Ahem. I don't exactly have Christmas traditions of my own, now do I, so whatever we've got, they come from the Hubs' side.
(Although yes, I did go to the movies on Christmas as a kid, and we usually went out to dinner, Christmas being my parents' anniversary. But I digress, parenthetically.)
So the first year I was part of the Hubs' family, engaged but not yet married, Christmas Eve, to my surprise, was a great big deal. We had a fairly formal dinner, then went to midnight mass, then came back to the IL's house and opened the gifts. Christmas. Eve. The next day we joined the Hubs' aunt and uncle across town for dinner. So I thought that's what it was, and what they'd always done.
Then they started changing things on me as the years went by. Once the grandchildren came along we gave up church and late opening of gifts. The ILs would go to church at five or so on Christmas Eve afternoon and then come to us for a pretty subdued meal, and then the big show was Christmas Day at their house. Once they moved more than an hour south of here, Christmas Eve became just the immediate us, with the occasional visitor thrown in.
One of the things that has never changed is that meat is not eaten on Christmas Eve. Of course, I have no idea if everyone does this or if it's peculiar to the cultures the ILs come from. As in:
The MIL is 100% Irish. She says they never ate meat on Christmas Eve, which was not a big deal in her house growing up. They had tuna or grilled cheese sandwiches that night. However, except for her personal Irishness, to whatever degree she's got it, the culture in the Hubs' childhood home was much more Italian. Someone told me once that if there's one iota of Italian in you, it totally takes over whatever else is there. I haven't found this to be true with my own children, but it sure is with the Hubs. Except on St. Patrick's Day, I don't think he ever remembers that he's Irish at all, and he's a full half. Yet again, I digress.
The Italian Christmas Eve custom is Seven Kinds of Fish. How cool is that? I always wanted to try it. I wanted to make it. When Christmas Eve started happening at our house, I was going to, too, but that's just about when the Hubs turned vegan. And by the way ...
FIL, 100% Italian that he is, eats no fish. None. Eeuw. Neither did his father, I'm told. No Seven Kinds of Fish for these Italian folk.
So Christmas Eve dinner is pasta in red sauce, and shrimp cocktail for those that'll have it, and orange salad. What, you may ask, is orange salad? It's slices of naval oranges arranged on plate, with olive oil drizzled over them, sprinkled with black pepper. Baby, that was a new one on me. And we are all compelled to eat it. I think it may be the only food tradtion the MIL brought with her from her grilled cheese/tuna family.
Tonight, however, K is working until 8 or so, and since the ILs moved real Christmas to Saturday this year, we're home and eating tomorrow, too. So we'll have an actual holiday meal then, and eat less formally tonight. We'll leave the stupid orange thing on a plate in the fridge, and everyone can pick at it. I picked up a tray of shrimp cocktail at the ShopRite this morning. As for pasta, well, macaroni and cheese is always the perfect food for me.
As I've mentioned before, great fun for a Jewish kid to grow up and have a Christmas tree and all the trimmings. Last night I gave my wonderful niece an ornament for her tree, her first this year in her own home. On to Christmas tomorrow.
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I'm watching Willy Wonka
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