We have Christmas dinner at my house and we always cook a ham b/c my husband loves ham. I would rather have a turkey b/c I am not a big ham fan. But, I make the ham for him.

So, we got to discussing what you are "supposed" to eat on Christmas Day - ham, turkey, both, none???

I kindly reminded my husband that in the movie A Christmas Story, the dogs devoured the turkey that the husband had been eyeing all morning long.

What do you eat?

we do turkey for thanksgiving and ham for Christmas dinner ... and usually ham for New Years Day as well ....

We have duck for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Grandma is German and that is what she always had, and since she does the cooking that is what we get. Of course since she has been cooking it since her kids her were kids, that is just what we are all use to.

I had a guy tell me last month that he was a "traditionalist at Thanksgiving" because he was cooking turkey. Implying that we were untraditional. And maybe by most standards we are, but because it is what we have always had, it is our tradition. Actually annoyed me so much I ended up writing a blog about it.

Grandma does make a second (and sometime third meat) in a much smaller portions for those few in the family that don't eat duck.

We have both turkey and ham on Christmas day; in SUBS!!! After all the chaos and stress during the holidays it's so nice to throw them together in the a.m. and not think about it anymore, and we eat on them literally all week. I take frozen bread though (thawed all night) shape in into a doughnut shape, let it rise, bake, and that's it! I usually make about eight of them, and I would be banished if I chose to do something else Christmas day. Of course, we do lots of appetizer foods on Christmas Eve, so we have all of that to reheat and eat with, as well.

In our family, turkey is only for Thanksgiving (nobody's ready to have it again so soon), and ham is for Easter. For Christmas, my mom always makes a pork loin roast. I've experimented with different things; one year I did duck (too much fat and not enough meat for me), I've done country ham a couple of times, and one year I did sauerbraten (German beef roast with a gingersnap sauce and "Christmasy" spices). The pork loin is still my favorite, with sauerbraten a close second. It may sound a little weird if you've never had it, but it is soooo good. The sauce is kind of a sweet & sour type sauce, and the spices really make it Christmas-y. I think goose is an English tradition.

Tomorrow we're going to my MIL's for turkey but Christmas day it's all cold or very easy food. The MIL meal is just the six of us.

I grew up in the military so the only time my mother cooked a hot meal was when we had single soldiers over. My mom liked having time to play with us instead of spending the day in the kitchen so we'd have cold food.

A couple years ago I talked my husband into just stopping to say hi to his extended family and eating at home, ever since then they've been hooked.

I have ham, summer sausage, four cheeses, crackers and I'm going to make a cheese ball and croissants.

We do mexican food! We have shredded beef, tortillas, cheese, beans, guac, sour cream, pico, and all the other good stuff. We also have a seven-layer dip, queso, and chips. For dessert we have pecan pie and cider. We started doing mexican food because we make so much food at thanksgiving and end up eatting leftovers for two-weeks. By the time x-mas rolls around we are tired of eatting ham, turkey and all the other traditional foods.

When we're in GA, we usually have a big prime rib dinner Christmas Eve, then have turkey at Grandma's house for lunch, then my mother makes soup with the leftover prime rib, and we eat whatever leftovers there are from Christmas Eve.

Since it's just the 4 of us in PA this year, I don't knowwhat the heck we're going to have.

My family is doing all italian food!!!! so excited its my fav. were sick of the traditional turkey or ham and so we decided on something different. My family only consist of 5 people (literally, 5 people is my ENTIRE family) so there is not too many people to have to please.

This year it's chopped BBQ for us. Normally it is turkey though.

My family has always done Turkey, but I remember having to go to both grandparents as a child, one family did turkey, the other ham. So we typically got both. When my mother's parents stopped doing dinner and coming to us, we had turkey, then we would go that evening to my dad's parents and have ham.

My kids always got Cuban food on Christmas eve, sometimes it was a whole pig, sometimes a ham, sometimes turkey, and one time it was a goat! But at our house or at one of my sister's houses (there are 4 of us so we rotated dinner each year) it was turkey.

This year I won't have anyone to feed, but me & my honey bunny, so I want a very small. spiral sliced, bone-in ham that we can eat on for the next week!...LOL!

