halimer

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Christmas eve we have been having sushi/Chinese buffet after the movies.

Christmas breakfast is biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon, sausage and maybe this year I'll do cinnamon rolls too - I make the dough in the bread machine.

If we visit our usual friends on Christmas Day we have goose, duck, ham, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing and I make pecan pie for dessert.
 
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sweetpumkinpye

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Have never tried cinnamon roll but would like too.
Amazing how much Chinese food is eaten on Christmas Eve.
We have had Chinese food on NYE for many years now. It is a well looked forward to tradition with us.
 

Holiday_Mom

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Our Christmas Eve menu rotates between Meatball Sandwiches, Roast Beef Sandwiches, Chicken Florentine, Turkey Sandwiches or Shredded Beef Sandwiches. It depends on what we are in the mood to make. We offer a tossed salad and green beans for a side dish. We usually serve cocktail franks, cheese and crackers and raw vegetables with dip while people arrive. We serve cookies for dessert.

Our Christmas morning breakfast had been waffles, sausage and fresh fruit but the last several years, it's been stollen. After all the food the night before, we aren't really hungry.

We go to my brother'sand sister-in-law's house for Christmas dinner. They usually serve hot appetizers for dinner and I bring cookies for dessert.