What do you traditionally serve for holiday meal and why?

[violinp]

For Thanksgiving, we always have:
-Oyster stew (as a starter, but we didn't have this year because Dad, who makes it, was too swamped)
-Roast turkey (we had 15 lbs. for 6 people, and it was all eaten in 2 - 3 days)
-Mashed potatoes
-Dressing
-Green beans
-Carrots
-Deviled eggs
-Salad
-Pumpkin pie (for me and Gramps) and pecan pie (for everyone else)

We usually have some kind of beef for Christmas, but this year we're having duck with blackberry sauce, and serving it with wild rice and yet - to - be determined vegetables. I've never had duck, so this will be interesting! 

[ladyknight1]

We looked at getting duck for this year. Perhaps for New Years Day.

[Acadianna]

For Thanksgiving, I always make rice dressing, a Southern Louisiana/Cajun dish.  (I also make standard stuffing for those who prefer it.)  I grew up with rice dressing and can't imagine the holidays without a big pot of it!

[Waterlight]

I'll be spending Christmas with Mom this year... she and my stepdad are moving to Michigan next June and this is most likely the last Christmas I'll be spending with them for at least a few years.

When I'm at Mom's, there are two or three dishes that are served every year, without fail and regardless of whatever else is served:

Mashed potato casserole
Sweet potato casserole
Raspberry salad

These have been served EVERY year for holiday meals for as long as I can remember--and I'm not sure why.  Mom also makes peanut butter balls every year.  I will most likely bring some of my homemade (and VERY easy to make) fudge, and some Kristian Regale pear cider this year.

[turtleIScream]

A few years ago, my brother joked, why couldn't Jesus have been Mexican, so tacos and enchiladas could be traditional Christmas fare? I answered that Jesus didn't eat ham or roast pork either, so why follow that traditional script? Now, Christmas lunch at my house is Meditteranean - stuffed pitas, hummus, garlic sauce, tabbouleh. So light and easy!

For dessert, we always have chocolate peanut butter balls. Just because they are so delicious.

[saffron]

Thanksgiving is the usual Turkey / Potatoes / Stuffing that most people are familiar with - when we lived in Canada we celebrated with family in Oct. and usually ended up with 2 turkey dinners (my family and DH's family) now that we live in the US we have a 'friendsgiving' feast in Nov. with our friends who have no family around and aren't traveling. It's a lot of fun!

Christmas is a little different though.

My mom is French-Canadian - so we celebrate Christmas at midnight on the 24th with a 'reveillion'. This includes a midnight buffet of mostly appetizers /finger foods and a couple of meat pies and desserts (and lots of wine/beer/cocktails).

In order to make the buffet lighter - so we're not serving a full meal (and not have people starve to death between lunch and midnight) We started doing a raclette Christmas eve in the afternoon. We're talking old school 1/2 wheel of cheese melted and poured over potatoes and bread and cured meats using a machine that must've been bought in the 70s.. It's awesome! Especially since we're at the cottage and have been doing all of the classic outdoor winter things all day like tobogganing and building snowmen. 

After the midnight buffet and gifts we head outside for a round of midnight tobogganing and then sleep like the dead.

On Christmas day, DH, DD and I head over to his parents house for the traditional turkey/stuffing/potatoes dinner that evening.

[rm247]

Christmas Eve: Because of people working for at least the first half of Christmas Eve (quite normal in the UK) by the time the family had actually got together and settled in at my mothers, it was already evening, so we used to do steaks on Christmas Eve, which meant very little prep. In recent years however I have booked a restaurant and taken the family out for Christmas Eve dinner as my contribution to the hosting costs, this means, we can eat whatever we want and don't have to mess around preparing it or washing up.

Christmas Day Morning: After presents, it's a full English breakfast served with bucks fizz, this is always fun to do as you end up with two grills, toaster, 4 pans & a microwave running at once all timed to be served at the same time.

Christmas Day Dinner: We start with a fishy starter, we no longer run a separate starter and fish course as my grandma can no longer eat big multi course meals, so we combine the two and give her a small portion, Prawn, cottage cheese & avocado salad is the most common. For the main course, the meat changes year to year, Goose, Turkey, Bird O'Plenty, whatever we fancy that year, but it gets served with pigs in blankets (sausages wrapped in bacon) 2 kinds of potatoes, 3 kinds of veg (including sprouts & Parsnips) followed by Christmas Pudding. Then the traditional conversation about the cheese course and how nobody has room for it, but we'll maybe serve it later.

Boxing Day: Anything but a roast dinner, in previous years we've done duck legs, lamb shanks, wild boar stew, this t=year I'm doing venison steaks.

[Ceallach]

I would just like to say I am really loving this thread.  It's making me think about what I want as our Christmas traditions going forward - DH and I live far away from our families so really we can start any tradition we want with our children!   (This year is a bit strange as bubba is too young to remember, so it feels silly to do much).

I love food being part of tradition, I think that is really special.    For me Christmas dinner will always be about a roast meal, but not sure about Christmas eve and Christmas morning.

[daen]

On Christmas Eve day, my mother bakes six coffee cakes, from the recipe that is only used for Christmas.
After the Christmas Eve program, we eat the first coffee cake, cut into thinnish slices and buttered.

Christmas breakfast is buttered coffee cake, segmented mandarin oranges (fresh, not canned), bananas, grapes, cheddar, and coffee and juice.

