Christmas Menu

I have so many fond memories with my family surrounding the holidays and good food. My dad loves to cook and has always spent a lot of time planning and preparing wonderful meals for our family.  As a  young child we would always have a huge Scandinavian feast on Christmas Eve with my Great Grandparents and the rest of my dad's family before exchanging gifts. Tables would be decorated with wooden horses, candles, mini Swedish and Norwegian flags and plates would be full of Swedish meatballs, fish, cheese, eggs, sausages and spritz cookies.  I remember my mom making leftse, krumkake and sandbakkel. My grandma on her side still mails me little packages of leftse around the holidays. We also had a tradition of having a English Christmas in honor of my step-mom Barbara and her mother. That meal includes a standing rib-roast, yorkshire pudding, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes and gravy. We finish the night with party-poppers containing paper crowns and silly toys (why does my dad ALWAYS get the annoying kazoo!?). As a new mom I really want to start establishing some family traditions of our own for my children to remember. This year we had our "English Christmas" with my parents in Florida in early November and we aren't going to Brad's hometown until after Christmas because of his job responsibilities.

It was the perfect time to try my hand at some old family recipes and create a holiday menu for our family to have for the years to come. I would be lying if I said that my heart wasn't a little sad that my mom couldn't just come over and spend all day baking with me to show me how it was all done. She always made Christmas and the holidays so special for us. But instead of sitting around in grief and feeling sorry for myself I will use her as my inspiration to create wonderful memories for my own children.

I love to cook so I hade to much fun working on this menu. Hopefully I can add to it in the years to come! I wanted to blog this so I can remember what I made and where I bought things. . . also to share some great recipes. So here it is!

Christmas Eve

Breakfast

Fresh Christmas doughnuts from McArthurs in Kirkwood

Lunch/Dinner- Smorgasbord

Swedish Meatballs (I used this delicious/perfect recipe)

Potato Sausages from Hanlen's Meat Market

Deviled Eggs

Cheeses, crackers and fruit from Trader Joe's-we opted for triple cream brie and blue cheese

Checker board and Brussels cookies from this cookbook. (I will try my hand at a few more next year!)

*Next year I will also try to make Glögg but we didn't have enough people to drink it this year and Lord knows Brad and I don't need to be drinking the entire batch ourselves.

Christmas Day

Breakfast

Sausage and Egg Breakfast Casserole- found here and made the night before.

Fruit cups- Grapefruit, oranges, clementines and strawberries cut & served in half of a grapefruit.

Sparkling Cranberry Juice- from Trader Joe's

Lunch/Dinner

Ham from Honey Baked Ham- there is seriously no better ham in the whole.wide.world. Don't tell me what's in it, ok? Ignorance is bliss and it is just once a year! I can eat my weight in this stuff. I tried calling to see what was in their ham and they wouldn't tell me because it is a secret recipe. Is that legal? Knowing me, it was for the best. ;) I digress. . .

Mashed Potatoes and gravy

Steamed green beans (I prefer brussel sprouts but the kids do NOT)

Whole Wheat Dinner Rolls

Spiced Cider

Merry Christmas to you and yours!!!