We will have steaks cooked out on the grill, fried shrimp, twice baked potatoes, green beans, and dinner rolls. That's our "tradition". My mom started it several years ago. Much less time in the kitchen than the whole turkey dinner. I will make the twice bakes on Christmas eve and just bake them off on Christmas. Easy and little dishes to do after dinner
I love reading what others are having for dinner.
Merry Christmas

My DHs family loved it the year we did soups and breads. Everyone brought either a favorite soup (in a crockpot) or bread. It was easy, yummy, and it worked well with people arriving and leaving throughout the day.

I grew up with Turkey on Thanksgiving and Ham on Christmas and Easter. But our Christmas's have been a little hit-n-miss. Last year we had pizza for Christmas (hubby HATED it! he's SUCH a traditionalist!).

One Easter, we did surf-n-turf .... crab legs and steaks on the grill. If I think ahead and buy a turkey during the post-thanksgiving sales, then we have turkey for christmas. But Christmas is always easy food ... turkey sandwiches, veggie trays, potato salad .... because kids are too busy playing with Santa toys to take time out to eat!

Well, since I started hosting Christmas the past few years, we do ham and crab cakes. My mom doesn't eat meat (just fish) so I always buy those QVC crap cakes. I will also make potatoes, green bean cassarole, and dinner roles.

All of your traditions were so fun to read about. My hubby and I just had our first child 2 years ago so now we are starting our own traditions at home.

Merry Christmas everyone!

We never get tired of deep fried turkey and I occasionally do ham for Christmas. But, this year we're having beef tenderlion, au gratin potatoes, steamed broccoli, rolls and Christmas cookies for dessert. Since every holiday is at my house, no one ever complains about what I decide to make!

We're going to have champagne this year because my daughter just found out her Masters thesis was accepted! Woo hoo!

About 20 some years ago, we decided to try something different for Christmas. Each year we pick a different country and cook recipes from that country. It's kind of nice to learn something about different cultures and countries this way. Some years are better than others, though!! This year it's Danish food! Oh, we also write down the menu in a journal as well as who all was able to attend, what the weather was like, family "highlights" for that year.

I loved reading everyone's holiday fare and traditions! Thank you all for sharing!

My sister and her husband hosted Christmas Eve dinner at their home this year. For main courses we had prime rib, homemade Italian sauce (some may refer to it as "gravy") with braciole, sausage, pork and meatballs, along with trays of homemade stuffed shells with the yummy sauce. Sides were a wild rice bake with cranberries, asparagus, shredded/mash potato bake, and cauliflower topped with cheese. For dessert we had rice krispie treats, coffee cake and Christmas cookies.

Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to everyone!

Merry Christmas everyone.

We usually have ham for Christmas. This year though, we had whatever we could find in the kitchen. We are snowed in, and have been for days.

we make tamales...they turned out sooo good this year!

My DH makes all the holiday dinners and he says that Christmas without ham is Hanukkah! Growing up, we always had tamales for Christmas and New Year, so I make them early and freeze. A friend gave us mini bundt cakes -- good thing cause I forgot to bake a pie.

Love the idea of grilling, but that is not likely to happen. I would LOVE to try a fried turkey for Thanksgiving next year.!

Ah the traditions of christmas. What wonderful meals everyone has. Us, well since we celebrated early with the kids we had BBQ ribs and potatoe salad. For our actual christmas dinner we had BBQ steak and potatoes. My husband is the king of BBQ so we eat a lot of it.

Hup, not traditional here but sure was yummy!

my family always had a fried turkey and a baked turkey for thanksgiving. We had ham for christmas and for new years we had cabbage, cabbage rolls, black eyed peas and stuff like that. But hubbys family does a ham and turkey for thanksgiving, and GUMBO for christmas. Yep they started gumbo one year just to "change it up" and it stuck, it is delicious!

2508s42, we've been snowed in, too! We finally got to the car in the snowbank yesterday - half the presents were stuck in there.

For Thanksgiving a turkey, Christmas always a ham.
Ham, raisin sauce, roasted sweet potatoes, green beans, asparagus, fresh baked dinner rolls, jello, Christmas cookies and pastries.

Folks aren't ready for another turkey yet, as they've been eating it for a month.
(I always get as large a Thanksgiving turkey as I can find, and use every single bit of it.) LOL

This year, for Christmas Eve, I made an assortment of tamales (pineapple masa with cream cheese and cranberries; regular masa with chicken, chipotles, and cheese; regular masa with pinto beans, roasted tomatillos, and cheese; and regular masa with chicken, red onion, and gouda cheese). On Christmas day, we had dinner at a local Chinese restaurant.