Christmas dinner
 

For those of you who celebrate Christmas, do you generally have turkey, ham, or something else for your big meal that day? My husband and I are having a major disagreement about what most people have on Christmas! :)

In my household, what we have for Thanksgiving is generally what we also have for Christmas. Turkey/ham and everything that goes with it.

Though I did grow up with someone for whom a big spaghetti dinner was the norm for Christmas.

We usually have ham at our dinners. So yummy...

Fried country ham, baked "Co-cola" Ham, and scalloped oysters.
Oysters are VERY traditional in our area...
Silver

Well, for Christmas we usually go by my husbands families house and have the same old, same old: turkey with all the fixings.

My family on the other hand is Italian and in the Italian tradition Christmas Eve is more important. While the true Italian tradition is that you should only have fish on Christmas Eve, we veer away from that.

On Christmas Eve my great aunt takes us all out for dinner (usually between 15-20 of us). Our appitizers are all fish: clams (raw and baked), calamari, oster rockerfeller, shrimp (fresh and fried), and crab legs. Then we have salad followed by some kind of pasta. For the main course we usually have chicken, roast beef, green beans, and potatos. Then for dessert all the aunts and cousins bring in homemade Italian cookies (yummy!). To me our Christmas Eve dinner is bigger then our Thanksgiving dinner. By the end of the night we are all stuffed!!

The Christian part of my family has goose every year.

We go out for Christmas dinner. We have been pretty much every year for about the last 8 years. (There was one year we stayed in b/c I was really ill).

We go to a very nice restaurant in downtown Annapolis that overlooks the water. They have a huge buffet. It's great and this year we're recruiting our family friends to come too.


We don't have family nearby anymore, so it's normally just the 4 of us.

It varys from year to year. Sometimes we have turkey, sometimes we have ham, sometimes we have roast beef and sometimes we have leftovers from our Christmas Eve dinner the night before (soups). If we have a big meal, we also have mashed potatoes, scalloped corn, green bean casserole, etc...

When I went back to my parents, it was generally pork or ham. Now that I celebrate with my wife, it changes from year to year.

I wish I knew! The last time my sister-in-law came for a holiday, she brought her own chicken. I'm thinking of buying Happy Meals for everyone this year - CHICKEN MCNUGGET Happy Meals.

That would be so awesome.

(I am very easy to please.)

ETA: That was my 3,000th post!!!!!

Turkey, Ham, Chicken and Dumplings, Dressing, Green Beans and Ham Hock, Mashed Potatoes, Macaroni and Cheese, etc.

However, Oysters are not part of the cuisine in our part of Tennessee. Nutbrnhair, do you live in West TN by the river?

And I'm honored that you used it to answer my post!! Want a McNugget?

My mom makes pork roast for the meat-eating members of my family (when I used to eat meat (other than poultry/seafood), she'd make ham for me), while her and I usually fill up on mashed potatoes, salad, and the other fixings that we make for the meal :)

Everyone in my family is Catholic except me - I converted to Judaism a few years ago. We spend Christmas with my folks, as my husband's family is mostly Jewish.

Christmas Eve dinner is always non-meat. When I was growing up, that usually meant pasta, as my father refused to eat fish. He has finally grown up :rolleyes: so now my parents have fish for Christmas Eve dinner.

Christmas dinner was usually ham when I was growing up. Ham, mashed potatoes, green beans (ick), and maybe another veggie such as squash. Dessert was always fruitcake, which my mother flamed when she served it. The presentation was very nice, but fruitcake is disgusting! You end up with pieces of fruit stuck in your teeth for days. :rolleyes:

Now that I'm Jewish and I don't eat pork, Christmas dinner is usually chicken or turkey, potatoes, and a veggie. Dessert is fruit or ice cream - I've finally convinced my folks that neither my husband nor I have the cast-iron esophagus and stomach required for fruitcake.

Re: Christmas dinner
 

Ditto. We've also been known to have Chinese take out on Christmas Eve/Day as well.

In my family we eat turkey on Thanksgiving and ham on Christmas and Easter. My Brooklyn Italian cousins serve all those fish dishes on Christmas Eve. I bet PM Mama knows what I mean. :)

I am actually going over my Thanksgiving menu right now.

Holiday main courses in my family:

Thanksgiving- Turkey
Christmas Eve/Christmas Day- Ham (though there will be the occasional turkey breast, depending on where we go)
New Year's- Pork loin
Easter- Ham
Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day- hamburgers, hot dogs, kielbasa

We usually have a turkey, a ham, a pork roast, and a few chickens at Christmas. We like variety. For Thanksgiving we usually have a turkey and ham. :)

Re: Re: Christmas dinner
 

That's Jewish tradition ;)

we usually have the same thing as we do on thanksgiving. since i have a huge family on my mom's side we eat at 4-5 different houses on the same day. so i get turkey for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack, mindnight munchies, etc.

alot of people around the area order butt loads of tomales instead of the turkey or ham.

