Is your big dinner Christmas Eve or Christmas day?

[bw52]

And what do you do the other day?

it's our first christmas at home so I'm deciding what I want to do this year. We have a new baby coming after Thanksgiving, so all my Christmas planning is happening now.

[specialp]

Christmas Eve. We host. Christmas day is just our family and is PJ day with a nice breakfast that is made ahead and put in the oven.

[TwinFoxes]

Christmas Day. I've never met anyone IRL who does a big dinner or opens presents on Christmas Eve. We usually go to Mass on Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day though.

[jgenie]

Christmas Day. We go to Mass on Christmas Eve. Spend Christmas Day just the four of us in pjs.

[SASM]

When I was a child it was Christmas Eve with my extended family. Now, as we do not live near family, it is just our little family...Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas Day is leftovers and usually something new. Unfortunately, my children are not experiencing the holidays of my childhood but we are doing what we can to make it special with our own new traditions.

[trcy]

DD's birthday is December 24th, so Christmas Eve is her day. We usually do a Christmas Day brunch with the grandparents.


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[lalasmama]

Christmas Eve we do a huge snack schmorgeshboard (spelling?!?) and presents with our eldest DD (who's hubby can't skip mommy's house EVER for Christmas Day). My mom used to do the snack thing, but we would have all our single/family-less/too-far-from-family friends over for an open house.

Christmas Day, we start with DH, DD, and I for opening presents between us. Then in the afternoon, all the local family comes over, and it's a fairly large feast. I love it! Reminds me of growing up, but we never got to be the "Christmas house" (single mom in a tiny duplex, no room for 25 people), so I relish hosting it now!

[MelissaTC]

When we stay home, we have a big seafood dinner on Christmas Eve. When we head to NY to spend the time with family, each side makes a big meal on their day, lol. It's a never ending food fest.

[California]

Christmas Eve we get together with extended family. Usually we have a nice but not super fancy meal, pile the cousins into minivans, put on Christmas music and caravan out to look at lights. With our mild climate we can get out, walk around and have hot cocoa. It's lovely! Some years we also go to a candlelight church service.

Christmas Day either we go to my mom's for dinner, or it is a casserole kind of a day. We prep during the day on Christmas Eve: Breakfast casseroles for brunch, and an-extra good homemade lasagne or some other easy dinner, and pies. That way we just have to warm everything up, and make dinner salads on Christmas Day. We have people coming and going all day.

It's really up to you however you'd like to do it! Our traditions now are not the same as the ones I had growing up. Growing up, it was traditional for us for the extended family to gather on Christmas Eve at someone's house for a long evening of visiting, and to open one present. We always saw more immediate family on Christmas. Now we all much prefer taking the kids out to see lights.

My grandparents were Catholic and grew up holding the large family gathering on Christmas Eve. Traditional foods involved a lot of flaky pastries with nuts and honey (similar to baklava) and fish. The Catholic Mexican American relatives who married into my family also celebrate Christmas Eve with a large family gathering, go to church, and they exchange and open gifts on Christmas Eve. (Very different dinners, though!) They save Santa's gifts and stockings for Christmas morning. I've sometimes wondered if this has Catholic roots since we both share a similar tradition of holding the large gathering on Christmas Eve.

[rin]

I've sometimes wondered if this has Catholic roots since we both share a similar tradition of holding the large gathering on Christmas Eve.

Funnily enough, I'd always wondered if this was a northern European tradition! My family (with mostly central/northern European Presbyterian or other Protestant backgrounds) always has done the main celebration on Christmas Eve (family dinner, opening all presents except for stocking and Santa gifts). Then Christmas day we just do stockings, have a nicer breakfast (something like cinnamon rolls or a breakfast casserole), and lounge in pjs. We do have a nicer Sunday-dinner type meal in the afternoon, but particularly when we're together with extended family people will often go out to the movies, go hiking, or visit friends on Christmas Day itself.

[DualvansMommy]

Christmas Eve is usually more of a bigger elborate affair with all of DH's immediate family and cousins he grew up with, as well their spouses and kids. Easily 30-35 people now. For many years DH's usually host it at her place, but shes getting on in age so it's been alternating different house (one other cousin or ours) for appetizers, xmas meal and secret santa for adults with a visit from "Santa" for the kids and one present each kid.

Xmas day its usually breakfast for just our family, lounge/laze around then head over to DH's cousin/wife house around 4pm for another large gathering over a meal.

[trales]

We always had the HUGE fancy dress up dinner on Christmas eve, open up the family presents, then head to mass. Christmas day brought santa presents, a multi course amazing breakfast, snacks for lunch and then a smaller dress up dinner with just my parents and grandparents. I will do the same the same this year, but we will do 430 mass on christmas eve and then dinner rather than dinner followed by 10pm mass. We have some non churchgoers who will make sure the dinner is ready and hot on the table when we return from mass at 6pm.

[smilequeen]

Christmas Eve...bi yearly huge family gathering for my side (switches years with huge Thanksgiving :) ). That is a lot of food but more pot luck style.

Christmas Day is the big dinner with immediate family. We always have prime rib.

[ellies mom]

Christmas Eve is our big dinner. Christmas Day we either eat leftovers or eat out. Occasionally, my husband may make some meat dish but generally we do leftovers.


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[elizabethkott]

When we're up at DH's parents' house, the big shindig is Christmas Eve. When we're home and near my parents, the big day is Christmas itself.
Since we're here this year, DS1 is going to be in the family mass nativity at 4:00 on Christmas Eve. I'll likely cook DH's grandmother's tenderloin for that night and invite my folks if they want to join us, since DH really misses having it on years when we stay local.

