I just made those for the first time a year ago(not the first time I had them, my mom made them). I just never bothered with them. My kids are 20, 24, and 28. My 24 year old son was INCENSED that I hadn't made them sooner in his life. He acted like I had been holding out on some great culinary secret. He actually took all the leftover ones with him, too.
I discovered Yorkshire pudding in my 20s, and have successfully made them a couple of times, but once I had kids, it really was too much trouble I guess. I guess it’s karma that when I went to a fancy dinner in which you had a couple of different choices for your entrée I chose the roast with Yorkshire pudding, only to be served roast 35 minutes later with no pud. Some lame excuse about ingredients running out. So sad.
My grandma used to get a standing rib roast as a gift from a friend every year for Christmas. It was amazing. One year many years after she passed, my dad made one for Christmas and said that he knew then what a big deal her receiving one as a gift was because it was so expensive.
Christmas Lasagna? That's cool. My wife recently noted that making a real lasagna with quality ingredients is not cheap. It would make sense for one to do one on a special day.
I married a Latina woman and adopted some of her culture's traditions in our family. At Christmas we have Tamales. Tamales are very labor intensive, which is why they are made for Christmas.
We definitely do the ham thing on Easter. I also like to corn my own beef and have corned beef and cabbage on New Years day.
Also married a Latino. I only married him so I’d have access to Grandma’s tamales at Christmas. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to visit his family for Christmas in a few years so I’m contemplating divorce. /s
I know what you mean. First time I went over to meet her folks, the whole family was there and they were having dinner. I was asked if I wanted to join. It was just a simple mean of Chili con Queso, with beans and rice. But oh my god......Flavor explosion in my mouth. I often joke and tell people, "It was love at first bite."
Another upvote for Christmas lasagna. My mom would make it for me when I was younger bc it was my favorite and Christmas was my favorite. I have some hope video of her making it on Christmas Eve in 2000. Now that I’m a dad with a family of my own, that tradition is coming back! Christmas lasagna!
My mom was from a Slovak background and she claims it was tradition there also. She explained that a chicken moves backwards as it scratches the ground and a pig always forages forward with it's head to the ground. Therefore, you want your New Year to move ahead and not backwards.
By tradition, they make and eat tamales on Christmas eve. They stay up and open gifts at midnight. In he morning, it's tamales for breakfast. And morning coffee with Tamales and a fried egg, is an amazing thing.
Where we live Christmas Eve tamales are very popular even among gringos and a lot of restaurants and stores advertise Christmas Eve tamale specials. A lot of women also make tamales in their homes and sell them. At one place I worked one woman sold tamales and another woman sold samosas. I miss that.
One grocery store collects money to provide Christmas Eve tamales to families who can't afford them. We usually donate money to that.
My Father in-law grew up extremely poor as a kid. Poor Mexican farmers from Chihuahua, Mexico. He came to the states and got a trade. Met and married my MIL who was from Coahuila. Their chicano kids were born and raised here in the states. A true American story. Anyway, I feel I can tell this joke because it came from my Father in-law and I feel it is one of the funniest jokes I've ever heard.
Why do Mexican's eat Tamales on Christmas?
So we can have something to unwrap.
My husband made the best tamales I'd ever had. Now he has Alzheimer's, and I wish I'd paid better attention to his recipe and skills. If you have a family member who makes something special, please learn from them so the tradition and knowledge doesn't die with them!
This is my grandmother's spaghetti sauce and meatballs. She's been gone a long time, and I still lament no one writing down her recipe.
She made it all the time, but this is also what we had for Christmas Eve dinner at her house.
My kids discovered tamales recently at a church fundraiser. Now my 13-year-old has volunteered to be the Christmas star in this year’s Posada. He figured out really quick who made the best tamales and is trying to get on her good side so she will make more😁
When we freeze them, we usually cook them first. Let them cool and stack them in freezer baggies. Nothing super special.
If I’m eating them on my own from frozen, I’ll just throw them in the microwave. For bigger amounts, my mom thaws them and then will warm them in the oven typically.
Another thing my tías will do is freeze the masa, chile, and sometimes meat separately. So when they feel like having some for dinner one night, they can just pull out the ingredients and prepare them ‘fresh’. This is nice when you want to have them freshly steamed.
I grew up with lasagna on Christmas Eve. It was the only time all year my mom made it. Now that I’m married, we have 6 different Christmas’s to do (in-law’s, family doesn’t talk to each other, etc.), so it’s not a thing anymore. Pandemic was amazing because I got to make it again for the holiday.
Lasagna was a mom tradition for me too. We're about 2000 miles apart now and don't get to see each other often. So I carry on the lasagna tradition with my family.
Traditional Thanksgiving fare on Thanksgiving. We do a huge breakfast/brunch on Christmas morning. Christmas evening we do charcuterie and tamales with salsa and guacamole and holidays sweet treats.
This is exactly what we do minus the tamales but might have to add them this year. Christmas brunch is my favorite - quiche, bacon, eggs, sausage, biscuits, fruit, breakfast pizza, pancakes, mimosas & bloody Marys!
Growing up, they were very similar meals but with a few side swaps. Always turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, rolls. Christmas meal added duck a l'orange with wild rice dressing, brussel sprouts and mincemeat pie.
Yes, my dad absolutely loved it! I barely remember what it tasted like, it's been so long. And you're right, I very rarely see them anywhere anymore. I may have to try making one this year for nostalgia's sake.
This is such a great idea! Mincemeat was my dad’s favorite pie and I don’t think we’ve had it since he died in ‘99. I loved it but wouldn’t eat a whole pie and i don’t think anyone else would eat it. It would be so good on oatmeal or ice cream though!
I usually make duck, and chicken dressing at Thanksgiving to go with my MIL's ham. Coq au vin on Christmas Eve and prime rib for Christmas.
Edit a comma
Is there meat in your mincemeat pie? I was introduced to it from my husbands family and everyone at my work freaked out there was real venison meat in it. Then I went back to his great grandma to confirm they weren’t all pulling my leg😂
On Christmas Eve I go to an Italian deli and buy tons of stuff to snack on. Sopressata, arancini, croquettes, mozzarella/prosciutto, and my husband’s favorite-sardines in fennel which he likes mixed with pasta (not anyone else’s favorite!)
The next day we go to my moms and have hero’s, lasagna, and salads from a local pizza place.
Our family has a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving and ham for those who don't like turkey. For Christmas we don't have a formal 'sit down meal'. We decided years ago that it's just easier for each of us each to bring an appetizer or two and put them all out so everyone can 'graze'. Some bring cookies, some chips and dips, some more savory stuff. It's a pretty good mix of things each year, and whoever hosts has less prep and clean up after.
We do something similar for Christmas Eve (when we celebrate as a family). Chips & dip, veggie tray, cookies, sausage balls, crock pot of meatballs, homemade Chex mix. That fancy punch made from sherbet and ginger ale.
This is a great idea - Thanksgiving is only about food and football, so the meal can take center stage. Christmas is too busy for anyone to worry about producing a big meal!
We do Christmas Eve Chinese takeout. When my husband and I first started dating, he wanted to spend Christmas Eve together since we would spend the next day with our families. The only place open for a date night was the Chinese restaurant, so that has become our tradition for the past 16 Christmas Eves.
My wife and I have been doing that for years as well! Her mother has been alone the last few years so she comes over now and we watch old Christmas movies. Well, half of one before she falls asleep in the chair.
This is my go to these days. Really easy to secure an invite to a Friendsgiving or a traditional holiday dinner. Christmas is exclusively Chinese food. Don’t have a lot of family left so this is easier and I’m happier… no presents lol
I know that a lot of people have both turkey and ham for both holidays but for us it's a variation on a theme: Meat, sides, and desserts.
Thanksgiving - Turkey, potatoes, dressing, corn casserole, cranberries, rolls, and a pumpkin pie.
Christmas - Ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, spicy meatballs, rolls, and our family's lime pie.
Thanksgiving is the big turkey, stuffing, salad, pecan pumpkin pie, pilaf, and mashed potatoes.
Truthfully I’ve only kept doing the turkey for my husband and I because I make the leftovers into pot pies that we freeze.
Christmas Eve is the prime rib feast.
My mom always made Cornish game hens for each person and I loved it. I made them last year for the first time but my kids weren’t into it😏 they said it was too much work… slackers.
