Thought, as a little aside, it might be nice to know what people are cooking ahead for Christmas and what country they are from to look at the different tastes.  Not what you are cooking to sell, but what you are cooking for yourself.  

I apologise in advance but my control goes out the window at Christmas (hmmm do I ever really have any?) and I will end up looking like a pig with all the things I cook for just me and hubby and an occasional drop in kid.  I use Christmas as an excuse to make a whole pile of new recipes that look delicious.

Last week I made shortbread, mince pies, a gourmet white rocky road and a chocolatey walnut fudgy sort of thing.  Unfortunately for my waistline we demolished pretty well everything so I started again today.

Today I made white chocolate,macadamia and cranberry cookies, more shortbread and sea salt and cashew caramels.

Tomorrow we shall see but I do have a few ideas.

I am from Australia where Christmas is a bit of a free for all.  Not too many traditions that we have to worry about and with lots of Christmases being 40C or so where I live and have lived in the past we do not do the turkey etc that some may.

funny you should ask -- i made limoncello this year for a couple gifts and i'm not a drinker and i think it tastes like medicine -- i think when i've had it before for a cake splash it tasted that way to me so i'm gonna buy a bottle of real limoncello and see if mine is ok or not  

then for christmas i'm going real low key i'm gonna make half of one of those oreo cookie mold cakes for a chocolate something (portion control ;) and i'd really like to make some apricot foldover cookies and maybe some fudge, maybe one small batch of gingerbread-- my husband wants to make some trees for gifts.

@cazza -- your sea salt and caramel cashews sound most enticing drool drool

I made limoncello once and I, like you, am not a drinker (well anymore) and I also thought it tasted yuk.  I do like to cook with alcohol, though.  Fudge is also on my agenda in the next couple of days.

the lady at the liquor store said she liked the cream limoncello better because it balanced out the poo flavor -- she didn't say poo but you know what i mean -- so i do have a recipe for that but idk i think i should just stick to the fudge or something -- ha!

For Christmas we have to go traditional here. Mum has to have her roast on Christmas day, I mean it is just not Christmas in Australia if you are not trying to choke down a full English style Hot roast dinner , served in the middle of the day often in Forty degree Heat , while your paper crown does a lousy job of stopping the sweat from running into your eyes and making them sting.

Of course Christmas is being held at the only home in the family without aircon this year. 

We are having , Roast Pork, Roast Turkey, A ham that we will glaze and bake for Breakfast and serve cold for lunch. There will be potatoes roasted in duck fat , a potato salad, and probably a potato au gratin. ( Big on spuds in this family ) Roasted veges including, sweet potato,carrots,  zucchini, onion.  For greens I do green beans in butter and garlic with toasted almond flaked, fresh asparagus in a white wine butter sauce, and steamed broccolini.  There will be fresh King prawns, I swap a christmas cake for a couple of kilos of prawns at the local fish shop.  

Dessert will be a chocolate ripple log, a mango cheesecake, plum pudding and custard and a cassata and the obligatory fruit salad.  Oh whipped cream and ice cream too.  

Hopefully by the time the  family have gotten through this feast they will be too stuffed to move or fight. .

I feel next year I am going to insist on Christmas being in the airconditioned house. I  have a plan to cook the Turkey in the air conditioned house , just up the road from the un airconditioned host house.  I have to make the stuffing as apparently no one else makes it like mine so I think I can make a case for cooking it , leaving the host house oven free for the vegies. 

limoncello part 2 --

 so -- bear with me for a minute -- i make an italian cream filling with cream cheese, sour cream and more lemon juice than vanilla -- it comes out not tasting like lemon or vanilla -- it becomes some other lovely creamy flavor --

then i had to add a little extra lemon oil to my brew and i opted for some lorann natural lemon oil instead of doing the zest thing again -- and i got to thinking --

so-o i mean i have almost a gallon of nasty medicine flavored yuckiness -- so i added some cheesecake flavored lorann oil 'cause i just happen to have some on hand -- really smoothed that sucker out! 

i'm so happy -- i mean at least it tastes good enough to drink now -- certainly not plan A but i'm very relieved to pull this out of the flaming fire -- see k8 grin

They say that if your pants still fit you after Christmas you didn't celebrate right. 

Apparently we've all been living that motto without realizing there WAS a motto.

My personal motto is 'if it all fits on the table at the same time it's not a holiday'. 

