christmas dinner

do you americans have the same meal on christmas day as thanksgiving or do you have different meat or dessert?

It really varies by family. Our family does pretty much the same meal for Christmas. Many families will do ham instead, while still others prefer a really nice beef roast. I know some Italian families that serve lasagna for Christmas day.

When my grandmother was alive, we usually had turkey and all the similar stuff as Thanksgiving for Christmas, but sometimes we'd do a ham instead. Since Grandma passed away about 5 or 6 years ago, we haven't had a formal Christmas except for when we've been in Brazil. There, they serve a variety of foods. In Andrew's region, they have a lot of meat pies, so we had meat pie for Christmas and other more local foods. They serve a version of stroganough that is based upon shredded chicken, which you can just buy in the store there (you can't here) and is served on top of rice. It also is much lighter than our version and has green olives in it. They don't have any black olives in Brazil. I'll have to ask my parents to job my memory about dinner in Brazil. I actually slept through most of it because we were up late the night before celebrating with the people from his church.

This year, there's a good chance we'll have international students come over again, as we did for Thanksgiving, so who knows what menu item we will come up with then! We did clam chowder, muffins, and chicken for Thanksgiving dinner, along with guacamole, which really impressed them as being very simple to make. In China, they put sugar on their avocados! That seems strange to us!

I can recall our first Christmas dinner with Jello salad.
I loved it, as did my son and the kids were small and it was "wow, Jelly with dinner".
My husband was not impressed.

I still love it....
Is it regional, or do the whole of America have jello salad ?
My favourite is pear and lime.


Pen

We change from year to year. My husband and I have been hosting Christmas Day for the last 10 years, and we will probably continue to have it for as long as I can see. We enjoy it.

I have served on different years: lasagna, ham, turkey and one year even spaghetti when my husband was very ill and I had a headache. I put out a great feast with a main dish, side dishes, and of course Christmas cookies for dessert.

Just today I washed my brand new red tablecloth and napkins in preparation for this year's dinner, which I think is going to be lasagna AND turkey. (yeah, might not sound appetizing, and doesn't even sound good together, but that is what we are doing)

Love, love, love Christmas.

Christmas Eve is when I make a big dinner, and we eat it by total candlelight. Celebrating our Scandinavian heritage, I love to make Swedish Meatballs in Cream, Swedish Sausage, Lutefisk, Mashed Potatoes/Cream Sauce, Root Vegetables, Corn, Pickled Herring, Pickled Beets, Rolls, Lefse and Dessert.

Desserts might include Rice Pudding/Lingonberries, Rommegrot, Cherries in The Snow, Christmas Cookies, and/or perhaps what I made last year:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/09/tres-leches-cake/

That dessert was a big hit.

Two of my three children are married now, and we tend to invite my daughter-in-law's family (if they can make it). Some Canadians in her family, and it is fun to share with them...

For Christmas Day we eat the leftovers.

I think everyone really enjoys it. I enjoy cooking at Christmas

God Jul!

Cheryl

oh wow cheryl - that food sounds fantastic for a celebratory dinner, i may use some of your ideas as we have a hot climate for xmas and i have lots of family joining me this year, and i need all the inspiration i can get

thanks

I can give it my all because my health is very good. I'm sure cooking is hard to do, when the cook is in pain (and/or nauseated).

Cheryl

pen wrote:I can recall our first Christmas dinner with Jello salad.
I loved it, as did my son and the kids were small and it was "wow, Jelly with dinner".
My husband was not impressed.

I still love it....
Is it regional, or do the whole of America have jello salad ?
My favourite is pear and lime.


Pen

I think that's a bit more of an old fashioned thing, Pen. I know my mother used to ALWAYS make jello salad for Christmas. Everyone loved it, but me. I may like it now, but I didn't as a kid. It was always pineapple jello with shreaded cabbage and carrots in it. She served squares of it on lettuce leaves with a dollop of mayonaise. People raved about it. You used to frequently see jello salads at all kinds of dinners and pot lucks. I rarely ever see them anymore.

We usually have something different on Christmas Eve at my Mom's house, mostly ham and some potato dish. We are always tired of turkey and the leftovers! On christmas day, I do a Brunch for the extended family, and we exchange gifts. Since the holidays are my busiest work time, I am too tired to do a big dinner on Christmas night. I always say:" Eat a lot at Brunch". We usually have a fancy meal on New Years Eve.well fancy for us.
Hugs,
Cindy

Back in the day...LOL, mom used to make a giant lasagna for Christmas Eve (I don't know how that got started, we don't have any Italian in us--but she loved Italian food). Then on Christmas Day, usually she'd have ham.

What we've been doing is having Turkey or Standing Rib.

Dad's going to do a Standing Rib on Christmas Eve...not quite sure for Christmas Day. One year, he did a giant 8 rib roast! This year I think he'll do a 3-4 rib. That should a couple days. He loves to cook and is one heck of a good baker.

Anna's Mom wrote:Christmas Eve is when I make a big dinner, and we eat it by total candlelight. Celebrating our Scandinavian heritage, I love to make Swedish Meatballs in Cream, Swedish Sausage, Lutefisk, Mashed Potatoes/Cream Sauce, Root Vegetables, Corn, Pickled Herring, Pickled Beets, Rolls, Lefse and Dessert.

Desserts might include Rice Pudding/Lingonberries, Rommegrot, Cherries in The Snow, Christmas Cookies, and/or perhaps what I made last year:

http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2009/09/tres-leches-cake/

That dessert was a big hit.

Two of my three children are married now, and we tend to invite my daughter-in-law's family (if they can make it). Some Canadians in her family, and it is fun to share with them...

For Christmas Day we eat the leftovers.

I think everyone really enjoys it. I enjoy cooking at Christmas

God Jul!

Cheryl

it sounds wonderful!!!!

Christmas Eve is traditionally a standing rib roast. When Mom was alive it included Swedish potato sausage. She would always make enough of the meat for Dad to cook into the patties Chirsitams mornings.

I moved away from any Swedish communities and miss my potato sausage!

I wish I could share some potato sausage with you, Char

Cheryl

Calling lasagna cooks!! Mine is always too sweet from the tomatoes. I have tried adding a heap more garlic, oregano, pepper - but still very sweet.

What am I doing wrong????

do you add wine?? try worcestershire sauce.

what kind of cheeses are you putting in it? I use cottage and mozzarella and it cuts the tomato flavor down.