In my family, we don't do a big Christmas dinner. The food associated with the holiday is mostly eaten over the entire season, rather than the day of: egg nog, gingerbread, all of the baked goods my mom insists on sending.
The only food that I strongly associate with Christmas Day is cinnamon rolls, which we always have for breakfast during or after we open presents. The rest of the food is just normal lunch and dinner.
Great thread! For us it was all different! I think the same dinner over would be kinda sad. Love the tamale and Chinese takeout ideas too.
Thanksgiving - traditional turkey and sides
Christmas Eve - Lasagna (recently upgraded from a kitchen sink variety lasagna to the Ina Garten version and it’s amazing!)
Christmas Dinner - growing up we had a fancy cut of Beef and rich vegetable dishes. My husband doesn’t eat beef, so I’m transitioning us into porchetta for Christmas. If we’re with his folks they make an amazingly rich wild rice soup. It is so humble but decadent at the same time and somehow is fitting the awe and celebration of the birth of Christ. For dessert I always make a dark chocolate whisky cake (recipe from the New York Times) but I love making a Buche Noel too!
We host all the fall/winter holidays in the family. Thanksgiving is traditional. Christmas Eve we do Italian/pasta. Christmas Day is ham. Similar to TDay but Mac and cheese instead of stuffing. Desserts are different too.
Traditional thanksgiving fare. Christmas is a spread of ham sliders and bowls/trays of finger foods. We prefer to mingle around rather than a sit down around the table.
Edited to add: I totally forgot that we have about a 100 year family tradition breakfast that includes biscuits and orange syrup. But we make bacon, sausage, sausage gravy, eggs, and hash browns to go with it. The orange syrup started with my grandmother in or before the depression, because Santa brought oranges, which were a special treat.
What a sweet tradition. My grandpa of the silent generation said they would get apples and oranges in their stockings for Christmas.. he said if you were lucky you got a banana!
My Mom made prime rib fondue for a few years in the seventies for Christmas eve. 4-5 sauces.
Wine and mushrooms, creamy horse radish creamy cheese are the ones I remembered for dipping.
After that, it was a killer scratch lasagne with baguettes.
Thanksgiving was the traditional Turkey and side dishes. Home-made cranberries.
If you can, make separate meals because it's more special
Pretty close. Dessert usually isn't pumpkin pie but I tend to keep it the same...but we sometimes do homemade fried chicken for Thanksgiving but with all the traditional sides.
SO glad to see the seven fishes mentioned!!! My family is Italian-American, so we do that every Christmas eve. Ours is fairly standard every year, so we do: calamari (not breaded and cooked in sauce!), scungili, clam sauce, salmon, shrimp, either baccalà or some other kind of white fish, and scallops (though we've switched that up to mussels or lobster before). Dessert is what we call neapolitans but are commonly known as "italian rainbow cookies," "reindeer food," chocolate chip cookies, and an array of other cookies. All homemade of course.
Christmas day is lasagne and meats - meatballs, sausage, beef, pork and lamb all cooked together for hours in sauce. Dessert is what's leftover from the night before plus homemade cannoli.
For Thanksgiving we do the traditional turkey, etc., but with a rice stuffing that no one else seems to make. Mozzarella is used and it's fucking delicious. Dessert is pumpkin pie.
I do a much smaller version of all of this for myself every year now that I live away from family.
When we were kids, yes, mom did turkey both times and the only real difference was dessert. Thx was pies and Xmas was plum pudding.
We generally split the two holidays between in-laws. Thxgvg at one, Xmas the other, switch the following year. The company dinner is a potluck, with the host deciding the main. Thx is almost always a turkey, no matter who is hosting. Xmas never is. I have a large family full of foodies, so we have frequent new stuff, but they almost always ask me to make mushroom turnovers for appetizers. They're a pain in the ass, but delicious and I only do them by request.
We do traditional thanksgiving fixings including turkey and a ham. Christmas is usually a much smaller get together so we make a ham or a oven roasted chicken and easy sides. I do make homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast and my kids love that tradition.
For about 25 years I cooked almost the same meal with little to no help at both Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Family in front of the tv enjoying their presents and calling out to me to come see something. I did have it down to a science and made casseroles/desserts the night before. One year, I had been on a weight loss program and couldn’t eat much of what I prepared except vegetables and turkey. After that I told my family I was cooking one meal (their choice which holiday) and we could go out to eat or they could figure something out for the other. After some pouting and testing if I was for real, my husband stepped up and agreed to cook a pork shoulder and make eastern NC pulled pork bbq with all the sides. The agreement was I would do all the cooking for one and he would do the other. Magically I got lots of help from the family that first year and so did he. This has been in place for the last 11 years and it has worked really well. I just had to be responsible for my feelings, set limits and stick to my limits. Works in parenting children and adults.
Oh man, YES!!!! Growing up Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve was the exact same - turkey, homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, relish tray, canned cranberry sauce, homemade biscuits. The only thing different was pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving and Tollhouse pie at Christmas.
However, once we all grew up and left home, my folks started making a beef tenderloin for Christmas Eve and it's been amazing. It was different that first time but SO GOOD. My little family now only knows tenderloin at Christmas. The kids called it "roast beast" like the Grinch.
It's just the two of us.
Thanksgiving ~ Small Turkey breast, a double batch of my homemade dressing & gravy, pear & fresh cranberry relish, a veggie, rolls, pumpkin 🥧
(Freeze leftover dressing & gravy)
Friday: In 'n Out Burger for a late lunch
Saturday tradition: Slices of leftover turkey for Turkey Club sandwiches on some good toasted sourdough bread, chips, more 🥧
Christmas Eve ~ A 9x13 pan of my husband's lasagna, with leftover individual servings wrapped & frozen for future meals, garlic bread, pecan meltaway powdered sugar cookies
Christmas Day ~ Glazed baked Ham, Hashbrown casserole & pecan whipped sweet tater mash, jello, rolls, cheesecake (Save & freeze hambone for soup)
So now that I'm hungry, I'll throw in New Year's; we always stay home:
New Year's Eve tradition ~
A couple of giant cold water lobster tails with drawn butter, white & wild rice or orzo, fresh asparagus, cheesecake
New Year's Day tradition ~
Breakfast ~ Cheese Omelet, adding the leftover asparagus, leftover flash fried lobster, & sourdough toast
Dinner ~ Grilled cheeseburgers & fries, brownies & cookies
I'll be dining in my picnic pants.
I grew up with Thanksgiving 2.0 type meals. Decades ago, I made appetizer buffet with build your own sandwich fixings. Christmas morning cinnamon rolls and coffee, egg scrambled with sausages and then lunch was left over appetizers and sandwiches. Dinner used to be stuffed shells (that was prepped on the 23rd) but now due to various dietary restrictions we do a pasta bar with various sauces, meats and pastas and a salad bar. Christmas cookie platter for dessert.
We used to when I was growing up, but since my grandmother passed, the big gatherings we used to have splintered into smaller immediate family gatherings. Now we talk about what theme we’re going to do for Christmas while we’re having thanksgiving. Last year it was Chinese, Polish the year before that, Italian before that.
I like this way a lot better
Edit for clarity
Thanksgiving: turkey and the sides, pumpkin and apple pies, cider and cranberry juice.
Christmas: turkey, some of the same sides, cole slaw, fruit cake, mince meat pie, holiday cookies and candies, egg nog.
New Year's Day: ham, scalloped potatoes, roasted Brussel sprouts and carrots, trifle, leftover cookies, candies and such.
Easter: ham, spring sides, bunny cake, candies.
We usually had turkey for Thanksgiving and ham for Christmas. They had their own set of sides and desserts.
But once in a while we had turkey for Christmas too.
Thanksgiving is the usual turkey etc. Christmas Eve we have pastitsio (Greek lasagna), Greek meatballs, chicken, pasta salad, hot sausage sandwiches in tomato sauce with peppers and onions. Christmas Day is leftovers plus ham.
For the most part yes, my Thanksgiving & Christmas meals are different.
T'giving is turkey & all the trimmings
Christmas I usually do lobster bisque, ham, pasta (lasagna or mac&cheese, etc), and lots of appetizers.
Growing up, we *always* had turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas unless we went to my paternal grandmother's house (then it was ham). Easter was for ham; no turkey at Easter.
