# what is traditional christmas dinner for you ?



## hime (Jan 14, 2007)

this Christmas i want to make a traditional dinner for my friends and family. but i actually never know what is the traditional christmas dinner is since i never had it. 
what i know is there must be an eggnog and mincemeat pies also a ginger bread but for the main course and others i don't have any clues.
can somebody tell me what christmast dinner usually have ? 

thxs for the help eace:


----------



## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

I don't know about American christmas meals - but here's the British version (or at least my family's version!). And yes, I know the turkey is from the Americas, ditto potatoes!

Starters: something light like smoke salmon or melon with Parma ham

Roast turkey (or goose, I alternate)
kilted sausages (2 small chipolatas wrapped in bacon)
Stuffing
Bread sauce (only my husband likes it)
Brussel sprouts
honeyed carrots
petit pois (I use frozen)
Roast potatoes, parsnips and French turnips (plus game chips if serving goose)
Cumberland and cranberry sauce
Wine reduction gravy

Puddings
Christmas pudding (home made) served with hard sauce or double cream or custard - soaked in warmed brandy and flamed to be brought to the table.
A fruit salad for those who want something a little lighter

Mincepies with sherry cream with coffee for those who are greedy.


----------



## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

Christmas dinner varies. I don't think we've repeated on it yet.


----------



## abefroman (Mar 12, 2005)

Chinese take out 

I am usually out of town and that's the only place open.


----------



## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

For us, what we've done for a number of years generally runs along these lines.....

Starter
- Prawn cocktail (very 70's- I know! but still tasty)
- nice dry white wine

Main 
- Roast pork with really crispy crackling
(I buy extra skin so we have lots)
- Roast lamb 
- pan gravy from both
- roasted: potatoes, carrots, onions, parsnips, sweet potato
- apple sauce, cranberry sauce
- mix of green beans and peas, ummm, drowned in butter 
- nice loaf of sourdough bread with, ummm, more butter
- nice peppery Shiraz to go with.

Sweet
- trifle (chocolate swiss roll cake splooshed with sherry, jelly set in and over top, layer of tinned sliced peaches, layer of custard, fresh summer berries, with whipped chantilly cream to serve.

Burp, go for a slow walk, then sleep it all off in the lounge. 

Then wake up, for those who are hungry- big slabs of sourdough/rye bread with butter, mustard and sliced ham off the bone (always leg, never shoulder, much nicer) pickled cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and cheese for the really hungry, and then have port and coffee and chocolates...back to sleep again.

Then, here, the next day is also a holiday (Boxing Day), so any leftover veg becomes a hash, leftover meat gets warmed in the leftover gravy, and to ease the conscience - a huge tossed salad. This is lunch after watching the start of the Sydney to Hobart yacht race. And then the Boxing Day cricket match starts...aaarrrghhh.

That's pretty much it.

Then if anyone really wants dinner, it's takeout.
Taddum!


----------



## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

DC Sunshine,


Your lamb sounds terrifc !!!!....all of it...
The dessert !

capped off with port and chocolates, what can I say more ?


----------



## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

Yeah, it's pretty nice eating, and although it's a lot of work, it's a labour of love to be honest


----------



## pua.melia409 (Oct 23, 2009)

we usually have rump roast, mashed potatos, rolls, salad


----------



## bughut (Aug 18, 2007)

We do traditional. But Have done an Indian banquet twice. 

I have my husband home for the first time in years this year so we'll be doing the trad thing. Starts about 4pm

Not sure about starters yet

Bryan wants roast beef, so i'll get a small sirloin joint, as most folk will be looking for a bird. Our butcher gets humungus free range chickens

The juices combined for the gravy.Works well

Roast and mashed potatoes... I keep scrapings of fat from duck leg confit collected through the year in the freezer for the roasters.I tested it out last year as i thought it woulnt keep well, but it does. btw parsnips go in with them
Glazed carrots
Sprouts with chestnuts
Braised celery hearts
Frozen peas
Mashed neeps (swede/Ruderbaker?)with oodles of butter and back pepper.
Yorkshire puddings (I think they're like popovers) 
Cranberry sauce/bread sauce/ Horseradish cream

Dessert
Something lemony (not sure yet)
Grans Clootie dumpling

Cheese and biscuits are served in the living room once everyones settled with port/liquours

As Dc says, this is nap time, or silly tv with the volume down

supper is when you see gran sobering up and everyone else has the munchies and starts delving into the tins of chocolates. It's also when I check that we've pre ordered taxis for certain people. I've learnt from my mistakes...I'm not into hungover friends and relatives lying round my house on boxingday morning


----------



## shroomgirl (Aug 11, 2000)

nothing set for dinner but Christmas morning is hot abelskivers and beignets....raspberry jam and lots of vanilla bean whipped cream (chantilly cream). 
:smiles::roll::roll:


----------



## kirstens (Jul 3, 2009)

Christmas dinner is pretty much a repeat of Thanksgiving dinner for me.


