Three years ago we decided to go out for Christmas buffet at a local resort and loved it. We’ve never gone back. Since then a group of friends and relatives go out somewhere every Christmas day. Yesterday we went out for Chinese food and it was delicious. It was exceptionally good and they didn’t have a buffet so we ordered just a shit ton of variety and they set up an extra table beside us and we created our own buffet. When we were done we got take out containers for everyone and divided up all the leftovers so now everyone has an extra meal at home today.
Each year one person pays for everything. Next year is my turn so I’m already trying to decide what to do and were to go.
No shopping for the food, spending hours and hours cooking it and hours cleaning it for 20 minutes of eating it. Going out means we actually spend more time just sitting and chatting before and after the meal.
My brother-in-law got sick on Friday so we rescheduled our Christmas celebrations for today (Monday.) We’re going out to a restaurant halfway between our houses, so no cooking for me.
As for actual Christmas dinner, luckily I happened to have a pair of Cornish hens in the freezer. I roasted those with carrots, broccoli, and brussel sprouts. Side dishes were cornbread stuffing and cranberry sauce. I brushed the hens with sesame oil and used olive oil on the vegs. My husband proclaimed it a success.
The only time we went out for Christmas dinner was when we rescheduled Christmas because our son-in-law had to do it with his parents. We have a traditional roast with carrots, potatoes, green beans and maybe other stuff between opening presents. Right now we have four kids, six, two three, and one just over a year old, so going out doesn’t appeal that much.
We also have a traditional Christmas Eve dinner of turkey or this year two chickens.
This is our third Christmas in Canada, and all of our family is back in the US, so my wife and I… did basically nothing for Christmas dinner. We had some cheese and crackers and some asparagus.
We made a highly simplified Christmas dinner. Four of them.
Wife’s daughter is a foster Mom w 7 small children, none of whom are her bio-kids. But all of whom deserve a better life than Fate had dealt them until she got them. It’s a sitcom of crazy 24/7/365 there. But with more mess, more running, more crying, and lots more spitting up than on a sitcom.
So we go there for the various holidays and bring a simplified one-pot meal or two to complete in the wreckage of her crowded kitchen. Yesterday (25th) was homemade chicken pot pies for lunch plus home-made chili & marinated cold roast beef slices w onions & mushrooms for dinner. With lots of kidly excitement.
The 24th we did the same thing, but with assemble-your-own tacos for lunch and a kid-friendly variation on chicken cacciatore over brown rice for dinner. Making the usual taco fixings but using scoop-shaped tortilla chips as the shell is great fun for young and old alike. You can assemble lots of mini-tacos with different mixes of toppings and even little hands can put theirs together. Sorta. Try it; you’ll like it.
It’s not the food that makes Christmas; it’s definitely the floorshow. With the volume set to super-happy extra-excited.
My wife’s family for years went out to one of the local (downtown New Orleans) hotel Christmas brunch buffets. In recent years, it’s been prime rib at her family’s for lunch and a huge spread of delicacies at my sister’s in the evening (most all of our close family lives local).
I’m curious about the availability of Chinese restaurants on Christmas day in other areas. Am I correct that in the large northeastern cities – NYC, Philadelphia, Boston, etc. – that finding an open Chinese restaurant on Christmas Day is fairly easy? Around here, Chinese restaurants seem to be universally closed on Christmas – but I’ll cop to not checking exhaustively.
One difference here is that few Chinese restaurants are run by ethnic Chinese folks (save a very few Taiwanese proprietors). Instead, our local Vietnamese community is prominent in both the Chinese and Vietnamese restaurant scenes (and I believe a healthy percentage of sushi places, as well). The Vietnamese folks locally are generally Catholics, and so will celebrate Christmas.
Among my wife’s Hispanic family, Christmas Eve is the big day for a lavish spread and Christmas Day is more for chilling. There’s been a lot going on this month though and, earlier in the week, I asked if she had anything planned (in a “so it doesn’t sneak up on you” sort of way) and she did not. I suggested a frozen tray of lasagna from Costco as good enough and she enthusiastically agreed. We’ll cook a prime rib or roast next year.