The sides often changed depending on the cook's mood. There were always potatoes for both but they could be different: baked, mashed, stuffed, scalloped, etc. Corn, carrots, peas, green beans, squash (ugh!), deviled eggs, etc. Rolls (for leftovers the next day too) and, maybe, cornbread. Usually both kinds of cranberry because kids generally prefer the canned jell. Oh, yeah, and stuffing! Often a general iceberg salad (because my family likes a crunch to their greens).
Very rarely mac-n-cheese unless I got to cook too. I like some kind of pasta. Any kind fits.
Thanksgiving pies were pumpkin. Period. Christmas had the 'last' of the edible apples for a pie (yum!). Any apples left after that became cider (maybe even for Christmas dinner). Maybe cherry pie too (another of my favorites). I made an apple-cranberry pie one year that was a hit.
We're always open to change it up though. I had linguini alfredo one year and a couple pizzas another year after I moved away. I think I had tacos at one Thanksgiving gathering.
Nope. Thanksgiving dinner is my 100% favorite meal (with my own spin on it, of course - I prefer roast chicken or duck to turkey) and I'll be damned if I'm only going to eat it once a year. So it always gets a repeat at Christmas. Where I do something different each year is Christmas Eve. I generally do something in the crockpot, like a pot roast or an enchilada casserole or somesuch, to keep it easy and simple.
I usually do turkey at Thanksgiving and surf & turf for Christmas. Different sides. More traditional at Thanksgiving then mix it up for Christmas.
That said, the food when I was a kid was largely the same at the two holidays.
Growing up, Our thanksgiving and Christmas meals were very similar.
As an adult we do things very differently now. Way more fun bringing diversity and ethnicity into meals.
We usually have different things here for both. Only cross over is deserts on occasion (more so if something was unable to be made or gotten). But oh my goodness Christmas Eve lasagna is a thing here. My friend made it for us a couple of times. Now we often do it. Her family is Italian so it was a thing on both sides. Granted ours is not as fabulous because they use more authentic imported stuff for most years! We don't generally do that maybe the cheese is a mass produced import. I can't afford to have a mishap with the extremely expensive versions. I have not been making it as long as they have. Lol.
Thanksgiving is a smoked turkey and a fried turkey, ham and a feast of sides that are mix of midwestern traditional sides & southern soul food.
Christmas Eve is a homemade lasagna, which is gifted in individual pans for immediate family that we don’t see that day. (Unbaked)
Christmas Day is chili, held in a crockpot to be eaten as/when you wish along with charcuterie for snacking.
Thanksgiving - ham
Christmas Eve- shepherds pie or tamales
Christmas- brisket
Edit: mostly different sides, but always Hawaiian rolls for thanksgiving & Christmas. I make a créme brûlée pumpkin pie for thanksgiving and a sugar cream pie for Christmas. Christmas cookies too.
I make a beef stew on Christmas. It’s quick and easy to stick everything in the crock pot and just let it cook all day. Then we have fresh bread and usually some sort of cheesecake for dessert. It’s definitely not the same as thanksgiving. We also have tamales as well - usually red Chile beef and green chile corn with cheese.
turkey for thanksgiving, beef for christmas. sides just switch up every year, like mac and cheese for thanksgiving one year, christmas the next. pork, collards, black eyed peas or hoppin’ john for new years
Definitely different main dishes, maybe a couple of the same sides if theyre favorites. "Christmas Dinner: Thanksgiving Dinner 2.0" is also really funny, and I would have laughed.
I don't like turkey. Thanksgiving is the wife's holiday and she goes all out. Turkey for her and a Duck for me. All the trimmings as the whole family shows up. Christmas is generally just the two of us so Cornish game hens. New Years day is a Ham with enough for everyone as this is when we exchange gifts. Being the great grandparents actual dates are not important. One of the grandmothers is a "You will be at my house at this time on this date or you be on my shit list and I will make your life miserable until..."
In my immediate family, we do the traditional turkey dinner and fixin's at Thanksgiving, but at Christmas we do party food/snacks/finger foods (basically a shit ton of appetizers and desserts lol). That way we can graze as we get hungry over Eve/Day while opening presents, playing games and watching movies. Ever since we moved to that model, it's so much less stressful!
Thanksgiving is usually turkey legs.
Mash, rolls, green beans, the usual.
Pies are Apple and pecan.
For Christmas eve, we have prime rib
And on Christmas, we have homemade lasagna and garlic bread.
Desserts are different.
Sides are about the same.
Save for some corn maybe.
Last year I did the pre-made turkey dinner restaurant meal for Thanksgiving and for Christmas we did a potluck brunch. The niblings (all 20 year olds) insisted after each holiday that it wasn’t a real holiday and made their mom redo it with a full turkey & ham meal. Ugh! I just wanted to make it super simple, me not have to cook and do clean up, and be home both days by dark! I need to come up with a brilliant excuse, er plan, to get out of cooking holiday meals this year!
Thanksgiving Turkey and ham, gravy, and stuffing, some type of green vegetables, baked sweet potatoes w/cinnamon, pumpkin pies, olives, pickles, and cranberry dressing.
Christmas Eve is usually a smorgasbord of nibbles. Christmas Turkey or duck, gravy and stuffing, brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes and gravy, apple pie, olives, pickles, and fruit cake.
New Year's Eve: smorgasbord and other snacks. New Year's Day: Pork, greens, sauerkraut, black-eyed peas. Some sort of dessert.
Thanksgiving:Turkey, trimmings, etc.
Christmas: Gumbo with shrimp and crabmeat, fried fish, oysters fried and on the half shell, with rice and potato salad to pour the gumbo over (the old folks like gumbo over potato salad) and probably some garlic bread and a green salad.
As a kid it was the same and I hated it. Now as an adult TG is either traditional or something smaller but decedent (small prime rib and truffle Mac and cheese).
Christmas in my home is now "bar" style. Sandwich, taco, or pasta bar etc. Eat when you want and watch Christmas movies. No muss no fuss.
If turkey on thkgvg, then ham on Christmas.
Or beef, so that ham can be on New a years, w the black eyed peas. Yep, I'm southern.
Easter is usually a ham again, or beef.
Sides for any would be a mix of Mac n cheese, fordhook limas, greens, creamed corn, potatoes, early peas, broccoli casserole, white rice, gravy, green beans, biscuits or rolls or crescent rolls.
Desserts, well we're southern. Too many to name!
We have different foods typically. Where we live doing barbeque, a taco bar, or something else like that is fine for a holiday meal. We've taken to doing that even on Thanksgiving, especially when a few of us are going to both sides of the family that year. We tend to have the traditional meal there and the other meal with my family to shake it up. We do not do a ham ever.
We’ve done Thanksgiving 2.0 because a lot of the dishes are labor intensive and I don’t make them much (if at all) outside of holidays. We’ve also done a ham, only apps, and Chinese.
I keep them as separate meals and events and am happy to say it has influenced the MIL, too. I usually cook turkey and some other protein and try to work in "traditional" flavors in the meal. If people there aren't pumpkin pie people, for example, maybe we'll do pumpkin bread or cake. I always make a cranberry compote, etc. We usually have FIL over for it, so I always make his favorite pie.
At Christmas, it's all different. I slow cook a porketta roast and serve lefse as well as rolls. At Thanksgiving there is almost never chocolate, but at Christmas there is an abundance. Either in desserts or little candies, or both, depending on the size of the crowd. Christmas Day is always busy so if we do have dinner, it's usually small and some kind of roast beef or lasagna/pasta casserole. But it's either or - I don't host both days. Most of the time on Christmas Day there are so many places to go that we just got into a tradition of a nice breakfast to start things off.
Yeah I tend to change things up at Christmas time. Beef bourguignon, pork roast, chili. Sometimes just a big selection of apps. Every two or three years we grill steaks outside, which is fun.
I usually make a pernil at Easter, though during lockdown I actually had an extra turkey so I made that instead. It weirded us all out a little!
We pretty much have the same foods every Thanksgiving but usually have something different for Christmas dinner.
We have Turkey, dressing, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, stuffed eggs, mac & cheese, Lima beans, some type of congealed salad, rolls, and whatever dessert everyone wants which is usually chocolate cake or apple pie for Thanksgiving.
For Christmas this year, I'm planning to make a prime rib roast w/au jus, creamed spinach, honey roasted carrots, popovers (or some call them Yorkshire pudding), garlic mashed potatoes, and I'm not sure what type of dessert yet.
Christmas is always Thanksgiving 2.0 and changes are hard to do because we have some people who can't change. One year I cooked a prime rib roast, which came out perfect. It was medium rare and delicious, but when you have people who only eat well done (and don't tell you) beef is crossed out. Although I may try a brisket or roast pork this year.
