Chixe

In the UK, we traditionally have turkey for Christmas. As no one in our family can actually stand turkey (was there ever a more blah and boring meat?) we tend to have a roasted leg of lamb with all the trimmings on Christmas day. For Boxing Day it's normally a piece of roast beef, again with all the trimmings.

And of course there are all the little extras, like my mum's blackcurrant cheesecake which is our 'traditional' Christmas pudding, and mince pies, and gingerbread, and smoked salmon to nibble, and cheese & biscuits, and... More food than you can shake a stick at basically!

Ooo! Leg of lamb... good idea. I'd stuff it with rosemary and garlic.

Are the currants in the cheesecake? Or is it more like a blackcurrant sauce on top of the cheesecake?

Stuffed with rosemary and garlic is pretty much how we have it too. In a slightly odd twist of fate, our family Christmas dinners actually got nicer when my brother took over cooking responsibilities! The amount of washing up doubled because, like all men, he is genetically programmed to use every dish in the kitchen, but his food does tend to be very tasty.

And it's a sauce on top of the cheesecake. I'd link to the recipe but my site is currently off line (evil hosts).

I'm with you Cas - our family doesn't particularly rate turkey so we don't tend to bother. My mum gets in some organic steaks and we enjoy every bit of them (a lot less faff than turkey too!).

And we avoid Christmas pudding too! (I don't we'd get many points for tradition...)

Ooh, I love turkey on Christmas Day!! Unfortunately, turkey costs $2.27/pound instead of $0.60/pound where I now live, so I had to go with something else. I just wrote up my whole Xmas Day menu today, and decided on one rosemary garlic roasted chicken & one beer butt roasted chicken... should be fun!

Large Christmas dinners are more of a tradition in my wife's family as I'm Jewish but this year we're staying home and will be cooking a turkey, ziti, and various other things. It'll just be the three of us eating it (including our dog) so we'll have a ton of leftovers.

I'm thinking I might go with seared duck breast. Quick. Easy. Special occasion-y. Maybe over some braised leeks.

...Though I'm very tempted by the thought of garlicky lamb. And lamb sandwiches afterward, natch.

What lovely dinners! We basically have Thanksgiving dinner, all over again, only this time cooked by my sister in law. There is no escaping the Big Dry Bird which is why I sometimes find myself drinking a lot on Christmas day.

I actually tried cooking my turkey upside-down (breast-side down on the rack) this Thanksgiving, and it came out tasting surprisingly juicy and tender.

One caveat, though... It's no Norman Rockwell picture-perfect bird. Lots of rack marks across the meat.

A repeat of Thanksgiving. Everyone will be hanging out here and bringing something. It worked great for Thanksgiving. The cooking burden didn't fall on one person and there was much more diversity with the food. Good times. :)

Somebody at work just brought up the Feast of the Seven Fishes, which is apparently an Italian tradition also known as La Vigilia. You eat a huge feast involving seven different fish and shellfish.

Sounds like a fine idea for coastal folks, but pretty expensive for landlocked families.

I'll be eating something along the lines of Mahi Mahi, Ahi, or some other tropical fish because I'll be on Maui for Christmas. :D

Traditionally, though, Christmas dinner usually means a turkey and all the trimmings.

We have a traditional dinner on Christmas Eve, which for us means pasta, soup, ham, and whatever else my parents feel like putting together. Christmas day we tend to just stay home and enjoy a day of doing nothing. This means a trip to the Chinese buffet, so I don't have to bother with cooking. Works out great, since I don't like turkey!

My boss gave me a black truffle for Christmas, so we ended up doing a truffled turkey... which was pretty darn delicious. Though I'm looking forward to the leftover truffled turkey pot pie even more...