Christmas dinner ideas

[Picard]

We are planning to host a Christmas dinner for about 14 people. We are usually doing a cheese fondue or a filet mignon dinner with veggies and potatoes. I am looking to make something different this year. What are you planning on cooking?

[SpuglyRoo]

My family has always done the traditional Thanksgiving dinner all over again at Christmas.

[swede]

We like corn pudding at Christmas.

[Alyantavid]

We always do prime rib.  Usually with bacon green beans, rolls, and some sort of potato (mashed, scalloped, twice baked).  And something for dessert, which changes yearly on my mood.

[Ruthie's momma]

I almost always prepare a prime rib, potatoes (herb roasted or mashed with white cheddar and chives) and veggie (roasted asparagus or broccoli).  I like to add fresh rolls from one of our local bakeries, as well.  Dessert is often Pavlova.

[MamaChef]

Im going to do tamales for Christmas eve with homemade red and green salsas, mexican rice (red and green peppers) and borracho beans.  I can make the tamales earlier in the week and freeze them and everything else the day before.

For Christmas Im going to do a vegetarian lasagna this year with roasted red peppers, eggplant and asparagus.  Ill do half green bechemel (spinach) and half marina.

I was going to add baked kale chips, a nice green salad -- havent decided on that one yet.  I want to keep the red and green theme .. so maybe spinach, cranberry, gorgonzola and candied walnuts with a cranberry vinagrette.. or spinach/blood orange/ roasted beet with a blood orange vinagrette... or apples, candied walnuts/ cranberries/ gorgonzola and a creamy vinagrette.. LOL

Tiramisu and pecan pie tarts for dessert.

[Ellp]

I usually switch it up from year to year, anything from turkey, ham, and prime rib.  Those are usually accompanied by the traditional sides, glazed carrots, some sort of potato dish, a roasted veggie dish, and traditional English triffle.  I add Yorkshire pudding and gravy if we have prime rib.

This year I'm adding a batch of German baked apples.  (Whole cored apples stuffed with raisins, walnuts, brown sugar, a touch of cinnamon, butter, and drizzled with vanilla sauce.  Yummm!)

[SpuglyRoo]

Go figure, I say we do a traditional turkey dinner and instead we are doing Tex-Mex with the in laws and Italian-American with my family. I'm just excited about the tiramisu I'm making!

[ollyoxenfree]

DD, age 14 y.o., insists that she wants to cook Christmas dinner. She's planning a traditional turkey with stuffing, scalloped potatoes (we usually do mashed), and roasted carrots.  I suggested she might want another side, maybe something with a green vegetable. She's thinking about broccoli. So our menu isn't too new or different, but in part that's because I don't want this to be an overwhelming challenge for her. Last week, she tested a recipe for the scalloped potatoes and we were all pretty happy with the results. 

I'll make Buche de Noel for dessert, but I can do that a day ahead. 

Normally, we'd have an appetizer and salad too, but I don't want to overwhelm her. If she will let me, I might make a salad. We like a winter salad with spinach and arugula, roast pumpkin, pepitas, dried cranberries, goat cheese and maple balsamic vinaigrette that goes nicely with a Christmas turkey dinner. 

[Alyantavid]

Well now we've changed to a ham, with scalloped potatoes, bacon green beans and rolls.  And maybe dessert if I'm really ambitious.

[HollyBearsMom]

This is our meal  There is three of us but we have friends over the next day and it makes great leftover!

App:

assorted nibble-olives, Marconi almonds, some kind of stinky cheese

Entree:

Standing rib roast (or dry aged rib-eyes on the grill if the weather is nice)

endive/fennel/watercress salad

roasted asparagus w/ Parmesan shavings

horseradish mashed potato's

Dessert:

upside down caramelized pear and ginger tart

I have not picked out the wines yet.Mostly like champagne with the app's, an Oregan pinot noir w/ the entree and ??? w/ dessert.  The ginger makes that one tricky.....

[velochic]

We seem to always eat beef, too, for Christmas when we are here in the US (every other year we're with dh's family in the Middle East, where there is no Christmas dinner).

