[Kitty]

We don't want to have turkey again. Really, we're just tired of all the traditional food. I need ideas for an entirely different dinner. What does everyone here do?

I've thought about making homemade pizzas. Several different kinds.....but I can only cook 2 at a time. I've also thought about subs and homemade soup. Just something different. It doesn't have to be extravagant....or expensive. Just something we can all enjoy without anyone having to stay in the kitchen all day.

Any suggestions?

[kicker]

Christmas Eve night we have prime ribs or something like that. An egg, bread, sausage strata casserole gets put together, left in frig overnight, Put it in oven to cook as we open presents. At dinner time we go off to a chinese restaurant. It's an easy present fulled day for me!! But my kids are 18, stuff changes every year.

[Kitt]

Ham and all the trimmings. That's what we will have. And a good apple pie or maybe a pecan pie. Tried a Christmas goose once. It was O.K. but too much fat.

Scalloped oysters for New Year's if you want to go that far.

[Kitty]

Well, we don't eat much ham (or pork for that matter). I've thought about maybe fixing a big pot roast. Or maybe a big pot of chili with corn muffins. If it were up to me I could do without the meat. I'm just not a big meat eater but my boys are.

[SallyC]

I'd go for the big pot of chile and corn bread muffins. Yummmmmmm..slurp

DD will most likely bring over a ham & trimmings.

[Erin524]

My dad used to make big dinners for us. Like prime rib.

Now that he has the heart condition and has fatigue from that he likes to be lazy when cooking. (my mom and I cant cook, and you wouldnt want us to try) He's probably going to make a chili or something simple like that for Xmas eve. With cornbread. Sometimes he'll make jalapeno cornbread (Mmm!! with garlic butter!) For my mom he makes plain cornbread since she's got tummy problems.

For dinner we might try going out for Chinese food on Xmas day. We wanted to do that last year, but we had a massive blizzard for 3 days over Xmas then, so my dad made mostacholli (penne noodles in a meat sauce. Mmmm!)

My mom hates to eat at home anymore, so she would love to go out for Xmas dinner. We did that for Thanksgiving. Too bad that restaurant is closed over Xmas. (well, at least the owners of that restaurant arent cruel and heartless to make their employees work Xmas.)

I have to find out if the Chinese restaurant that was going to be open last year will be open again on Xmas day. I wouldnt mind have some General Tso chicken this year.

Chili and jalapeno cornbread sounds good too, or a meat tray and some bread. I love simple foods on Xmas.

[Kitty]

I also thought about sub sandwiches. Have all the stuff to make them and let everyone make their own.

Chinese sounds good, too. Makes me think of that movie (The Christmas Story, I think) when they had to go out to dinner at a Chinese restaurant because the dogs ate their turkey!

[TheSleeper]

I like to keep Christmas dinner fairly simple, I make a spiral sliced ham, some crab meat salad, a veggie and dip tray. Get 3 or four loaves of bread, wheat, rye, pumpernickle, some assorted cheese slices and buy a couple few pies.

No all day in the kitchen cooking for Christmas.

[Erin524]

I might make an artichoke dip. That's not actually cooking. All I do is get some cream cheese (the good stuff, no low fat crap), some spinach and some artichokes, a little bit of mashed garlic and maybe some red pepper.

Dump the cream cheese in a bowl, cut up the artichokes (I usually use the kind that comes in a jar) and cut up the spinach. Stir it all together so that it's mixed and looks good to the eyes and kind of creamy, and then season it to taste with the garlic and red pepper. If I have it, I might sprinkle some shredded Parmesan cheese on top of it. Depends on what I feel like garnishing it with.

Then I just eat it with anything that it might go with. Carrots, crackers, pretzels, bread. We had a veggie platter last year that we grazed on and managed to eat most of the small amount of artichoke dip that I made.

I dont usually make much artichoke dip. I think I just get a basic small brick of cream cheese. Last year I only used a third of the brick of cream cheese because my mom wanted some of it for bagels on Xmas morning. (I mixed that cream cheese with orange marmalade...that was tasty!)

[Bets]

We have cheese fondu mmmmm