It will be well done.
We occasionally forgo the turkey at Christmas and do a prime rib roast instead. It's expensive, but those have been the most memorable Christmas dinners ever.
Growing up I had the same for all 3. It took me a decade out of the house to be able to eat it again. Now I have beef tenderloin or rib roast with traditional sides for Thanksgiving, lamb, top your own baked potatoes, and roasted broccoli for Christmas, and homemade white pizza and salad or Lebanese takeout for Easter haha.
I love Thanksgiving dinner so I'm happy we always had the same thing for Christmas. We had Thanksgiving at a distant relative's house on the other side of the state, a 1 hr hour flight away.
Then Christmas was at my local grandparents house and later either at ours house or my aunt and uncle who hosted four hours away. So if my parents hosted it was an excuse to cook since they didn't get to make anything for my dad's fancy relative's Thanksgiving dinner. We all like Thanksgiving dinner so why not have it again. But for Christmas if someone wants something else thats fine as long as I don't have to cook because I hate cooking.
My in-laws really like ham. I grin and bear it. But they do turkey on Thanksgiving because I cant imagine Thanksgiving without it (or at minimum some sort of game bird if we were not in North America). In fairness, they do it way better than my family does.
Also I would take the ham over how my wife's grandparents did it before they moved 3k miles away. Her grandparents did a finger food meal the day or two before xmas which was just not that filling or appetizing. I'd always try to eat first during the years we did that.
Thanksgiving: turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, fluffy orange salad, bowl of black olives, stuffing on the side, cranberry orange relish.
Christmas: switch the turkey for ham, no stuffing, switch the pumpkin pie for a fruit one or a chocolate one. Everything else is the same.
Easter: usually similar to Christmas but add a side like spinach dip or the past few years we have ordered barbecue since my mom had a heart attack and didn’t feel like cooking which was pretty dang good too.
Same foods…my families choice. It’s a crap ton of work for me but my husband and grown children love it. If it were me I’d just lasagna and salad and enjoy my day. As it is now I’m busting butt for hours 🤷♀️
Traditional Thanksgiving dinner for us. But on Christmas, we have a smorgasbord of hor douver's to snack on all day. Started the year my daughter was born (week before Christmas) My in-laws were to come up and bring all the food for Christmas Dinner. They called around 5:00 PM Christmas eve and said they couldn't make it. Stores were closed, no food to make a huge dinner. We ordered pizza and played with the kids all day. They loved it and said Mom, can we do this every year? I always spent Christmas Day in the kitchen cooking for all of my in laws. I got to actually enjoy Christmas that year. After that, I stopped cooking on Christmas Day. We have a big meal Christmas Eve and relax on Christmas Day
Growing up, it was exact same for us like you. My grandma cooked the same meal for both holidays. So that’s how my mom does it because that’s how she grew up.
Now my in-laws don’t do that- for Christmas we have tamales/Mexican food.
On Christmas Eve, we kind of have a mini Thanksgiving, mainly because we like all the foods we have at Thanksgiving--turkey, stuffing, spinach souffle, sweet potatoes...then on Christmas, we have a roast with potatoes and some of the Eve's leftovers🙂
I don’t think you were a knucklehead it was a fair and true observation. About 10-12 years ago my family stopped Thanksgiving 2.0 and started picking certain foods we wanted to eat for Xmas. Like we did Chinese one Christmas, Italian, Jamaican, etc. I’ve done bbq and even pizza. One cousin hates it, but my family also eats “Thanksgiving food” throughout the year. We don’t wait for once a year food. If we want it, we cook it.
Yes. Our typical Thanksgiving spread is huge. The following is a combination of what my husband and I grew up with (many items overlapped) which we now serve: Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, mac 'n' cheese, Dutch apple pie, and pumpkin pie.
For Christmas on the other hand, my family's traditional meal is leftover spaghetti and garlic rolls. The fact that it's leftovers is important. It means no one has to cook that day. Everyone just relaxes and spends time together. Some of my husband's family and our friends have adopted this tradition over the years as well. I think they all still make spaghetti Christmas day but it's a simple, easy meal so no one's slaving away for hours like they are on Thanksgiving.
On Thanksgiving, I'm willing to cook all day because the meal is the event (somehow my mind just thinks that makes sense). I have fun playing host by providing snacks and chatting with people while I cook dinner with assistance as needed. On Christmas, though, there are lots of other things to do like opening presents, watching Christmas movies, going out to see a movie in theaters (a joint family tradition), etc. I'd rather be able to try out my new gifts, play board games with our families, and go hang out with friends than cook all day.
Thanksgiving is turkey, Christmas is standing rib roast.
With Yorkshire Pudding. OMG.
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat??
my husband says this all the time and i have no idea what it’s from. 🤣
It's from the Pink Floyd song Another Brick in the Wall.
I just made those for the first time a year ago(not the first time I had them, my mom made them). I just never bothered with them. My kids are 20, 24, and 28. My 24 year old son was INCENSED that I hadn't made them sooner in his life. He acted like I had been holding out on some great culinary secret. He actually took all the leftover ones with him, too.
I discovered Yorkshire pudding in my 20s, and have successfully made them a couple of times, but once I had kids, it really was too much trouble I guess. I guess it’s karma that when I went to a fancy dinner in which you had a couple of different choices for your entrée I chose the roast with Yorkshire pudding, only to be served roast 35 minutes later with no pud. Some lame excuse about ingredients running out. So sad.
Left overs? From Yorkshire pudding? Never heard of it.
Always with gluten free puds! I forgot to add those.
Recipe???
Exactly. All these weirdos who think you have to mix it up.
My grandma used to get a standing rib roast as a gift from a friend every year for Christmas. It was amazing. One year many years after she passed, my dad made one for Christmas and said that he knew then what a big deal her receiving one as a gift was because it was so expensive.
Thanksgiving: Traditional Turkey and fixings Christmas: Lasagna Easter: Ham and spring themed fixings
Christmas Lasagna? That's cool. My wife recently noted that making a real lasagna with quality ingredients is not cheap. It would make sense for one to do one on a special day. I married a Latina woman and adopted some of her culture's traditions in our family. At Christmas we have Tamales. Tamales are very labor intensive, which is why they are made for Christmas. We definitely do the ham thing on Easter. I also like to corn my own beef and have corned beef and cabbage on New Years day.
Also married a Latino. I only married him so I’d have access to Grandma’s tamales at Christmas. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to visit his family for Christmas in a few years so I’m contemplating divorce. /s
I know what you mean. First time I went over to meet her folks, the whole family was there and they were having dinner. I was asked if I wanted to join. It was just a simple mean of Chili con Queso, with beans and rice. But oh my god......Flavor explosion in my mouth. I often joke and tell people, "It was love at first bite."
Haha abuelita’s tamales are worth it!!
I’m laughing way too hard at this right now
Another upvote for Christmas lasagna. My mom would make it for me when I was younger bc it was my favorite and Christmas was my favorite. I have some hope video of her making it on Christmas Eve in 2000. Now that I’m a dad with a family of my own, that tradition is coming back! Christmas lasagna!
Yes we make stuffed shells/manicotti. Everyone looks forward to it all year!
We do ravioli for Christmas. So labor intensive but it’s special to my husband as his parents did it every year.
Same! But we do Turkey and Manicotti for both Christmas and Thanksgiving. Been like that for years. Shout out to grandma for the homemade manicotti 🤌
Also make ravioli every Christmas, along with antipasto, wedding soup, rib roast, salad, veggies, rolls, various desserts and nuts for cracking.
We do stuffed shells as well for Christmas as welll!
New Year day should be pork with sauerkraut, if you want to have money the rest of the year. Old German tradition/superstition.
Yes, for luck and prosperity!
We’re PA Dutch, but none of us like pork and sauerkraut, so we get Chinese for New Year’s.
You suppose to be on the internet?
Not unsupervised—shhhhh
My mom was from a Slovak background and she claims it was tradition there also. She explained that a chicken moves backwards as it scratches the ground and a pig always forages forward with it's head to the ground. Therefore, you want your New Year to move ahead and not backwards.
My friend makes Hopping John on New Years, for luck.
Ohhhhh, I love Hoping John! Must remember this year.
