Lasagna or homemade spaghetti and meatballs are good dishes that everyone will like - including your boys - but can still be made to feel special. Add some good wine, salads, cheeses and crackers (for appetizers), and a special dessert. The boys could help you make meatballs and you could prepare the sauce early and let it simmer all day.

One of my friends' family has filet mignon every Christmas dinner because it doesn't take a lot of time and is luxurious. Pop some potatoes in the oven and make a good side dish like mac and cheese with really quality cheese (Martha Stewart has a great recipe).

A few years ago when I hosted my first Christmas Eve for the whole family, I made a huge pot of chili and set out shredded cheese, sour cream, guacomole, and corn chips. It was a lot of fun.

 

For Christmas Eve, my family just does miscellaneous appetizers. It's wonderful, fattening and low-key.

 

we were thinking of cooking a turkey of xmas eve, eating some of it, and then using the leftovers to make m's dad's ragout - which is basically brown gravy full of shredded turkey and pork meatballs, all poured over traditional tourtiere (old-fashioned quebecois meat-pie).

and the best part is, here in ontario, you just BUY the meat pie (and don't tell anyone).

so, yes, meat, meatballs, brown gravy, all over ... meat in crust.

yum.

it's our first xmas on our own, so we are looking forward to doing our own thing!

 

Super easy - roast a chicken, boil the potatoes while the chicken is roasting (peeling is Big Giraffe's job), use some packaged or canned gravy (there are some wonderful ones in gourmet stores), steam green beans in the microwave, heat up parker house rolls that you got from the supermarket, and serve a bakery pie for dessert. If you don't find cooking relaxing, you should be able to spend the day with the kids. This dinner can be brought to the table in about 20 minutes active time and an hour and a half total time (I have a great, easy chicken recipe I can send you).

Alternative - serve Christmas day brunch, instead. Buy a stollen, heat it, make scrambled eggs and chicken sausage. Voila! Mimosas for the adults.

Dinner can be Chinese or pizza.

 

I do a brunch menu on Christmas (usually stolen from Williams Sonoma) and then on New Year's misc appetizers, keeps us full and happy all day. A great start to the year. Best of luck!

 

WOW, I'm really bad at advice on this subject. My husband is the cook in my family. And I usually end up at my sister-in-laws for holidays and the most we have to bring is like a pumpkin pie or something.

 

We don't have any Christmas traditions. My parents (still the hosts, their won insistence) sometimes have ham, or beef, or turkey. Except when they don't--one year we all made Chinese dumplings with my Taiwanese SIL, yum. The traditions are more a simple brunch after presents (egg casserole and coffee cake), lavish Christmas stockings for the kids. The last few years there have been Christmas crackers, a la Britain. It will be great! And less pressure than Thanksgiving, where it's all about The Meal.

 

I've told you before about the waffle feed Christmas Eve, which is SO fun! But also, on Christmas Day we have sticky buns in the morning and then a ham dinner later...my mom makes her rolls and we have all kinds of fun salads, but the main meat (the ham) is a Honeybaked Ham so just needs heated...I think your "on ice" idea sounds like lots of fun!

 

My mom suffers from a lot of cooking stress as well, but my best holiday meals I remember are fondue or fondue (bourgignonne) or raclette.....nothing to prepare except for salads etc , everyone cooks during the meal himself. It's very cosy, it's very festive (with the heat glowing from the table), and it's often done in Belgium during the holidays. You can order special meat/cheese fondue dishes at all buchters.

 

oh and the best thing is that most butchers give you "crepe/pancake batter" along and then you make crepes in your little pans after the meal!!!!! mmmmmm, with hot apple sauce or chocolate sauce or ....

Fantastic for kids to do!