I’ve decided no meal on Christmas, but making a bunch of snacks for a full day of LAZY.

I like that plan, and it feels like what my family kind of did/does for real. For my part, it all starts with cinnamon pull apart bread. Oh, huh. Guess I need to find a GF option to replace Pillsbury biscuits. Anyway, we never had a particular Christmas Meal that I recall, or Christmas Eve one.

My mom's fudge is the one Christmas food tradition we have for sure. I used to help her sometimes (you have to beat the hell out of it by hand* forever, or it gets grainy), but I've never done it on my own. There's a candy thermometer involved. Hell, maybe I'll do it this year in honor of Mom. This will be our first Christmas without her since she died in early March (she was 91; it was not Covid), and while she was able to be, she was the Family Christmas Maven.

• It may actually be possible to beat it electronically with, like, a stand mixer, maybe, but I don't have one. And she did, but she insisted that it had to be by hand. And that shit was good, so I never argued.

Goldbelly has a Skyline chili dinner kit for folks with cravings. (The version I make at home is Skyline-ish but not a carbon copy.)

When my mother was alive, I'd go up to spend Christmas with her and my sister. On the eve, it was kind of open, but Christmas morning we started off with mimosas while we opened presents. Then breakfast - often, my mother would make buttermilk biscuits, eggs and some kind of sausage and/or bacon and/or ham. (One year I remember she plunked a big platter on the table with sausage patties, sausage links, bacon and ham ... and in the middle, was this pile of greenish-yellow stuff that was oozing a greenish oil over the platter. I commented on it and it turned out she'd used egg substitute. The reduce the cholesterol.)

Ha! That is hilarious, Toddson.

I’ve decided no meal on Christmas, but making a bunch of snacks for a full day of LAZY.

I love days like that. Had a Christmas or two with my parents like that and they were pretty great

I am suddenly pretty excited for the "traditional" Xmas Day Chinese food! I hope I can make that happen

I think we implemented Christmas Day snacks last year -- I am a big fan!

We're going to make fish on Christmas Eve, though probably not as much as my mother usually makes. we're looking into making a cippino, which my family has never done, but it will get most of the 7 fishes into one dish, and getting already fried calamari and smelts from the fish store because I hate deep frying. And probably spaghetti aglio e olio and/or spaghetti and tuna, which my grandfather usually makes.

We usually spend Christmas Day with TCG's family and they do what I call Thanksgiving again, which is absolutely foreign to me. My aunt, whose house I used to go to on Christmas day, usually does lasagna and a beef roast. We're going to do lasagna and a small lamb roast. We like lamb and most of our relatives do not. So, in this year when it is just us, we might as well make what we like.

So, in this year when it is just us, we might as well make what we like.

This is a good philosophy. I've never done a lamb roast, but I love lamb. Maybe I should get on that.

We've pretty much always celebrated Christmas alone, meaning all-day snacks. I make posole because it's my comfort food, but that's about it.

Last year we were in London and I'd made reservations at two fancy-schmancy restaurants - one for Christmas Eve and one for the day. The Xmas Eve place turned out to be awash in Russian mobsters and prostitutes...it wasn't my son's first exposure to that demographic, but he was about 1yo the last time and enjoyed the hell out of it. This time he and his father just flat-eyed me all night.

Then his father refused to go out on Xmas day so dinner was a little awkward, but very tasty.

I am still the only foodie in the family and I has a sad.

Omg, sj, your planned feast sounds magnificent!

We've never woken up in our home together on Xmas morning. We're either at mine in DE or his in MI. His family does a big Xmas eve get together at his uncle and aunt's the food highlight of which is prime rib. And then does an all-day presents, card games, snack-a-thon at his sister's. Mine does a small roast beef dinner at my folk's on Xmas eve, which used to include going to Midnight mass. Then everyone in the extended family (40 or so) for presents and brunch over the course of late morning / early afternoon Xmas Day at my parent's. Highlights being my Dad's Belgian waffles and my uncle's French toast. Then Thanksgiving like dinner (plus ham) with a big subset of the extended family at my other uncle's.

I really don't know what we'll do. I do want to get oysters up to my dad for Xmas eve, though.