This is similar to a Polish Christmas eve, although theirs is 12 courses. My wife is of Polish descent, so we observe that sort of thing (although not 12 courses). We usually have mushroom soup, pierogi, applesauce, sour cream, and gingerbread. No meat, which is to honor the animals at the manger. Christmas morning is kielbasa, eggs and baba (a Christmas cake made with pecans, cinnamon, brown sugar).
Growing up, Christmas dinner was much like Thanksgiving dinner, and I continued that tradition for a very long time. But in recent years, two turkeys in two months seemed excessive, so we’ve gone to a less traditional paella. On New Year’s Day we have biscuits and gravy for breakfast.
My father died in 1997, and my mother remarried about 5 years later. My stepfather is not Jewish, so they always had a tree every Christmas, and I think my mother actually liked putting it up. On Christmas day, she would make brisket, tsimmes, cholent, a green salad and homemade dinner rolls. She retired from baking challah when she no longer had children at home, but she started making these rolls once a year. Essentially, my mother made a Shabbes dinner with dinner rolls instead of challah.
Christmas eve dinner, was more interesting. My stepfather cooked, and they had some kind of meal that I would characterize as “awful,” but apparently it was some kind of tradition in his family. He’s Lutheran, but I think he is actually Czech, not German or Scandinavian. I don’t know if it’s a Slavic thing, or a Lutheran thing. But he made this soup with beans and sauerkraut, and then breaded, fried fish, and some kind of vegetable. It was some kind of penitential meal he had to suffer through before he could enjoy Christmas, as far as I could figure.
Lifelong east coaster for whom Christmas dinner was always a heavy roast (beef, turkey, ham) and all the requisite side dishes. We continued this after moving to CA in 2007. It was a lot of work in a usually-warm house for stuff the family didn’t really want to eat, especially after grazing all day on cookies and Chex party mix, etc.
A few years ago we decided to try something new and ordered tamales from our favorite local place, and paired it with some super easy chicken enchilada soup (30 minutes prep in a crock pot) and a nice salad and margaritas.
That has become our tradition now - east prep, easy cleanup and something different. And my Boston-Irish Dad is getting something “exotic”
Of course none of that this year with no traveling, so we just grilled a nice piece of fish
In my experience (US, east coast), there is more variation in a traditional Christmas dinner than a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving must I include Turkey to be considered traditional, but a Christmas dinner can be turkey, roast , or some other main dish.
Growing up, Xmas Eve was the ham based dinner, including scalloped potatoes, Polish sausage, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, and tons of desserts.
Xmas Day was turkey day, with basically the same stuff as Thanksgiving.
As family changed, our tradition changed to a Chinese restaurant for Xmas Eve, same turkey &c for Xmas Day.
This year we did nothing for Xmas Eve. For Xmas Day I made lasagna, served with a salad, garlic bread, and a charcuterie tray. I hope we stick with it, as it’s simple, I didn’t spend hours in the kitchen, and pretty good. And as far as Xmas Eve, I’d rather do nothing, since most of us work.
Prime rib roast has become our Christmas main course. We reserve ham for Easter and turkey for Thanksgiving. It gives us some variety in the holiday meal rotation.
We like to do a seafood meal on Christmas Eve - an Italian ‘feast of seven fishes’ type thing. I’ve not a drop of Italian blood, but was raised in an area where a lot of Sicilian-Americans lived, so I absorbed it there and it works for us. This year that wasn’t possible, so I did a prime rib, which is more of a modern British/American deal and what my grandparents would have served had we lived near them.
We always do a big breakfast on Christmas Day, so dinner on that day is leftovers or something else lighter.
I’m of Polish descent, and we have a lot of the things you mentioned on Christmas Eve. Never heard that meat was avoided to honor the animals at the manger. May I ask where you got that idea from?
We did a leg of lamb one year, when the BIL freaked right out. He was in Operation Desert Storm and it brought back bad memories. Ham is much more common here (Hormel and the Spam museum is 50 miles away), while lamb is not very popular.
Can you elaborate? Had he not eaten lamb until he went overseas? Did he run into something particularly unpleasant involving sheep, live or cooked? This answer confused me.
Central Texas here, the traditional Christmas Day meal for my family is a smoked brisket. When my dad died, the job fell to me. Fortunately, I was paying attention when helping out before, so I could do a decent one from the start, and have gotten better at it over the years.
The side dishes have changed as our tastes and the folks eating the brisket have changed. For the most part, my mom supplied fries and beans. These days, it’s my wife’s excellent chile mac n’ cheese and apple cider vinegar slaw.
This year, due to social distancing limiting who was eatng, we actually froze a third of the brisket, gave a third to my brother, and we still ate the remaining third until today. Fortunately, it freezes/defrosts well.
Southern California. A ham centered buffet for brunch and tamales for the closest thing to dinner before going to the movies (This year it was Wonder Woman 1984 on TV)
Something like duck but sweeter I’d say. Very hard to find a good sized goose these days, couldn’t get anything but frozen last time I tried, maybe two years ago, and the amount of meat was meager.
Lemon is yum