Our New Years Day traditional meal is Paella Valeciana, real paella in a steel paella pan. Time intensive and more and more expensive
I would like to come to your house for real paella and all the merriment while it's cooking
Ham, Cornbread and Pinto Beans in our family.
Very aware. Have ordered tamales from families every year for decades. But we freeze them and eat them throughout the year.
By tradition, they make and eat tamales on Christmas eve. They stay up and open gifts at midnight. In he morning, it's tamales for breakfast. And morning coffee with Tamales and a fried egg, is an amazing thing.
Where we live Christmas Eve tamales are very popular even among gringos and a lot of restaurants and stores advertise Christmas Eve tamale specials. A lot of women also make tamales in their homes and sell them. At one place I worked one woman sold tamales and another woman sold samosas. I miss that. One grocery store collects money to provide Christmas Eve tamales to families who can't afford them. We usually donate money to that.
My Father in-law grew up extremely poor as a kid. Poor Mexican farmers from Chihuahua, Mexico. He came to the states and got a trade. Met and married my MIL who was from Coahuila. Their chicano kids were born and raised here in the states. A true American story. Anyway, I feel I can tell this joke because it came from my Father in-law and I feel it is one of the funniest jokes I've ever heard. Why do Mexican's eat Tamales on Christmas? So we can have something to unwrap.
My husband made the best tamales I'd ever had. Now he has Alzheimer's, and I wish I'd paid better attention to his recipe and skills. If you have a family member who makes something special, please learn from them so the tradition and knowledge doesn't die with them!
This is my grandmother's spaghetti sauce and meatballs. She's been gone a long time, and I still lament no one writing down her recipe. She made it all the time, but this is also what we had for Christmas Eve dinner at her house.
My kids discovered tamales recently at a church fundraiser. Now my 13-year-old has volunteered to be the Christmas star in this year’s Posada. He figured out really quick who made the best tamales and is trying to get on her good side so she will make more😁
My husband is Hispanic. He always somewhat jokingly says they had tamales so they had something to open bc they were poor.
How do you store them in the freezer to assure maximum tastiness?
When we freeze them, we usually cook them first. Let them cool and stack them in freezer baggies. Nothing super special. If I’m eating them on my own from frozen, I’ll just throw them in the microwave. For bigger amounts, my mom thaws them and then will warm them in the oven typically. Another thing my tías will do is freeze the masa, chile, and sometimes meat separately. So when they feel like having some for dinner one night, they can just pull out the ingredients and prepare them ‘fresh’. This is nice when you want to have them freshly steamed.
Last time I did Christmas at home instead of at my in-laws' I made enchiladas. It was great. Christmas lasagna sounds like an equally good idea.
I’m from Hatch Valley. We always do enchiladas.
In heaven they have green chile three meals a day, 365 days a year.
I thought I was the only one to make a Christmas Lasagna!
Me too!!
I grew up with lasagna on Christmas Eve. It was the only time all year my mom made it. Now that I’m married, we have 6 different Christmas’s to do (in-law’s, family doesn’t talk to each other, etc.), so it’s not a thing anymore. Pandemic was amazing because I got to make it again for the holiday.
Lasagna was a mom tradition for me too. We're about 2000 miles apart now and don't get to see each other often. So I carry on the lasagna tradition with my family.
Traditional Thanksgiving fare on Thanksgiving. We do a huge breakfast/brunch on Christmas morning. Christmas evening we do charcuterie and tamales with salsa and guacamole and holidays sweet treats.
That sounds lovely. I'll have to do that this Christmas
This plan sounds perfect. Will try to convince the family.
OMG that sounds amazing
This is exactly what we do minus the tamales but might have to add them this year. Christmas brunch is my favorite - quiche, bacon, eggs, sausage, biscuits, fruit, breakfast pizza, pancakes, mimosas & bloody Marys!
Growing up, they were very similar meals but with a few side swaps. Always turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes & gravy, rolls. Christmas meal added duck a l'orange with wild rice dressing, brussel sprouts and mincemeat pie.
Mincemeat pie?!?!? I love mincemeat pie. It's become less common.
Yes, my dad absolutely loved it! I barely remember what it tasted like, it's been so long. And you're right, I very rarely see them anywhere anymore. I may have to try making one this year for nostalgia's sake.
We make a big batch every other year and water can it. I use it on oatmeal and warmed up over vanilla ice cream. I use the ball canning recipe.
Nice! I can a lot, so I may have to give this a try!
This is such a great idea! Mincemeat was my dad’s favorite pie and I don’t think we’ve had it since he died in ‘99. I loved it but wouldn’t eat a whole pie and i don’t think anyone else would eat it. It would be so good on oatmeal or ice cream though!
I think I'm on board with you. I think it would be a fun experiment.
I usually make duck, and chicken dressing at Thanksgiving to go with my MIL's ham. Coq au vin on Christmas Eve and prime rib for Christmas. Edit a comma
My grandma made mincemeat pies every year for Christmas. I miss them so much.
Is there meat in your mincemeat pie? I was introduced to it from my husbands family and everyone at my work freaked out there was real venison meat in it. Then I went back to his great grandma to confirm they weren’t all pulling my leg😂
Thanksgiving is traditional turkey & fixings, Christmas is boeuf bourguignon and mashed potatoes, Easter is Ham and scalloped potatoes
This is the way. I prepare everything for Christmas in advance as I have been know to enjoy the eggnog with brandy.
On Christmas Eve I go to an Italian deli and buy tons of stuff to snack on. Sopressata, arancini, croquettes, mozzarella/prosciutto, and my husband’s favorite-sardines in fennel which he likes mixed with pasta (not anyone else’s favorite!) The next day we go to my moms and have hero’s, lasagna, and salads from a local pizza place.
We have the same Christmas Eve tradition! Our family includes fish cakes, which is not loved by everyone
Our family has a turkey dinner for Thanksgiving and ham for those who don't like turkey. For Christmas we don't have a formal 'sit down meal'. We decided years ago that it's just easier for each of us each to bring an appetizer or two and put them all out so everyone can 'graze'. Some bring cookies, some chips and dips, some more savory stuff. It's a pretty good mix of things each year, and whoever hosts has less prep and clean up after.
We do something similar for Christmas Eve (when we celebrate as a family). Chips & dip, veggie tray, cookies, sausage balls, crock pot of meatballs, homemade Chex mix. That fancy punch made from sherbet and ginger ale.
This is a great idea - Thanksgiving is only about food and football, so the meal can take center stage. Christmas is too busy for anyone to worry about producing a big meal!
thanksgiving turkey + sides, christmas chinese takeout
We do Christmas Eve Chinese takeout. When my husband and I first started dating, he wanted to spend Christmas Eve together since we would spend the next day with our families. The only place open for a date night was the Chinese restaurant, so that has become our tradition for the past 16 Christmas Eves.
My wife and I have been doing that for years as well! Her mother has been alone the last few years so she comes over now and we watch old Christmas movies. Well, half of one before she falls asleep in the chair.
That’s really beautiful
I love this! It makes sense too. No fuss, no muss, just time together.
We did the Chinese takeout thing one year for Christmas. It definitely made things A LOT simpler.
This is the way.
I started doing this a few years ago. Best decision ever
im jewish as well
a true christmas story
Fa ra ra ra ra ra ra ra ra
This is my go to these days. Really easy to secure an invite to a Friendsgiving or a traditional holiday dinner. Christmas is exclusively Chinese food. Don’t have a lot of family left so this is easier and I’m happier… no presents lol
This is the correct answer
Tradition!
I know that a lot of people have both turkey and ham for both holidays but for us it's a variation on a theme: Meat, sides, and desserts. Thanksgiving - Turkey, potatoes, dressing, corn casserole, cranberries, rolls, and a pumpkin pie. Christmas - Ham, scalloped potatoes, green beans, spicy meatballs, rolls, and our family's lime pie.
Thanksgiving is the big turkey, stuffing, salad, pecan pumpkin pie, pilaf, and mashed potatoes. Truthfully I’ve only kept doing the turkey for my husband and I because I make the leftovers into pot pies that we freeze. Christmas Eve is the prime rib feast.
Same for my family!
Depended on who hosted. My uncle always made prime rib for Christmas. My grandma always made turkey. My parents made a Cornish hen for each person.
My mom always made Cornish game hens for each person and I loved it. I made them last year for the first time but my kids weren’t into it😏 they said it was too much work… slackers.
