Christmas 2023 was a three-part event with lots of family and good food!
The Food – Christmas Eve
Normally we have Christmas brunch and Christmas dinner, but this year we decided to do something Christmas Eve as well. It was definitely tradition material! Rather than having a main meal, we made a feast of appetizers:
- Layered bean dip & chips This has been a favorite recipe for a long time. It’s quick and easy, and can be modified based on what you have. For ours, I made it with homemade refried beans. Yum!
- Olive cheese balls This recipe is an original from Kevin’s family, and it always gets rave reviews. It works with green or black olives, but the best results are from nice big green olives. The olives stuffed with garlic or jalapenos are especially good.
- Mini pigs in a blanket Kevin rolled beef Little Smokies in strips of crescent rolls to make mini pigs in a blanket. He also made his famous honey mustard to dip them in.
- Veggie tray My brother and sister-in-law brought a veggie tray with a vegan ranch dip. It was a great addition to all the “heavier” items.
- Onion rings and remoulade sauce We make some pretty delectable onion rings, but to keep the holidays simple we opted for frozen onion rings. We also made remoulade sauce (loosely based on this recipe) for dipping. I didn’t expect these to be such a favorite with the toddlers, but they were!
- Cheese tray and crackers Dad put together a big cheese tray with Muenster, smoked gouda, and an herbed Havarti cheese. There were some grapes, olives, and blueberries to round out the tray, and a separate tray of assorted crackers.
- Mulled apple cider Mom found a recipe that involved toasting the spices first. The cider turned out very flavorful, and we enjoyed more of it the next day at brunch.
- Oven caramel corn This popcorn makes an appearance every Christmas, and for good reason. We used cashews and pecans in this batch and drizzled the top with white and chocolate candy coating.
- Peanut butter balls These are one of Kevin’s favorite holiday treats, so I usually make them each Christmas.
- Chocolates Mom put out a chocolate orange (the kind you break apart into slices) and Christmas Hershey Kisses. They rounded out the assortment of sweets nicely.
The Food – Christmas Brunch
For probably 20+ years we’ve had the tradition of making a big breakfast spread on Christmas morning, and this year was no different.
- Pecan rolls with cream cheese frosting These are the highlight of Christmas brunch, though we enjoy them throughout the year as well. We make them the day before and refrigerate them overnight so they are ready to bake Christmas morning. Full disclosure- “we” is Kevin.
- Green chile quiche I need to nail down the recipe for this. I had a great recipe for years, but I couldn’t find it this year. We made it from memory, and it turned out too fluffy. Less flour next time.
- Spinach mushroom quiche A work in progress here too. It was delicious, but it wasn’t until I was almost finished that I realized there was a crescent crust. It had floated up into the middle of the quiche and taken on a totally different texture. By next year we can refine it so we have a nice, flaky crust under the veggie-packed filling.
- Scrambled tofu This was made on a whim, but it turned out so good. I reserved some of the sauteed spinach and mushrooms before adding them to the spinach mushroom quiche, and made a veggie tofu scramble. Black salt really makes the scramble, along with plenty of garlic and onion powder. Yum!
- Fruit salad Grandma always makes this, and it’s one of my favorite parts of brunch. Apparently she was up at 4:30 on Christmas morning thinking about getting the apples cut for her salad!
- Veggie sausage patties My brother and sister-in-law furnished these, along with the hash brown patties. The kids especially liked the veggie sausage.
- Hash brown patties You can’t go wrong with crispy potatoes!
- Ritz peanut butter cookies The treats weren’t specifically for breakfast, but we had them out all day for people to munch. The Ritz peanut butter cookies are a favorite of Kevin’s, so I typically make these each year as well.
- Sugar cookies Cutout sugar cookies seem like a lot of work for a mediocre cookie, so I usually make these. The kids still get to have fun putting sprinkles on them, and I get to have fun not rolling them out. They’re also quite tasty.