----------



## missyjean (Nov 5, 2009)

Christmas Eve is different fish dishes but Christmas day never varies that much:

I start dinner with a baked pasta such as lasagna or manicotti, made with my own "gravy" (red spaghetti/meat sauce), meatballs, sausage and braciolle

Then we have roast turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes a veggie and salad


----------



## kyheirloomer (Feb 1, 2007)

Unlike Thanksgiving, I don't believe there is anything close to a uniform traditional meal. Christmas dinner depends on your own family traditions plus influences from where your people are from.

Growing up, we spent Christmas with a friend of the family who always made a fresh ham, for instance. So I tend to associate it with Christmas.

Here in the American South, most folks I know either do a ham, or a repeat of the Thanksgiving turkey.

Throughout most of northern Europe, a goose marked the highlight of a Christmas meal. Italians have their wonderful tradition of seven fishes. Etc.

If you can find a copy, Lorna Sass offers some interesting insights in her 1981 book, _Christmas Feasts From History. _FWIW, her example of a Victorian Christmas Dinner includes individual oyster loaves, roast goose with sage and onion dressing, mince pies royal, Christmas pudding, punch sauce, and shrub.

I think I gained ten pounds just reading the recipes!


----------



## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Cocktails, cheese and nuts
Gravlaks on thin sliced pumpernickel
White wine, served with the
Squash soup
Caesar Salad
Red wine, served with the
Standing rib roast with jus, generally carved and served thinner slices to the ladies, and bones to the gentlemen
Mashed potatoes
Creamed Spinach
Yorkshire Pudding
Trifle
Dessert wine, cognac
BDL


----------



## fl italian (Mar 2, 2009)

As an Italian, which MissyJean must also be, on Christmas Eve it's fish, fish, fish. 

On Christmas day, it doesn't change for my family either:
Antipasti.... the way our family makes it with a very large platter lined with soppresatta. Next it's filled with finely chopped celery. Then a layer of olive condite followed by layers of other items delicately arranged to make it look presentable and all the while adding a little juice from each item which includes pickled eggplant, roasted peppers, marinated artichoke hearts, black olives, green olives, capers and anchovies plus the oil from the anchovies! The key is making it the day before so the celery absorbs all those juices.

For dinner, it's homemade ravioli stuffed with sausage and ricotta cheese along with meatballs and sausage in the ragu.

For dessert, it's cannoli and espresso!!


----------



## mikelm (Dec 23, 2000)

FL I...

That antipasti sounds fantastic (I'm a big fan of soppressata, despite my German and Irish antecedents) and I'm wondering how you serve it? From your description it sounds like you would cut slices of it like a pie.

Mike


----------



## fl italian (Mar 2, 2009)

Mike,

Actually it is scooped like a salad...
You use a large deep platter and you overlap slices of soppresata around the edge of the platter. Then you fill the center with a layer of the celery. The olive condite is then spread over the celery... add some brine(just enough to wet it slightly as you'll be adding more brine and oils as you progress). Then I lay strips of roasted pepper around the platter followed by the eggplant, again with some of the brine/oil. I then place the artichoke hearts (quartered) around the platter. All the while I'm doing this to look attractive... Then I add the olives (black/green but you can use whatever olives you like).. also no brine on the olives. Then comes a sprinkling of capers and finally the anchovies where they are laid in strips around the salad and I complete the process by drizzling the anchovy oil over the whole salad. You don't need to salt anything as there's enough salt in the brines and anchovies to cover you. I also don't add olive oil ; the brines suffice on the flavor.

Then it's covered in plastic film and refrigerated for at least 6 hours to let the flavors marinate into the celery. It's served with a large slotted spoon.

My aunt adds some provolone to the top of it but my father and I do not; personal preference. As far as I know, I've never seen this antipasti prepared like this anyone. It was my grandfather's family recipe from Bari and we make it annually for Christmas.

Hope you enjoy it! FYI.. it gets better as the days progress


----------



## allie (Jul 21, 2006)

We don't really have a traditional Christmas dinner. On Christmas Eve, we have dinner with the other half's family. We usually just do a lot of finger foods and have a spiral ham for sandwiches. Lots of desserts and cookies fill the table. 

Before we started this tradition with them, that is how our Christmas day was. We would work together and make a lot of finger foods ahead of time and then put together the last minute items after the gifts were opened in the morning. Then we could graze all day and have food for anyone who dropped by. I can't even remember what we did last year! lol I am still thinking about this year. I'd like to do something really special but not ham or turkey.


