Casual Christmas Meals
December 21, 2009 by Marci
Only 4 more days til Christmas! Can you believe it?! Some of you might have already had your family Christmas this past weekend. Many of you will have several Christmas celebrations over the next week. All the anticipation and preparations come down to these few days. I have found that for our family to thoroughly enjoy the Christmas season, we need to slow down. Even though we have “slowed down”, that doesn’t mean we haven’t been involved in lots of Christmas activity. Last week, I wrote about the Hustle and Bustle of Christmas and I shared how we can have lots of activity and yet not be “busy”. It’s all about cutting out the fluff and planning.
The Test
This week is the test to see how that planning paid off. Let’s see, decorations up? Ever since Thanksgiving weekend. Presents? All purchased and in hiding. Family traditions savored? Cookie bakes with the kids, Christmas books read, nativity story acted out. Visit Santa? Tomorrow (kind of forgot about that one). Food for all our Christmas celebrations? I think so….
It seems the food is the last of the preparations for the holidays that we need to make and it is also the last thing we plan for. We have 3 family Christmases this next week. Time to get planning. Since none of these celebrations are a formal sit-down meal, the menus are casual and pretty easy. No ham and potatoes here. Its more like cheese soup, sandwiches, chips and dip, veggies and cookies. This makes it easier for everyone to bring a little something to share and the host isn’t stuck in the kitchen all day!
Three Casual Christmas Menu Plans
Christmas can be stressful enough without preparing a huge meal for a house full of family and friends. If you would like to join our family and make this year’s celebration a little less stressful, here are some of our family’s menu ideas.
On Christmas Eve with my husband’s family, his mom makes cheese soup, ham salad sandwiches and jello salads. Everyone else brings a dish or snack. One of his sister’s brings a pizza dip and tortilla chips that everyone devours immediately. Another brings a veggie tray that adds a much needed nutritional boost to the day! His niece brings wonderful, soft sugar cookies. And, I usually bring whatever yummy treat I feel like at the time. This year, I am taking homemade Chex Mix. The homemade stuff is so much better than what comes in the bag!
On Christmas Day, is it just my husband, my kids and I at home. We stay in our jammies all day long. It is my favorite day of the year! After opening gifts, we all help make pancakes for breakfast. Then, we play until someone gets hungry. Lunch is usually leftover soup and sandwiches from Christmas Eve. Dinner Christmas night is always something easy. I usually make chicken-rice soup and homemade bread a couple days before and just warm it up. This year, my family had told me they want me to make Chinese dumplings and wings! Hmmm….sounds good but a little more time consuming than I was really looking for on my lazy Christmas day. I think we’ll compromise with chicken wings, crock pot pizza and left over Christmas cookies.
The weekend after Christmas, we will have Christmas with my family. We will have a ham and cheese tray and make sandwiches. My aunt always brings a veggie tray, bread and spinach dip. My dad will make his brownie triffle dessert (that is to die for!) and his version of my grandmother’s famous potato salad. My daughter will make pumpkin pie (her favorite). I’m sure some other goodies will show up, as well.
What is your meal plan for Christmas? Does your family have a formal meal or is it more casual? Does your family have any Christmas meal traditions?
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I’m linking up to Organizing Junkie’s Menu Plan Monday. Check it out for more great menu ideas!
Comments (3)
Our Christmas meals are a mix of casual and formal. Our Christmas Day meal is a formal dinner, although not totally traditional. We always have dinner out with the extended family and then back to the grandparents’ house to open presents for Christmas Eve (sometimes it’s the 23rd). Then hubby, sons & I have a family dinner with a Happy Birthday Jesus chocolate cake (either on the 23rd or 24th – whatever day the ‘family’ dinner isn’t!). Day after Christmas will be a cookout for friends & family – special for us this year because we have two boys serving in the military and one of them has just returned from Iraq. That will be the best Christmas present for me!
I have you to thank for our Christmas meal this year. For a multitude of reasons we are doing a freezer meal–Ham Winter Veg Pot Pie. We’ll probably end up adding pop-overs which my son loves, and something yummy for dessert.
Keeping it simple will also let me save up that energy to help my MIL make our traditional Korean New Year’s meal. We eat Dukk-Kuk (I think that is how you spell that.) It is beef broth soup, with dumplings and flat rice cakes, garnished with egg, sea-weed, and green onion. What makes this meal challenging is that there are 55 family members! We bow to our elders dressed in traditional Korean dress, and children receive money. As married adults you start giving money to your elders.
Hope you are having a great Holiday season, and a very happy new year!
You had me at “ham salad”. Yummmmmmy. My Christmas and Easter Hams are great for dinner but I am already planning ham salad sandwiches and plotting which soup to make with the bone.