The tray was actually a two-pack so we ate more lasagna last night.
…which meant a thorough cleaning of every room, cooking and baking cookies, turning the playroom into a guest room, putting up grab bars in “her” bathroom, driving a couple of hours to her house a day or so before, picking her up and listening to her read the signs and billboards all the way back, missing late Christmas Eve church because she fell asleep, making a brunch the next morning, then waiting on her while we cook The Big Dinner, filling the kitchen with smoke because we have to cook a roast the way she always did, then, after presents and a football game (she’s the only football fanatic) we basically kill time with a 1000-pc jigsaw puzzle and the one board game she loves and now it’s getting late and mom, I’d love to drive you home but we should get going, “Oh, I’m so cozy here, I thought I’d stay another night…”
Well, we’d just been through that at Thanksgiving, only with many more people, so I put my foot down. Which was painless, because she decided she’d love to have us over to her apartment for just 12/25, and I found a nice seafood restaurant near her for supper.
Whew! So much easier!
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tl/dr: We avoided a house guest and it was 5% of the stress of every other year.
Therefore, I went to two pub sessions with friends. Between them, I went to a Mediterranean restaurant that’s rather pricey, but I treat myself to a meal there for Christmas. I had bouillabaise there.
The restaurant we went to was staffed fully by Chinese people. We also had one last minute attendee so I needed to find an open store on the way to buy a present and found a pharmacy open. It was staffed only by East Indian people. Sometimes I feel a bit guilty that people have to work on Christmas but then I remember that not everybody celebrates Christmas and it’s just another work day. We also left a $150 tip.
When we were looking at options, not every Chinese food place was open so I think it probably depends on if the staff celebrates or not. I did see a Ricky’s open on the way and it was pretty full. That’s just a regular restaurant to get burgers and pasta etc. The staff there are all Caucasian.
We were invited to our niece’s home, but only had snacks as they weren’t eating until 6:30. I don’t like to drive after dark, especially with ice patches on the road, so we didn’t actually have a Christmas dinner. But it was good to be around family for awhile. They’re coming here today and I’ve made a jambalaya with cornbread.
Found out on Thanksgiving that roasting a turkey breast in a cast iron pot made for an outstanding meal. Did the same for Christmas. Being as both were just me, my wife and her father, all the sides were canned, jarred or instant. Still made for an excellent meal. Made some bread pudding for dessert with a whiskey sauce.
I will say that around here, if you want to eat out on Christmas Day and don’t want to do one of the prominent hotel brunches downtown … there are a small number of local-fare (Creole, seafood, etc.) restaurants open. Generally, the closer a place is to the downtown hotels, the more likely a place will open for Christmas Day – thought the absolute number of non-hotel N.O. restaurants open on Christmas is still small (less than 20).
I dug around a bit after I posted above and found one Chinese restaurant was open in New Orleans yesterday – the venerable Five Happiness. It’s packed to the gills to no one’s surprise, and requires reservations that are all snapped up by the end of November.
My brother hosted, as usual, but there was no dinner - just lots and lots of noshing. We were all stuffed and there was still food left over. Honestly, I don’t think I’d like to go out. But I don’t like a big sit-down dinner at home either. I think our finger-food heavy snack bar is a really good approach. Everyone brings a little something, we eat whenever and spend most of the time visiting.
My Wife and I where in Denver 100 miles away taking care of things at my deceased mothers house. We did buy stocking stuffer type gifts for my two cousins and had a few beers with them. On the 24th. Drove home on the 25th, and each had a gift for each other. (she bought me $1000 headphones, holy cow).
I did make dinner on Christmas night - kielbasa, sauerkraut, onions and sour cream. That’s just regular fare for us that we do a few times a year. I’m going into town today to get some pierogis to add to it. Really a wonderful meal. Perhaps I’ll get some bread as well.