by Lynette Thrasher

Created on: December 16, 2008   Last Updated: December 14, 2009

With all of the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, planning a menu can be a challenge. If you are preparing a meal for both Christmas day and Christmas Eve, you're probably feeling a little drained of ideas. But Christmas Eve meals don't have to add extra stress to an already packed schedule. With these tips, your Christmas Eve dinner can be a low key event that leaves you and your guests ready to celebrate.

Traditional

The two classic traditional Christmas Eve meals are a sit down dinner of ham or turkey and all the fixings. If your family traditional has this meal on Christmas Day, you may want to avoid the redundancy of serving it Christmas Eve. An easy alternative is a classic hors d'oeuvre buffet. Setting out cold cuts, cheeses, finger sandwiches and dips will keep your guests full while creating a relaxing atmosphere. If you are looking to avoid a lot of cooking yourself, make the buffet pot-luck and ask your guests to bring their favorite appetizer.

Non-traditional

The best part of a Christmas Eve meal is that really, anything goes. If your family is tired of the traditional options, think outside the box to create your own tradition.
If you live in a cold climate, something to warm the spirits of your guests would be a great option. Consider serving a beef stew and artesian bread or a pot of chili with all the fixings (sour cream, corn chips, cheese, onions, etc). Another family friendly option is to serve comfort foods such as fried chicken, chicken and noodles, or lasagna. To personalize your Christmas Eve dinner, serve one of your family's favorites like spaghetti of beef stroganoff
or that signature recipe of yours.

Ethnic

If you are looking for a traditional meal option that is not turkey or ham, consider serving something symbolic to your heritage. In southern Italy, a traditional Christmas Eve dinner is the Feast of the Seven Fish. Appropriately named, this meal consists of seven different fish served any number of ways. No one is clear as to why the number seven is significant, but some speculate that it is a reference to the seven days of travel by Mary and Joseph to reach Bethlehem or the seven sacraments of the Catholic Religion.

Baccala (a dried salted cod dish served cold) is a traditional Christmas Eve dinner in a variety of cultures. A Mexican favorite is tamales while Slovak countries often serve cabbage or fish soup and lintel dishes.

My husband's family is of Polish and Slovakian descent and they serve and Lenten (meatless) meal of prune soup and peirogies Christmas Eve. Not only is this a unique tradition in their family, but it provides for another time together when the family gathers in the weeks before Christmas to help make the homemade peirogies.

Whatever you decide to serve for your Christmas Eve meal, remember that it is not what is on the table that matters but who is seated and the table with you. Enjoy the time with your family and the dinner (regardless of the main dish) is sure to be a success.

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