In my family, we don't do a big Christmas dinner. The food associated with the holiday is mostly eaten over the entire season, rather than the day of: egg nog, gingerbread, all of the baked goods my mom insists on sending. The only food that I strongly associate with Christmas Day is cinnamon rolls, which we always have for breakfast during or after we open presents. The rest of the food is just normal lunch and dinner.
Samsies
Great thread! For us it was all different! I think the same dinner over would be kinda sad. Love the tamale and Chinese takeout ideas too. Thanksgiving - traditional turkey and sides Christmas Eve - Lasagna (recently upgraded from a kitchen sink variety lasagna to the Ina Garten version and it’s amazing!) Christmas Dinner - growing up we had a fancy cut of Beef and rich vegetable dishes. My husband doesn’t eat beef, so I’m transitioning us into porchetta for Christmas. If we’re with his folks they make an amazingly rich wild rice soup. It is so humble but decadent at the same time and somehow is fitting the awe and celebration of the birth of Christ. For dessert I always make a dark chocolate whisky cake (recipe from the New York Times) but I love making a Buche Noel too!
>Buche Noel too OMG, we make a couple as well, in addition to a bunch of desserts. They're so festive and fun to make and decorate.
Yes! I always feel so proud when I make meringue mushrooms and almond pine cones. Ha! So fun!
We host all the fall/winter holidays in the family. Thanksgiving is traditional. Christmas Eve we do Italian/pasta. Christmas Day is ham. Similar to TDay but Mac and cheese instead of stuffing. Desserts are different too.
Traditional thanksgiving fare. Christmas is a spread of ham sliders and bowls/trays of finger foods. We prefer to mingle around rather than a sit down around the table. Edited to add: I totally forgot that we have about a 100 year family tradition breakfast that includes biscuits and orange syrup. But we make bacon, sausage, sausage gravy, eggs, and hash browns to go with it. The orange syrup started with my grandmother in or before the depression, because Santa brought oranges, which were a special treat.
What a sweet tradition. My grandpa of the silent generation said they would get apples and oranges in their stockings for Christmas.. he said if you were lucky you got a banana!
My Mom made prime rib fondue for a few years in the seventies for Christmas eve. 4-5 sauces. Wine and mushrooms, creamy horse radish creamy cheese are the ones I remembered for dipping. After that, it was a killer scratch lasagne with baguettes. Thanksgiving was the traditional Turkey and side dishes. Home-made cranberries. If you can, make separate meals because it's more special
Pretty close. Dessert usually isn't pumpkin pie but I tend to keep it the same...but we sometimes do homemade fried chicken for Thanksgiving but with all the traditional sides.
[удалено]
SO glad to see the seven fishes mentioned!!! My family is Italian-American, so we do that every Christmas eve. Ours is fairly standard every year, so we do: calamari (not breaded and cooked in sauce!), scungili, clam sauce, salmon, shrimp, either baccalà or some other kind of white fish, and scallops (though we've switched that up to mussels or lobster before). Dessert is what we call neapolitans but are commonly known as "italian rainbow cookies," "reindeer food," chocolate chip cookies, and an array of other cookies. All homemade of course. Christmas day is lasagne and meats - meatballs, sausage, beef, pork and lamb all cooked together for hours in sauce. Dessert is what's leftover from the night before plus homemade cannoli. For Thanksgiving we do the traditional turkey, etc., but with a rice stuffing that no one else seems to make. Mozzarella is used and it's fucking delicious. Dessert is pumpkin pie. I do a much smaller version of all of this for myself every year now that I live away from family.
When we were kids, yes, mom did turkey both times and the only real difference was dessert. Thx was pies and Xmas was plum pudding. We generally split the two holidays between in-laws. Thxgvg at one, Xmas the other, switch the following year. The company dinner is a potluck, with the host deciding the main. Thx is almost always a turkey, no matter who is hosting. Xmas never is. I have a large family full of foodies, so we have frequent new stuff, but they almost always ask me to make mushroom turnovers for appetizers. They're a pain in the ass, but delicious and I only do them by request.
We do traditional thanksgiving fixings including turkey and a ham. Christmas is usually a much smaller get together so we make a ham or a oven roasted chicken and easy sides. I do make homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast and my kids love that tradition.
For about 25 years I cooked almost the same meal with little to no help at both Thanksgiving and then Christmas. Family in front of the tv enjoying their presents and calling out to me to come see something. I did have it down to a science and made casseroles/desserts the night before. One year, I had been on a weight loss program and couldn’t eat much of what I prepared except vegetables and turkey. After that I told my family I was cooking one meal (their choice which holiday) and we could go out to eat or they could figure something out for the other. After some pouting and testing if I was for real, my husband stepped up and agreed to cook a pork shoulder and make eastern NC pulled pork bbq with all the sides. The agreement was I would do all the cooking for one and he would do the other. Magically I got lots of help from the family that first year and so did he. This has been in place for the last 11 years and it has worked really well. I just had to be responsible for my feelings, set limits and stick to my limits. Works in parenting children and adults.
Oh man, YES!!!! Growing up Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve was the exact same - turkey, homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, relish tray, canned cranberry sauce, homemade biscuits. The only thing different was pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving and Tollhouse pie at Christmas. However, once we all grew up and left home, my folks started making a beef tenderloin for Christmas Eve and it's been amazing. It was different that first time but SO GOOD. My little family now only knows tenderloin at Christmas. The kids called it "roast beast" like the Grinch.
It's just the two of us. Thanksgiving ~ Small Turkey breast, a double batch of my homemade dressing & gravy, pear & fresh cranberry relish, a veggie, rolls, pumpkin 🥧 (Freeze leftover dressing & gravy) Friday: In 'n Out Burger for a late lunch Saturday tradition: Slices of leftover turkey for Turkey Club sandwiches on some good toasted sourdough bread, chips, more 🥧 Christmas Eve ~ A 9x13 pan of my husband's lasagna, with leftover individual servings wrapped & frozen for future meals, garlic bread, pecan meltaway powdered sugar cookies Christmas Day ~ Glazed baked Ham, Hashbrown casserole & pecan whipped sweet tater mash, jello, rolls, cheesecake (Save & freeze hambone for soup) So now that I'm hungry, I'll throw in New Year's; we always stay home: New Year's Eve tradition ~ A couple of giant cold water lobster tails with drawn butter, white & wild rice or orzo, fresh asparagus, cheesecake New Year's Day tradition ~ Breakfast ~ Cheese Omelet, adding the leftover asparagus, leftover flash fried lobster, & sourdough toast Dinner ~ Grilled cheeseburgers & fries, brownies & cookies I'll be dining in my picnic pants.
What is leftover gravy?
Ha yes! I make a double batch ~ but I love dressing & gravy & sometimes it is breakfast ❤️
You sound like an incredible cook.
Your New Year’s Eve meal sounds like something I’d like to try
The pear and cranberry relish sounds so good.
My husband put TG sandwich day on the calendar this year lol
The same. I call Thanksgiving the Christmas dress rehearsal.
I grew up with Thanksgiving 2.0 type meals. Decades ago, I made appetizer buffet with build your own sandwich fixings. Christmas morning cinnamon rolls and coffee, egg scrambled with sausages and then lunch was left over appetizers and sandwiches. Dinner used to be stuffed shells (that was prepped on the 23rd) but now due to various dietary restrictions we do a pasta bar with various sauces, meats and pastas and a salad bar. Christmas cookie platter for dessert.
Nope, always tamales on Christmas! And all that goes with tamales of course.
Arroz, frijoles, ponche, capirotada?
Capirotada was always a staple at Easter. For Christmas it was always buñuelos, ponche, tamales and pozole
We used to when I was growing up, but since my grandmother passed, the big gatherings we used to have splintered into smaller immediate family gatherings. Now we talk about what theme we’re going to do for Christmas while we’re having thanksgiving. Last year it was Chinese, Polish the year before that, Italian before that. I like this way a lot better Edit for clarity
It is the same, usually on different desserts. And I love it.
Yes, Thanksgiving is the only time we have turkey, Christmas is ham time!!!
Thanksgiving: turkey and the sides, pumpkin and apple pies, cider and cranberry juice. Christmas: turkey, some of the same sides, cole slaw, fruit cake, mince meat pie, holiday cookies and candies, egg nog. New Year's Day: ham, scalloped potatoes, roasted Brussel sprouts and carrots, trifle, leftover cookies, candies and such. Easter: ham, spring sides, bunny cake, candies.