I'm a New York Italian so it's a food-fest.  It's eating Thanksgiving dinner and talking about Christmas Eve dinner at the same time.  For us, it's Christmas Eve much more than Christmas Day.  We've expanded (in more ways than one) over the years from a Fish-Only dinner to allowing some meat.  Fried shrimp, fried calamari, baked clams, cioppino, shrimp cocktail, rice balls, artichoke hearts, sesame seed cookies, M&M chocolate chip cookies, biscotti, coconut macaroons and cakes - and that's just what I am making AND traveling with.  My sisters and 1 brother contribute a couple of other things including cannoli and my other brother sadly lives across the country.  It's a madhouse of food gifts children and people who talk too loud.  So it's fun! We reminisce and miss our parents and quote them often.   For me, making  food my mother made is what makes the holiday special and keeps memories alive for the little ones who hopefully learn something from us.

Christmas Day at my husband's sister's house where all food fits on one table :(   and the mood is calm and low-key - which is all we've got energy for.

Merry Christmas Happy New Year and Happy Holidays to all !

Theresa

Ha, ha Mimi.  I cooked myself enough over the yers that now I don't need to drink any more, because like a well matured fruitcake, I am well preserved and only aging slowly.  I should, hopefully, last for a few more years.

I do not do big Christmas anymore.  When the kids were little I spent 2 Christmasses in the kitchen all morning, rather than with the kids.  I swore never again.  I make all the sweet trimmings, and more but on Chrissy day we start with ham, cheese and tomato croissants for breakfast and then just nibble our way through whatever baking and lolly making I have done for that year.  We just have ham and salad for lunch and usually a cheesecake or some sort of ice-cream manifestation.  This year I have bought a pile of glace fruit with no thoughts to use so I will probably make a cassata, with a layer of chocolate ice-cream, a layer of almond ice-cream, and a layer of ice-cream full of glace fruit and nuts.

I envy all of you who are surrounded by families and especially those who have little kiddy winks.  They make Christmas magic.

For 1 whole month I don't watch my weight.  Well maybe 2 because I always make so much stuff that I continue eating through January.  Needless to say I do not much like February/March as I have to pay for my excesses.

AWow I feel like a food prude compared to everyone else! Sometimes I think I ought to try other foods!

Christmas day we'll have our traditional meal- roasted chicken, roasted potatoes, dauphinois , stuffing (storebought!), Yorkshire pudding (store bought! ), vege, and gravy. Dessert will be chocolate mousse cake, apple crumble and brownies.

Cazza, same here- I wish my family were closer. Sadly they are a plane ride away and i always feel left out because my parents, two sisters and their families get together on Christmas day each year and I miss how my nieces and nephew are growing up.

peticat, Christmas to me is eating what you like.  There is no need for you to eat other foods.  My problem is that I like food tooooooo much.  As well as an addiction to sugar I also have an addiction to recipes and like to continually try new ones.  Unfortunately this means that even if you love something I made you might not necessarily ever get it again, something my hubby whinges about regularly.  We do have a few old favourites but not too many.

APetitecat- what you wrote about your family is how I feel about my one brother across the country. But I did just make it to the post office in time to ship cookies to him 2nd day so he can have them on Christmas Eve. Texting helps all my siblings keep in touch - we text almost every day. Even if it's a quick text about something funny or a how are you, it's a connection. You still feel sad if you aren't physically together but it's still contact. And sometimes better because even though we're all presumably adults, they can still be a pain in the you-know-where! T

skyping is good as well

A[IMG ALT=""]http://www.cakecentral.com/content/type/61/id/3315171/width/350/height/700[/IMG] I will make a traditional German dinner: Roasted staffed duck with red apple cabbage and croquets. As desert I'll make a "flammeri", a white wine cream topped with vanilla pudding. And maybe Gordon Ramsay's cheese cake. Found the recipe on Facebook the other day and really want to try it:

Yum, I would invite myself over Julia, except that the flights will all be booked out by now!

AThank you cazza. Can't wait...4 more sleeps! And getting a flight wouldn't be a problem. Sad but true, people think African = Ebola, although we are thousands of miles away... Missing the European white winter wonderland to go with my dinner this year

Ahh, and I thought you were in Germany.  Where are you actually hanging out, Julia?

AGermany is my home country, but currently we are in Kenya (east Africa).