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Christmas Eve dinner should be treated as a special occasion, one which is unique to your family situation whether it is a buffet of finger foods and drinks or a sumptuous Italian feast featuring the 7 fishes. It can also be as simple as a pizza dinner while wrapping presents to a full scale catered event for friends and family. No matter what your preference, it should be something special and unique suited to your needs and a tradition that can be repeated throughout the ages so that your children and their children and so on feel a sense of family and tradition.

I grew up in a very non traditional household, haphazard if you will. My husband's Christmas Even Tradition when he was growing up was to get together with family and extended family, drink some beers (adults only); Little Caesar's Pizza (my mother-in-law's and then my sister-in-law's signature dish) and wrap presents to put under the tree. When we married we decided that we would start our own tradition, mainly because I came from a no fuss family with no traditions and Little Caesar's Pizza was and is certainly not my signature dish. So it began with the 7 fishes becoming our traditional Christmas Eve fare.

Early on in the marriage when it was just the 2 of us we invited friends for drinks and seafood crudits, followed by a dinner of New England clam chowder, followed by a seafood pasta, salad and bread. Our friend's contribution to the "cause" was desert.
Eventually we moved from Michigan to Virginia where winter weather can range from snow to balmy breezes, so with this the menu changed, but always kept in standing with the 7 fish theme. By this time our family had grown to 3 and our friends had begun family traditions of their own. So, it became our own family tradition of a sumptuous meal beginning with either clam chowder (if cold) or shrimp cocktail (if warm), followed by seafood paella or seafood pasta complete with seven fishes (my son now counting them to make sure I had done my job). Now the desert was up to me, so I became quite proficient in the art of baba au rum and a flourless chocolate cake with ganache icing (requested by my husband and son respectively). After dinner we retire to the family room to either listen to music or to watch a holiday special (although in recent years these have been far and few between.)
Nevertheless, the menu is always consistent and begins our foray into the Christmas season.

This year our son went off to college, but was due home a few days prior to Christmas Eve. In a conversation with him over the Thanksgiving holiday I thought maybe he would like to change things up a bit for Christmas this year and perhaps start a "new" tradition. He was absolutely aghast at that recommendation, stating that Christmas Eve has been and will forever be one of his constants in his life and that he hoped to continue it upon his marriage, wife permitting. So, I guess my husband and I established what we set out to do those many years ago establishing a tradition which can be handed down to our son and perhaps his children and their children and so on.
It gives me great comfort to know that after I am long gone the tradition that I started for Christmas Eve will become my legacy to my family and that is what family and Christmas is all about.

Learn more about this author, Judy Zabriskie.
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