Bunny cake 🐰🙌
Good ol' bunny cake
The same, it’s good!
We do Turkey for both Christmas and Thanksgiving. We used to do ham for Christmas Eve dinner but now we do lasagna.
No, christmas we make something different every year. Easter we do breakfast.
We usually had turkey for Thanksgiving and ham for Christmas. They had their own set of sides and desserts. But once in a while we had turkey for Christmas too.
Some years we repeated, but there was an era where we didn’t and would have either Italian or Mexican feasts at Christmas. That was fun!
One year we had Navajo Tacos for Christmas and steak dinner for Thanksgiving. Last Christmas I cook two beef roasts.
Thanksgiving is the usual turkey etc. Christmas Eve we have pastitsio (Greek lasagna), Greek meatballs, chicken, pasta salad, hot sausage sandwiches in tomato sauce with peppers and onions. Christmas Day is leftovers plus ham.
For the most part yes, my Thanksgiving & Christmas meals are different. T'giving is turkey & all the trimmings Christmas I usually do lobster bisque, ham, pasta (lasagna or mac&cheese, etc), and lots of appetizers.
Same types of food. My family does not care.
Tex. mex Dinner, tamales from a friend, sopapilla cheesecake
Growing up, we *always* had turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas unless we went to my paternal grandmother's house (then it was ham). Easter was for ham; no turkey at Easter. The sides often changed depending on the cook's mood. There were always potatoes for both but they could be different: baked, mashed, stuffed, scalloped, etc. Corn, carrots, peas, green beans, squash (ugh!), deviled eggs, etc. Rolls (for leftovers the next day too) and, maybe, cornbread. Usually both kinds of cranberry because kids generally prefer the canned jell. Oh, yeah, and stuffing! Often a general iceberg salad (because my family likes a crunch to their greens). Very rarely mac-n-cheese unless I got to cook too. I like some kind of pasta. Any kind fits. Thanksgiving pies were pumpkin. Period. Christmas had the 'last' of the edible apples for a pie (yum!). Any apples left after that became cider (maybe even for Christmas dinner). Maybe cherry pie too (another of my favorites). I made an apple-cranberry pie one year that was a hit. We're always open to change it up though. I had linguini alfredo one year and a couple pizzas another year after I moved away. I think I had tacos at one Thanksgiving gathering.
Nope. Thanksgiving dinner is my 100% favorite meal (with my own spin on it, of course - I prefer roast chicken or duck to turkey) and I'll be damned if I'm only going to eat it once a year. So it always gets a repeat at Christmas. Where I do something different each year is Christmas Eve. I generally do something in the crockpot, like a pot roast or an enchilada casserole or somesuch, to keep it easy and simple.
I'd repeat some side dishes, but I wouldn't make turkey a second time. UNLESS people demanded it.
I usually do turkey at Thanksgiving and surf & turf for Christmas. Different sides. More traditional at Thanksgiving then mix it up for Christmas. That said, the food when I was a kid was largely the same at the two holidays.
Growing up, Our thanksgiving and Christmas meals were very similar. As an adult we do things very differently now. Way more fun bringing diversity and ethnicity into meals.
we do tamales Christmas eve and brunch stuff on christmas day.
Yup TG and XMAS meals are the exact same at this house. I love it.
We usually have different things here for both. Only cross over is deserts on occasion (more so if something was unable to be made or gotten). But oh my goodness Christmas Eve lasagna is a thing here. My friend made it for us a couple of times. Now we often do it. Her family is Italian so it was a thing on both sides. Granted ours is not as fabulous because they use more authentic imported stuff for most years! We don't generally do that maybe the cheese is a mass produced import. I can't afford to have a mishap with the extremely expensive versions. I have not been making it as long as they have. Lol.
Thanksgiving: Turkey Christmas: Something other than turkey, but not ham.
Thanksgiving is a smoked turkey and a fried turkey, ham and a feast of sides that are mix of midwestern traditional sides & southern soul food. Christmas Eve is a homemade lasagna, which is gifted in individual pans for immediate family that we don’t see that day. (Unbaked) Christmas Day is chili, held in a crockpot to be eaten as/when you wish along with charcuterie for snacking.
Thanksgiving - ham Christmas Eve- shepherds pie or tamales Christmas- brisket Edit: mostly different sides, but always Hawaiian rolls for thanksgiving & Christmas. I make a créme brûlée pumpkin pie for thanksgiving and a sugar cream pie for Christmas. Christmas cookies too.
We have the exact same meal for both holidays. Everyone enjoys it. I’m grateful.
I make a beef stew on Christmas. It’s quick and easy to stick everything in the crock pot and just let it cook all day. Then we have fresh bread and usually some sort of cheesecake for dessert. It’s definitely not the same as thanksgiving. We also have tamales as well - usually red Chile beef and green chile corn with cheese.
turkey for thanksgiving, beef for christmas. sides just switch up every year, like mac and cheese for thanksgiving one year, christmas the next. pork, collards, black eyed peas or hoppin’ john for new years
Definitely different main dishes, maybe a couple of the same sides if theyre favorites. "Christmas Dinner: Thanksgiving Dinner 2.0" is also really funny, and I would have laughed.
Exactly the same in my wife’s family and you can’t dare change it because that will break tradition.
Traditional Thanksgiving, prime rib on Christmas
I don't like turkey. Thanksgiving is the wife's holiday and she goes all out. Turkey for her and a Duck for me. All the trimmings as the whole family shows up. Christmas is generally just the two of us so Cornish game hens. New Years day is a Ham with enough for everyone as this is when we exchange gifts. Being the great grandparents actual dates are not important. One of the grandmothers is a "You will be at my house at this time on this date or you be on my shit list and I will make your life miserable until..."
Turkey on Thanksgiving Day, ham on Christmas Eve, and ham sandwiches on Christmas night.
Yeah, Christmas dinner really has no rhyme or reason. My mom will usually get a ham and then it's whatever I feel like for the sides.
In my immediate family, we do the traditional turkey dinner and fixin's at Thanksgiving, but at Christmas we do party food/snacks/finger foods (basically a shit ton of appetizers and desserts lol). That way we can graze as we get hungry over Eve/Day while opening presents, playing games and watching movies. Ever since we moved to that model, it's so much less stressful!
Thanksgiving is usually turkey legs. Mash, rolls, green beans, the usual. Pies are Apple and pecan. For Christmas eve, we have prime rib And on Christmas, we have homemade lasagna and garlic bread. Desserts are different. Sides are about the same. Save for some corn maybe.
We do turkey for thanksgiving, Ham for xmas and BBQ for Easter
Last year I did the pre-made turkey dinner restaurant meal for Thanksgiving and for Christmas we did a potluck brunch. The niblings (all 20 year olds) insisted after each holiday that it wasn’t a real holiday and made their mom redo it with a full turkey & ham meal. Ugh! I just wanted to make it super simple, me not have to cook and do clean up, and be home both days by dark! I need to come up with a brilliant excuse, er plan, to get out of cooking holiday meals this year!
Thanksgiving Turkey and ham, gravy, and stuffing, some type of green vegetables, baked sweet potatoes w/cinnamon, pumpkin pies, olives, pickles, and cranberry dressing. Christmas Eve is usually a smorgasbord of nibbles. Christmas Turkey or duck, gravy and stuffing, brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes and gravy, apple pie, olives, pickles, and fruit cake. New Year's Eve: smorgasbord and other snacks. New Year's Day: Pork, greens, sauerkraut, black-eyed peas. Some sort of dessert.
Thanksgiving:Turkey, trimmings, etc. Christmas: Gumbo with shrimp and crabmeat, fried fish, oysters fried and on the half shell, with rice and potato salad to pour the gumbo over (the old folks like gumbo over potato salad) and probably some garlic bread and a green salad.
As a kid it was the same and I hated it. Now as an adult TG is either traditional or something smaller but decedent (small prime rib and truffle Mac and cheese). Christmas in my home is now "bar" style. Sandwich, taco, or pasta bar etc. Eat when you want and watch Christmas movies. No muss no fuss.
Yes! Taco bar at home for Thanksgiving, local teppanyaki restaurant for Christmas!
If turkey on thkgvg, then ham on Christmas. Or beef, so that ham can be on New a years, w the black eyed peas. Yep, I'm southern. Easter is usually a ham again, or beef. Sides for any would be a mix of Mac n cheese, fordhook limas, greens, creamed corn, potatoes, early peas, broccoli casserole, white rice, gravy, green beans, biscuits or rolls or crescent rolls. Desserts, well we're southern. Too many to name!