[123LuckyMom]

Christmas Eve is our big church day. Last year I made a shrimp pasta dish with broccoli for dinner-- something super quick and easy but delicious. We've been known to do takeout, too. Christmas Day is our formal gathering, though for the past few years it's just been us and my mom and sister at our house. We all stayed in pjs or super comfy clothes all day, even to eat our big dinner with all the pretty china and decorations.


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[gymnbomb]

When I was a kid we always did soup and cheese/crackers on Christmas Eve. A big part of the reason was me and my father needing to sometimes be at multiple or different church services for choir/acolyte/reading/ushering/etc. So we had stuff that was easy for my mom to prep ahead and just heat up whenever we had time to eat. We did the big meal for lunch on Christmas Day, then usually had leftovers of some sort for dinner. We still do it that way when we are with my parents because now it is our tradition.


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[belovedgandp]

Christmas Eve is our big meal. Now that the kids are old enough to stay up for church at 8, we do a big dinner at 5-ish. Either at our house or grandparents. It's still just our family of 5 and my parents most years.

Christmas Day we lay low. Stay in PJs all day. Only do two "meals" - brunch is prepared ahead of time and we graze all day. We've had chili for dinner Christmas Day a lot.

This is since having kids. When I was a kid we'd go to another family member's house and do a bigger extended meal. With all of us having kids it was getting to be too much and we now gather on a different day. I like the low key Christmas Day.

[Cam&Clay]

We always have the big meal on Christmas Eve. DS1 leaves about noonish on Christmas Day to be with his dad, so if we are going to eat as a family, it needs to be on Christmas Eve.

I grew up doing it that way so it's not a big deal for me but it makes DH crazy that our big meal isn't on Christmas Day. He gets that we need to, though! I love the fact that we can stay in our pajamas all day on Christmas Day!

[klwa]

DH's family does their big get together Christmas Eve. Christmas Day, we stay home, eat left overs, and don't really do much other than let the kids play with their new stuff. My family gets together sometime the next week, usually.

We also usually go to Christmas Eve service before going to DH's family meal. With Christmas Day being Sunday, we'll have to get out Christmas morning for that as well.

[KrisM]

Neither.

We celebrate Christmas Eve with my extended family and we have snacks, desserts, etc. No meal though. We open gifts, play games, and enjoy without anyone being in the kitchen much.

Christmas Day is just us and we eat a regular dinner.

[StantonHyde]

Growing up, my mom always did soup and salad for Christmas Eve--something fast so we ate, went to mass, and then came home. And then we had a yummy big Xmas day dinner with us and the cousins.

After we moved away from family, we kept that eating tradtion. Then, When my brother got married, we opened all of our presents on Xmas eve, because he went to SIL's for Xmas Day

Now it is all catty-whompas--between DH's work schedule (he is an ER MD) and who are we celebrating with etc. This year, I will stick with soup and salad on Xmas Eve. Then DH's mom and sister will go with us to my brother's for an Xmas Day dinner. For X-mas with my dad, we will have the kids open presents, go out to dinner, and then go to a play. (but that usually happens the week before or after Xmas)

I love making my egg casserole and scones for Xmas morning breakfast and I love a good roast beef dinner for Xmas day. I really don't like the snack all day thing--my MIL always did that and it was basically cheese and sausage--no veggies. ugh.

[niccig]

Christmas Eve is the main event in both families, which works out as DS's birthday is Christmas Day and we have to fit a birthday cake in there somewhere. At my mother's house, Christmas Eve is lots of different dishes and Christmas Day is traditional dinner. There's sooooo much food. MIL is more laid back with the main meal Christmas Eve as SILs go to their ILs on Christmas Day. So when we're there, it's just us with MIL/FIL on Christmas Day and the meal is smaller.

[AnnieW625]

We usually have both.

Most years we go to my aunt and uncle's for the big Christmas Eve dinner and we exchange gifts, and then the next day we do the same with DH's aunt and uncle. This year we are going to my parents, and traditionally we did Christmas Eve dinner followed by desserts and opening up presents because we would go to church on Christmas morning and then come home and eat a quick bite and open up Santa presents and go my grandparents house two hours away for Christmas dinner. Since my grandma died a few years ago my parents have always just stayed home on Christmas night and had a nice dinner like a steak, but nothing as fancy as Christmas Eve. We will go to church on Christmas morning, but there is the option of 8 pm Christmas Eve mass.

DH and I did go to Christmas mass at midnight for a few years before we were married, and then pre kids so we could spend Christmas morning with his family before going to my grandparents (when we lived up north), and once we moved south it was easier to go from Christmas Eve dinner, which usually ended around 11 and just go to midnight mass.

[khalloc]

It depends. I like to have a big dinner with something nice as the main course. We will do it whenever its just going to be the 4 of us. Sometimes Xmas eve (if we have plans for Xmas day at someone else's house). My in-laws like to do something easy, like sandwiches or something when they get together alot and to me thats just not Xmas, so I will have my own big meal with just our family. We dont have a day we celebrate on. Usually on the actual day of Xmas though. In my family growing up it was tradition to have Chinese food on Xmas eve. My mom always made a big dinner on Xmas day. Or we went to a relative's house for Xmas dinner and had a big dinner there. I grew up Catholic, but now am non-practicing. DH is not religious and didnt grow up practicing a religion, althought they celebrate typical christian holidays without the religious aspect (which I found odd in the beginning).

[gamma]

With many of the families in my area, if you are Polish or Italian, then you have your big Christmas celebration and meal on Christmas Eve, but if you are of Irish or English descent, then the big celebration is Christmas Day. So, since my family is Polish, we celebrate on Christmas Eve and I host Christmas Day for the family members who don't go to ILs on Christmas Day.