----------



## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

Gotta love that gran 

And great idea with the taxis....Boxing Day should be quiet and relaxed after the stress of all the cooking and entertaining.


----------



## petalsandcoco (Aug 25, 2009)

DC Sunshine,

There are not that many days of "rest" in a year....(even when going away for work) so I devote most of Boxing day to big fluffy slippers and a house coat....and you might find me sipping a Martini ....not the most elegant picture. But its my day off ! :lol:


----------



## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

Petals - I find it hard to find a day off too. The family laugh at my slippers and dressing gown I live in when I really want to relax....well, they did. No longer - they have been told!


----------



## teamfat (Nov 5, 2007)

Same here, the wife's family is pretty predictable when it comes to cooking. We usually alternate between Phoenix and Orange County. I've got a sister in both places, won't get to either one this year, shucks.

This year, however, Christmas dinner will be at our house. I'll still do a small turkey, and either a beef rib roast or leg of lamb as well. Is it a sin to serve yorkshire pudding with lamb instead of beef? Her family doesn't drink, but I bet I slip a bit of wine into some sauce or another.

I also still have a few trout frozen out in the garage fridge, I plan on smoking them to have something to offer as munchies, appetizers, etc. during the weekend the in-laws will be here.


----------



## dc sunshine (Feb 26, 2007)

teamfat - just flambe the lot in cognac for them 

yorkies would go well with roast lamb - filled with lashings of gravy - yum! Don't worry about "traditional" - rules were made to be broken.


----------



## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

I make Yorkshire puds with a roast dinner, doesn't matter if it's lamb,pork or beef - although I draw the line at YPs with chicken - as I make skirlie - and even by my standards, it would be too much:lol:


----------



## cyberdoc (Nov 1, 2009)

Although I'm not Italian (I do however, suspect that I've got an ancestor somewhere in the woodpile, from Italy who snuck north acoss the border into Germany to cross pollinate ) I love traditional Italian cuisine. So, I'm thinking of doing traditional Italian this year, including the 7 fishes on Christmas Eve.


----------



## cyberdoc (Nov 1, 2009)

Hey, Whatever you are comfortable in. I personally lounge around in scrubs.


----------



## bubbamom (Jan 30, 2002)

Appetizers are usually a cheese selection, boiled shrimp, various crackers.
For the main course, usually ham, mashed potatoes, raisin gravey and green bean casserole.
And for desert, Christmas cookies, coffee (or milk) and chocolate mints. :roll:


----------



## chalkdust (Feb 18, 2009)

lefse and potato sausage, the wisconsin versions of the norwegian foods

but no lutfisk


----------



## cyberdoc (Nov 1, 2009)

I did a traditional roast and Yorkshire puds Sunday dinner not too long ago. Came out pretty good. I can see why it is so popular in England. :thumb: I also did steak and ale pie another time. That was pretty tasty as well.


----------



## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

Ahem....

Some of us are Scots and we still thankfully pinch an English recipe!


----------



## leeniek (Aug 21, 2009)

I lounge around in pyjama bottoms and tshirt or sweatshirt depending on the season. I wear my baggy chef pants five days a week so on my days off it's nice to wear street clothes!


----------



## leeniek (Aug 21, 2009)

We usually have a get together with my inlaws very close to Christmas and the menu there is pretty much the same.. turkey (deep fried the last few years), stuffing, veggies, potatoes, ham, meatballs, buns, sometimes a salad or a different dish depending on who brings what. I've brought beef bourgignon in the past as well as lasagne or cabbage rolls but that varies from year to year.

We've had my mother in law come and spend Christmas with us for as long as I can remember now. When the kids were little, she really enoyed Christmas morning with them. Christmas Eve is a workday for my husband and I so I I do a merlot braised beef in the crockpot and we have it with popovers, veggies and a salad. This year will be different as my mother in law is on a special diet so I'm making my favourite cajun fish filets with remolade and pickled onions (not so spicy for her) for Christmas Eve dinner with rice, some sort of vegetable and a salad.

Christmas day I'm going to make a feast with turkey, meatballs (my kids love them), cranberry sauce, two vegetables, potatoes, salad and some other dish that replaces the ham we usually have as my mother in law can't have that either. We don't eat lunch on Christmas Day.. I put out appetizers so we graze through the morning and lunchtime and have plenty of room for dinner.


----------



## kirstens (Jul 3, 2009)

When I was younger my family and I always went to my Aunt and Uncles for Christmas Eve. We would have traditional Lithuanian food. Lots of fish, beet salad, herring, etc. Being a kid, I didn't really take to this food. Now all of us are grown and the Eve tradition has kind of dwindled.


----------



## chefguy (Nov 16, 2009)

turkey, salad...


----------