- Dipped cranberries These are so simple – literally fresh cranberries (washed and dried) dipped in white candy coating. They are such a refreshing burst of sweet and tart.
- Ice water – all day We pulled out our trusty water dispenser and had ice water on tap all day. Funny story – a cranberry had become lodged in the spout from Thanksgiving, so all day long we were wondering why the water came out so slowly!
The Food – Christmas Dinner
We wanted Christmas dinner to be fun, but we also didn’t want to spend too much of the day cooking. We decided on a meal we had made for one of the kids’ birthdays this year – pasta bar.
- Cavatappi and Trotolle These are arguably some of the funnest pasta shapes out there.
- Pesto, Alfredo, marinara We bought all of the sauces to keep it easy. The next time we do something like this, we’d like to get some of these slow cooker dividers so we can heat the sauces in a slow cooker and free up space on the stove.
- Garlic bread We bought some French bread with our usual grocery pickup, then Kevin made it into garlic bread and froze it for Christmas dinner. We pulled it out of the freezer the day before and heated it in the oven while the meatballs baked Christmas afternoon.
- Olive Garden-style salad I put my trusty pasta serving bowl to use again with a big Italian salad, complete with Olive Garden dressing and ranch dressing.
- Meatballs Kevin put together some beef meatballs for people to add to their pasta bowls.
- Christmas cashews We left the goodies out all day and didn’t have an official dessert. After we wrapped up brunch though, we decided to make a batch of these Christmas almonds, except with cashews. They turned out delicious. We had a bit of a scare with the new glass top stove – some hot sugar lava dripped on it and we thought it might pit the glass. Kevin pulled out the Weiman’s set though and the stove was just fine.
- Christmas mocktail One of my cousins and his girlfriend brought a Christmas mocktail with pomegranate-mint ice. It was a fun addition to the rest of the festivities.
The Fun – Christmas Eve
- We had Christmas Eve at Grandma’s house with all the appetizer goodness. The plan was to open stocking stuffers, but the kids were so distracted by just being at Grandma’s. They made it part of the way through their stockings!
- Kevin’s family has a bit of a tradition of playing Bingo (or other games) on holidays, complete with prizes for the winners. Kevin’s mom gave me a nice Bingo set several years ago, and this year was the first time we broke it out. Kevin’s mom was visiting for Christmas, so she contributed all the prizes for the Bingo game.
The Fun – Christmas Day
- Christmas morning we let the kids open gifts from us and Kevin’s mom – though we gave them one gift from us a couple of days early. They got lots of fun toys… with lots of pieces.
- After brunch we opened gifts from my parents and other family members. It was wonderful chaos, and next year there will be even more little people here making mayhem.
- Somehow the subject of spiced nuts came up, and Kevin was telling his mom about the Christmas almonds I make. We decided to make a batch right then, only this time using cashews. Christmas cashews were a success!
- During naptime we played a game of Carcassonne – something we haven’t done in years! Kevin won, as usual. I play it too safe with the shells and bananas; I need to get brave and go after the fish.
Tips for planning and hosting holiday events
- I shared some tips in the Thanksgiving post, so I’ll just add a few here.
- If you have multiple events like we did this year, plan one or more to have an easy menu (or potluck style) so you don’t have to spend all of the holidays cooking. Our pasta bar was a nice easy meal that everyone enjoyed, and most everything could be prepped ahead of time.
- Have some customizable options, especially if you are serving a varied group of people. Again, the pasta bar was great for this.
- Think carefully about dessert. I’ve more or less ditched the idea of an official dessert on Christmas. There is so much decadence to be had. Just make a nice goodie platter available all day and call it good.
Next year
- Christmas felt really nice this year, and I can’t say there is a lot I would do differently next year. We really liked having something Christmas Eve – kind of a warm up for the big day. It was also nice not feeling like we were overextended with the three gatherings in two days. As of right now, we’re thinking Christmas 2024 should have a Mexican feast!