Re: Re: Re: Christmas dinner
 

Really? Well, I just chalk it up to Connecticut tradition ;) DH's family often got Chinese on Xmas Eve or Xmas Day night, so we do it as well!

Thanks everyone!

My husband and I have been having a disagreement on what to have on Christmas. My family always had ham. His family always had turkey and the exact same stuff they have on Thanksgiving. I personally think it's crazy to have an exact repeat of Thanksgiving a few weeks later, but he likes it. Since I'm doing the cooking, I think I should choose, right? :) I'll just tell him, you all are having ham :)

Here's another vote for ham!

Both my and my husband's families always had the same exact meal for both - Turkey and all the fixins. As we get older we have decided we just can't do that two times in the space of a month (or at least I can't) so this year we're going to a nice restaurant for Thanksgiving and Christmas is still up in the air.

When we cook I try to do turkey at one and prime rib at the other.

The Polish tradition is similar...no meat and ::gasp:: no alcohol.

My mother in law:
Clam chowder on Christmas Eve, beef tenderloin or Wellington on Christmas day

My mom: Turkey, and no special tradition for Christmas Eve.

Sorry, I know that doesn't help to settle your argument!

When I had Family.

Thanksgiving: Ham, gravy, taters, corn, green beans and oyster dressing.

Christmas:

Turkey, Mashed Potatoes, Green Beans, Stuffing, Corn, and Family Tradition, Red Salmon Salad.

Tried to breack it up!:)

One time My Aunt did Lasagna, wow, FooPa big time. I actually liked it, She one Hell of a Lasaunga!:cool:

Going to Bookems and Debbies, I will take anything She fixes as a Gret Cook and lives for this!

Better than Chicken Broth and Crackers.:(

Christmas eve dinner is usually lasagna and a salad

christmas dinner is usually a repeat from thanksgiving with a few added favorites. We all cannot get enough of mom's cooking though we all bring a few dishes each these past few yrs.

For Thanksgiving, it's usually the turkey/stuffing/mashed potato usual. Christmas varies. We've had roasts, fish, etc. I told my mom I want to make christmas dinner this year...pizza for all!

For Christmas, we have ham (usually country ham); we typically have some turkey as well, but ham is the main meat.

Along with ham, the required dishes are:

scalloped oysters (same as AOIIsilver)

dressing (what people in more northern and western parts of the country may call "stuffing," but in the South, we don't "stuff" meat, we "dress" it ;))

baked asparagus

For dessert, there are usually lots of different cookies, cakes, etc. (many of which are presents from neighbors), but the essential, centerpiece dessert is ambrosia -- everything else is to go with the ambrosia, not replace it.

mystic cat we also do ambrosia-navel oranges, sectioned, juice squeezed into bowl, banana slices, flaked coconut, maraschino cherry halves and pecan pieces. is yours like that?it truly lives up to its name!!

for t-giving it is turkey-dressing-cranberry sauce,many veggies, many desserts, assorted salads,ambrosia. t-giving is always with my mothers family-the four sisters,their children and the grandchildren. it is a mob, but i love it.

for christmas, we serve a honey baked ham, rosemary potato/sweet potato dish, a vegetable, baked pineapple cassarole(good enough to be dessert!),ambrosia and a dessert.

new years-black-eyed peas, rice, greens of some kind(mustard, collards or turnips) cornbread.

Our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are usually the same. Turkey, brisket, stuffing, salads, green bean casserole, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin and pecan pies.

This year we will be incorporating some korean foods into our Thanksgiving dinner as my boyfriend's sister and husband will be joining us for dinner. His brother-in-law is Korean, so we will be having some Korean meat and rice along w/the traditional Thanksgiving feast!

I think I'll pass on the ham this year and just invite myself over to all of your homes this year!! :) Some of your menus sound great!

Similar, but simpler. Just citrus fruits and coconut, with maybe just a touch of banana.

And yes, black-eyed peas and greens are a necessity on New Year's.

This is single greatest post ever in the history of everything since right after the big bang.

At my parents house we usually have ham. At the in-laws we usually have chicken wings and finger foods! I prefer the chicken wings because I'm not a big fan of ham.

Everytime I think about (or eat) ambrosia, I think of Rush. One year, we decided that, since all the other sororities were having very rich desserts, we went the other way with ambrosia & green salad. I love it!!

We used to have turkey for Thanksgiving, Beef/Beast for Christmas (a la Grinch), and Ham for Easter. All bets are off now, except the Thanksgiving turkey, along with dressing, yams, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberry salad, rolls, and assorted salads.

Of Course, one has black eyed peas or Hoppin John on New Year's, along with pork.

Big Thanksgiving food questions:

1) Dressing: Do you prefer yours IN the bird, or OUT of the bird? White bread or Corn Bread? With or Without "goodies" (Oysters, Other Meat, etc)?

2) Cranberries: Whole or the Jellied Can?

OUT the bird! White bread (rolls). Other than turkey, we have ham.

I like whole cranberry sauce, but my family is stuck on the jellied kind.

Out of the bird, Corn bread, no "goodies", jellied cranberries.