If you want to stay with filet mignon, you can do something a little different, but in the same vein.  We make a Châteaubriand, which is a special center cut of the filet.  It's cut for two people, typically, and is served with château potatoes and béarnaise sauce.  It's seared then finished off in the oven and very pretty for presentation (I've even grilled it).  You would obviously need several of these, or you could just do a whole tenderloin, which would also be impressive.  I usually have to pre-order these cuts, so if you do something like that, plan far ahead.  When I make Châteaubriand, I do make the béarnaise and we love that, but I don't do the château potatoes.  I usually make smashed parsley potatoes or roasted rosemary potatoes if I still have rosemary in my herb garden (and I usually do still have that hearty herb this time of year).  We really like roasted baby carrots (with some of the tops still attached for presentation) with this.  I also make our dinner rolls from scratch.  Yeast rolls of my grandmothers, whose recipe I've posted here before on request.

One of my favorites is the typical English Christmas dinner mentioned above: rib roast, roasted potatoes, yorkshire pud - we add a green vegetable and usually another side for the entree.  We do this every few years as a change to the Châteaubriand.  I'm not sure yet what we'll do, but I need to decide soon.

We really like to do hors d'oeuvres early in the day, and that usually includes some Turkish mezes and salads. We don't eat lunch and eat dinner in the afternoon as our only meal.

[mommariffic]

We normally do a filet mignon but this year we are having honey glazed ham, scallop potatoes and brussel sprouts in a creme sauce

[AllyRae]

Our entire menu has to be gluten/nut/dairy/egg/shellfish free, but here it is:

Christmas Eve--(Our daughter is Vietnam-born, so we try to incorporate her birth traditions in with our holiday as well.  Unfortunately, we don't know much about the traditional Vietnamese reveillon menu, so this is what we could come up with)

Bûche de Noël--chocolate cake in shape of log
Boba tea
Hanoi Fried Fish

Pho Ga (Vietnamese chicken noodle soup)
Summer rolls (Fresh rice paper rolls)

Christmas breakfast:
Cinnamon rolls
Baked apples
Sausage

Christmas dinner:
cranberry sauce
sparkling non-alcoholic juice
Raw veggie tray with dip
Water chestnut & bacon rumaki
Homemade french bread
Maple glazed ham with marachino cherries & pineapples
Candy cane cheesecake

[onlyzombiecat]

We aren't having guests so things are kind of simple at our house.

Christmas Eve-

BBQ chicken sandwiches, macaroni & cheese, broccoli & mushrooms, fruit & chocolate

Christmas Day-

cheese soup, sourdough bread, sundaes

[JamieCatheryn]

Christmas eve with the family:

Asiago Artichoke Stuffed Mushrooms

Fresh Veggies

Butternut Squash Soup

Goose

Applesauce

Cranberry sauce

Broccoli cream cheese casserole

Green beans

Biscuits

Sweet potatoes

Pumpkin Pie

Cookies

Mixed in-shell Nuts

Sparkling Cider

Iced Tea

Christmas Day

Breakfast: Hot browns (family tradition)

Lunch: Bread, fruit, and cheeses

Dinner: Roast Lamb, Potatoes, Peas and Carrots

[Ellp]

Whats a Hot Brown? :D

[mamadelbosque]

Our tradition has been venison kabobs (so, chunks of venison marinated w/ mushrooms for like 8-12 hours or something, on skewers with peppers & onions), and lobster tails :) We order tails from LobsterAnywhere.com. And then a salad, potatoes, whatever else extra (we do this at my grandpa's house w/ my dad, brother, sil, uncle, and my mom, and brothers' mil, etc - this year its 10 adults plus our boys :). We're bringing the kabobs & lobster tails, everybody else is bringing the various sides :)

[JamieCatheryn]

Originally Posted by Ellp 

Whats a Hot Brown? :D

Openfaced sandwiches covered in either cheese sauce or gravy. I think it's a Kentucky, thing, the Brown hotel? Here's my family's Christmas brunch version with the method I've worked out:

Sandwich Bread

Leftover meats (goose, turkey, ham, whatever you have from the feast)

Bacon

Tomato slices

Cheese sauce (cook milk, cheddar, and a little flour over med-low heat, stirring til smooth)

Moisten the bread with a little milk, lay it in a pan, top with meats, tomatoes, bacon, and cheese sauce, broil until cheese bubbles and browns. Enjoy with the clementine oranges found in the stockings on the side.

[Lisoula]

We are Italian, so lots of seafood is usually involved on Christmas, but lately we've only had fried shrimp, shrimp cocktail, calamari, fried smelt, and crab legs.  We also always have homemade pasta with homemade sauce (my grandma makes hers with meatballs, Italian sausage, and roast) as well as mashed potatoes, shredded cabbage with olive oil & vinegar, and rolls.