We do Thanksgiving, Part Deux -- turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, cranberry sauce. Dessert, however, is different -- either pecan pie or sticky toffee pudding

Christmas Eve varies each year. I think I will do seafood lasagna. Christmas Day is turkey dinner again with, like Martha said, different desserts. Probably Red Velvet cake.

I'm really not sure. I guess we should plan it without mom being in the mix, and if she can make it, great. If not, oh well. She typically hosts the birthday brunch bash (yes, with everything including red and green sprinkles on cinnamon rolls) on Christmas morning since it's my sister's birthday. And since it's her birthday, she hosts on Christmas eve, avoiding working on her birthday. I do Thanksgiving so everyone has a turn. I guess I'll host day too. We could bring the party to mom, but I don't think she's even up to riding in a car, much less having a party at her house. Time will tell.

We will have our Christmas Day meal at our youngest and family. All four of our children, grandchildren, and great grandsons will be there and my widowed daughter's new boyfriend. He will also bring his dog, we invited him to bring him. We will probably eat around 1 or 1:30. most have to go to work the next day I think. Our menu will be similar to Thanksgiving.

Turkey

Ham

Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

Candied Sweet Potatoes

Corn

Broccoli

Green Beans

Dressing

Relish Tray

Homemade Yeast Rolls

Black Raspberry Pie

Pumpkin Pie

Pecan Pie

Carrot Cake

And what ever else anyone decides to fix.

Now we are planning our New Year's Eve Cook Out.

Sue

A traditional Christmas dinner will be at my house this year,the first in close to 10 or more.

Turkey,dressing,gravy,mashed potatoes,3 veggies,buns & pickles/cheese trays.

Son,his wife and 4 children will be here-DIL is to bring dessert.

An overnight stay,breakfast planned-eggs in a nest so far & fresh fruit.

We had our combination Thanksgiving/Christmas turkey dinner yesterday since dh works both holidays this year. Right now I have the breast carcass in a pot making stock for tomorrow's Turkey & Wild Rice soup.

Now I'm hearing dh might be able to come home early and if that's the case I need an easy to assemble sort of last minute Christmas dinner idea. I'm thinking stuffed shells and haricot verts with roasted pecans. Otherwise we'll be looking for an open restaurant too.

Only 4 of us. Beef rib roast (little larger than the one we had for Thanksgiving due to teenage boy appetite), rice, gravy, green beans, perhaps potato salad, smoked turkey tails for my mom (she's 86, she can have whatever she wants), maybe shrimp cocktail.

Re: the restaurants open on Christmas Day. This same discussion came up on a similar thread earlier last week when it became apparent that having Chinese food on Christmas Day was a very popular tradition for many. So if you do not mind having Chinese food instead of the more usual turkey or ham, you are very likely to find most Chinese restaurants open!!

I will be traveling over Christmas so not at all sure what the dinner menu will be. But I will probably be making my usual Christmas dinner of roast prime rib and Yorkshire pudding with assorted sides for New Years instead.

Here's the link to the earlier thread.

In my area, lots of restaurants are open on the 25th, often offering a big buffet. Fast food places are closed. Then there's that Chinese tradition, lol. That's what we will be doing on that day, if anyone is hungry.

Old friends of mine from Beaufort will be with us, so we will have a brunch of Beaufort shrimp and grits, mini cheese biscuits, mini angel biscuits, ham, spicy mustard or scuppernong preserves, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit platter with a yogurt, orange, and honey dipping sauce. Bloody Marys and bellinis will flow.

I am really not sure. We will be traveling on Christmas day so will either have our main meal at the airport or on the airplane. Since our flight doesn't leave until the wee hours of the morning, they may not serve a main meal until breakfast time which would actually be the day after Christmas.

If looking for a restaurant for Christmas, check out hotels as they are open and some have nice buffets.

Rhizo, your brunch sounds delicious!

We hit a casino buffet one Christmas day. NEVER.AGAIN!

"Rhizo, your brunch sounds delicious!"

Doesn't it?? When I was still married and we entertained a lot, we would do a similar type Christmas eve brunch for all our friends. And then enjoy the leftovers ourselves Christmas morning!! Bloody Mary's or Mimosas were a staple :-) And made for a very festive occasion!

We're going with a non traditional italian speghetti dinner this year with olive garden salad and warm asiago and green pesto bread. I get hungry just thinking about it!

My family of 12 will be here in Saturday, the 22nd for our noon meal. Since they will be with their in-law's on Christmas, they do not care to have the traditional meals so close together....and after all the previous "discussions ", I reluctantly say we are having chicken and noodles with mashed potatoes....green beans ( with bacon, brown sugar, butter, soy sauce, garlic powder..their favorite way), .relish tray of fresh veggies, TBD salad, rolls, tea, layered chocolate dessert, cherry cheesecake.,.and anything else someone might request before that date.

A few years ago we broke away from the repeat of Thanksgiving and grill steak/shrimp/twice baked potatoes/7 layer salad..I don't cook dessert the entire week as we eat all the treats I have been making for Christmas. I saw lobster tails in the ads today...maybe.....

I was hoping to keep it simple this year. Christmas will just be DH, Dad, Bro and me. Turkey, candied yams, dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, broccoli, biscuits, and a homemade pie.

Then, I learned today that I will be visited on Christmas Eve by my daughter-in-law, her fiancee, his son, my two grandsons and my granddaughter-in-law (in addition to my Dad and Bro). They will likely get tacos....

Also learned today that my stepson and his lady friend are coming on Friday (she's a vegetarian), so I'm still trying to plan a menu.

Guess I'll be doing more cooking and baking than I had planned on.... I love company, but that's a lot in a short period of time.

Several years ago I had planned a traditional Christmas dinner... turkey and all the trimmings.

We had just had a new kitchen sink installed.

I started my preparations early and unfortunately discovered the sink connections had failed.

I informed Mr Wonderful I would not be able to prepare dinner.

After checking restaurants available

I found out we had

three choices.... A Japanese restaurant, a seafood restaurant at 10 PM or Denney's.

We went to Denney's along with many others traveling.

It wasn't a traditional dinner but the service was excellent and me met lots if people.

This year we will have authentic Cornish pasties and a pumpkin cheesecake dessert.

Merry Christmas to all.

s