Christmas dinner has morphed over the years. It used to be quite traditional (turkey/ham, etc), until we realized only two of us are really interested in the traditional. For a few years, I made fresh peppercorn fettucine. Later, when my dad confessed that he wasn't all that fond of pasta, either, we went to verenike - boiled dough pockets containing either cottage cheese or saskatoon berries -  served with cream gravy and farmer sausage (smoked pork sausage seasoned only with salt and pepper). This year, though, my sister is on a gluten-exclusion diet over Christmas, so we'll be having smoked turkey instead. Smoked turkey is the exception to the not-fond-of-turkey rule - there are Hutterites locally who raise turkeys and smoke a few, and said smoked turkeys are meltingly delicious. Later, there will be assorted Christmas baking, candy, and peanuts in the shell.

Thanksgiving dinner is in October, and is chicken fajitas, followed by pumpkin pie.

[kckgirl]

Thanksgiving: Turkey, dressing, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, green beans or some other green veggie, garden salad, and dessert

Christmas morning: While presents are opened, sticky buns are baking, and we enjoy them with coffee and orange juice

Christmas (mid-afternoon): Lasagna, salad, garlic bread (sometimes with dessert, sometimes not)

[starry diadem]

Christmas Eve is usually at my sister's, with DH and I taking my mother, who stays with Sis for the holiday - the traditional meal is cold ham with potato cheese. That is  simply mashed potatoes mixed with grated strong cheddar, with more cheese scattered on top and baked, so that the top is all golden brown with melred cheese. Wonderful stuff.

Christmas day is just DH and I, so no turkey. Breakfast is bacon sandwiches, lunch usually something  light (vegetable parcels ths year, in puff pastry, with a cheese sauce made with cream), and then our main meal in the evening at a civilised hour!    Often we'll have a small chicken and all the trimmings, but this year we've decided on beef stroganoff with thin french fries.  Dessert is home made -  tiramisu, or  panna cotta, or maple custard pots.  I make chocolate mint cheesecake and gingerbread cookies every year, too, and there are always plenty  of chocolates/sweet things around to nibble on.

When Mum comes home at New Year, we'll have a Dukeshill ham with garlic potatoes and homemade piccalilli.

[rosegirl]

On Christmas Eve day, my mother bakes six coffee cakes, from the recipe that is only used for Christmas.
After the Christmas Eve program, we eat the first coffee cake, cut into thinnish slices and buttered.

Christmas breakfast is buttered coffee cake, segmented mandarin oranges (fresh, not canned), bananas, grapes, cheddar, and coffee and juice.

Christmas dinner has morphed over the years. It used to be quite traditional (turkey/ham, etc), until we realized only two of us are really interested in the traditional. For a few years, I made fresh peppercorn fettucine. Later, when my dad confessed that he wasn't all that fond of pasta, either, we went to verenike - boiled dough pockets containing either cottage cheese or saskatoon berries -  served with cream gravy and farmer sausage (smoked pork sausage seasoned only with salt and pepper). This year, though, my sister is on a gluten-exclusion diet over Christmas, so we'll be having smoked turkey instead. Smoked turkey is the exception to the not-fond-of-turkey rule - there are Hutterites locally who raise turkeys and smoke a few, and said smoked turkeys are meltingly delicious. Later, there will be assorted Christmas baking, candy, and peanuts in the shell.

Thanksgiving dinner is in October, and is chicken fajitas, followed by pumpkin pie.

I'm no detective, but I suspect you live in the same general area that I do. You mentioning verinike with cream gravy, saskatoon berries and farmers sausage were the give-aways

While that is one of my favorite meals, we stay pretty traditional for Christmas. Turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggie mix, and plumma mousse. Along with whatever salads and sides get thrown into the mix. Topped off with pumpkin pie and a gazillion kinds of cookies and squares.

(I'm from Saskatoon!)

[metallicafan]

When I was a child, we would spend Christmas Day by my great aunt.   She would always make lasagne.  She is gone now, and I now host Christmas day every year.   I make lasagne every year in honor of my aunt.

[daen]

On Christmas Eve day, my mother bakes six coffee cakes, from the recipe that is only used for Christmas.
After the Christmas Eve program, we eat the first coffee cake, cut into thinnish slices and buttered.

Christmas breakfast is buttered coffee cake, segmented mandarin oranges (fresh, not canned), bananas, grapes, cheddar, and coffee and juice.

Christmas dinner has morphed over the years. It used to be quite traditional (turkey/ham, etc), until we realized only two of us are really interested in the traditional. For a few years, I made fresh peppercorn fettucine. Later, when my dad confessed that he wasn't all that fond of pasta, either, we went to verenike - boiled dough pockets containing either cottage cheese or saskatoon berries -  served with cream gravy and farmer sausage (smoked pork sausage seasoned only with salt and pepper). This year, though, my sister is on a gluten-exclusion diet over Christmas, so we'll be having smoked turkey instead. Smoked turkey is the exception to the not-fond-of-turkey rule - there are Hutterites locally who raise turkeys and smoke a few, and said smoked turkeys are meltingly delicious. Later, there will be assorted Christmas baking, candy, and peanuts in the shell.

Thanksgiving dinner is in October, and is chicken fajitas, followed by pumpkin pie.

I'm no detective, but I suspect you live in the same general area that I do. You mentioning verinike with cream gravy, saskatoon berries and farmers sausage were the give-aways

While that is one of my favorite meals, we stay pretty traditional for Christmas. Turkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, veggie mix, and plumma mousse. Along with whatever salads and sides get thrown into the mix. Topped off with pumpkin pie and a gazillion kinds of cookies and squares.

(I'm from Saskatoon!)

One province over - southern Manitoba. Probably still the same ethnic stream, though.

[Thipu1]

For some obscure reason, taboullah has become a staple of Christmas breakfast in our household. 

For Christmas dinner, we usually have a chicken or a small roast.  This year, we'll be having a ham slice with a rum pineapple sauce,  baked yams and frenched string beans.  I'm roasting a chicken today so we'll have a chicken pot pie later in the week.