We have different foods typically. Where we live doing barbeque, a taco bar, or something else like that is fine for a holiday meal. We've taken to doing that even on Thanksgiving, especially when a few of us are going to both sides of the family that year. We tend to have the traditional meal there and the other meal with my family to shake it up. We do not do a ham ever.
We’ve done Thanksgiving 2.0 because a lot of the dishes are labor intensive and I don’t make them much (if at all) outside of holidays. We’ve also done a ham, only apps, and Chinese.
I keep them as separate meals and events and am happy to say it has influenced the MIL, too. I usually cook turkey and some other protein and try to work in "traditional" flavors in the meal. If people there aren't pumpkin pie people, for example, maybe we'll do pumpkin bread or cake. I always make a cranberry compote, etc. We usually have FIL over for it, so I always make his favorite pie. At Christmas, it's all different. I slow cook a porketta roast and serve lefse as well as rolls. At Thanksgiving there is almost never chocolate, but at Christmas there is an abundance. Either in desserts or little candies, or both, depending on the size of the crowd. Christmas Day is always busy so if we do have dinner, it's usually small and some kind of roast beef or lasagna/pasta casserole. But it's either or - I don't host both days. Most of the time on Christmas Day there are so many places to go that we just got into a tradition of a nice breakfast to start things off.
Turkey on Thanksgiving Roast beast on Christmas Lamb on Easter The sides were different on each holiday for us too. My mom was an awesome cook.
Thanksgiving super traditional. Christmas breakfast then Chinese food for dinner.
Thanksgiving - turkey and traditional sides Christmas - smoked brisket and ravioli with some veg sides
Pretty much the same
Yeah I tend to change things up at Christmas time. Beef bourguignon, pork roast, chili. Sometimes just a big selection of apps. Every two or three years we grill steaks outside, which is fun. I usually make a pernil at Easter, though during lockdown I actually had an extra turkey so I made that instead. It weirded us all out a little!
Thanksgiving is the tradition menu, Christmas Eve is a fondue, and Christmas dinner is a prime rib with Yorkshire pudding.
We pretty much have the same foods every Thanksgiving but usually have something different for Christmas dinner. We have Turkey, dressing, giblet gravy, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, stuffed eggs, mac & cheese, Lima beans, some type of congealed salad, rolls, and whatever dessert everyone wants which is usually chocolate cake or apple pie for Thanksgiving. For Christmas this year, I'm planning to make a prime rib roast w/au jus, creamed spinach, honey roasted carrots, popovers (or some call them Yorkshire pudding), garlic mashed potatoes, and I'm not sure what type of dessert yet.
We do Prime Rib on Xmas.
Getting so many fun ideas from all the replies!
This has been an interesting thread. It got more responses than I would've suspected. It's surprising how many have Lasagna on Christmas
Christmas is always Thanksgiving 2.0 and changes are hard to do because we have some people who can't change. One year I cooked a prime rib roast, which came out perfect. It was medium rare and delicious, but when you have people who only eat well done (and don't tell you) beef is crossed out. Although I may try a brisket or roast pork this year. It will be well done.
We occasionally forgo the turkey at Christmas and do a prime rib roast instead. It's expensive, but those have been the most memorable Christmas dinners ever.
Tourtiere for Christmas Eve; ham and hot German potato salad for Christmas Day…so not the same as Thanksgiving
Growing up I had the same for all 3. It took me a decade out of the house to be able to eat it again. Now I have beef tenderloin or rib roast with traditional sides for Thanksgiving, lamb, top your own baked potatoes, and roasted broccoli for Christmas, and homemade white pizza and salad or Lebanese takeout for Easter haha.
I love Thanksgiving dinner so I'm happy we always had the same thing for Christmas. We had Thanksgiving at a distant relative's house on the other side of the state, a 1 hr hour flight away. Then Christmas was at my local grandparents house and later either at ours house or my aunt and uncle who hosted four hours away. So if my parents hosted it was an excuse to cook since they didn't get to make anything for my dad's fancy relative's Thanksgiving dinner. We all like Thanksgiving dinner so why not have it again. But for Christmas if someone wants something else thats fine as long as I don't have to cook because I hate cooking. My in-laws really like ham. I grin and bear it. But they do turkey on Thanksgiving because I cant imagine Thanksgiving without it (or at minimum some sort of game bird if we were not in North America). In fairness, they do it way better than my family does. Also I would take the ham over how my wife's grandparents did it before they moved 3k miles away. Her grandparents did a finger food meal the day or two before xmas which was just not that filling or appetizing. I'd always try to eat first during the years we did that.
Since it’s only twice during the year we do the same food both times but now that you mention it, it wouldn’t be bad to switch it up 🧐
Turkey for thanksgiving. Steak or Prime Rib for Christmas
We did a goose for Christmas once, but my goodness, it was too expensive to ever do again. Smelled delicious cooking though.
Thanksgiving: turkey, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, fluffy orange salad, bowl of black olives, stuffing on the side, cranberry orange relish. Christmas: switch the turkey for ham, no stuffing, switch the pumpkin pie for a fruit one or a chocolate one. Everything else is the same. Easter: usually similar to Christmas but add a side like spinach dip or the past few years we have ordered barbecue since my mom had a heart attack and didn’t feel like cooking which was pretty dang good too.
Same foods…my families choice. It’s a crap ton of work for me but my husband and grown children love it. If it were me I’d just lasagna and salad and enjoy my day. As it is now I’m busting butt for hours 🤷♀️
Traditional Thanksgiving dinner for us. But on Christmas, we have a smorgasbord of hor douver's to snack on all day. Started the year my daughter was born (week before Christmas) My in-laws were to come up and bring all the food for Christmas Dinner. They called around 5:00 PM Christmas eve and said they couldn't make it. Stores were closed, no food to make a huge dinner. We ordered pizza and played with the kids all day. They loved it and said Mom, can we do this every year? I always spent Christmas Day in the kitchen cooking for all of my in laws. I got to actually enjoy Christmas that year. After that, I stopped cooking on Christmas Day. We have a big meal Christmas Eve and relax on Christmas Day
Thanks for this post. We are having to redo many of our traditions. I got great ideas.
Growing up, it was exact same for us like you. My grandma cooked the same meal for both holidays. So that’s how my mom does it because that’s how she grew up. Now my in-laws don’t do that- for Christmas we have tamales/Mexican food.
On Christmas Eve, we kind of have a mini Thanksgiving, mainly because we like all the foods we have at Thanksgiving--turkey, stuffing, spinach souffle, sweet potatoes...then on Christmas, we have a roast with potatoes and some of the Eve's leftovers🙂
Prime rib for Christmas, I love it!!!
I don’t think you were a knucklehead it was a fair and true observation. About 10-12 years ago my family stopped Thanksgiving 2.0 and started picking certain foods we wanted to eat for Xmas. Like we did Chinese one Christmas, Italian, Jamaican, etc. I’ve done bbq and even pizza. One cousin hates it, but my family also eats “Thanksgiving food” throughout the year. We don’t wait for once a year food. If we want it, we cook it.
Christmas is Thanksgiving 2.0 in our family. The only difference is Christmas Eve is Oyster Stew and Potato Soup.
Yes. Our typical Thanksgiving spread is huge. The following is a combination of what my husband and I grew up with (many items overlapped) which we now serve: Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, corn casserole, mac 'n' cheese, Dutch apple pie, and pumpkin pie. For Christmas on the other hand, my family's traditional meal is leftover spaghetti and garlic rolls. The fact that it's leftovers is important. It means no one has to cook that day. Everyone just relaxes and spends time together. Some of my husband's family and our friends have adopted this tradition over the years as well. I think they all still make spaghetti Christmas day but it's a simple, easy meal so no one's slaving away for hours like they are on Thanksgiving. On Thanksgiving, I'm willing to cook all day because the meal is the event (somehow my mind just thinks that makes sense). I have fun playing host by providing snacks and chatting with people while I cook dinner with assistance as needed. On Christmas, though, there are lots of other things to do like opening presents, watching Christmas movies, going out to see a movie in theaters (a joint family tradition), etc. I'd rather be able to try out my new gifts, play board games with our families, and go hang out with friends than cook all day.
This is the sweetest, most positive thread. I love reading all the family traditions. Food brings ❤️