Christmas Recap 2024: Food, Traditions, What Worked and Other Notes

I think this was my favourite Christmas from adulthood.

The kids were healthy. The adults were (mostly) healthy. The food was amazing. We had a white Christmas. The kids were old enough to sleep in, help with cleanup, and entertain themselves. We lingered over gifts. We savoured food. We were surrounded by family. We burned a rather alarming number of candles.

I am also feeling very ready for this holiday season to be over. It has been busy. Company arrived before the kids finished school for their holiday break, and said company won’t leave until after the kids go back to school. A few days after that…more company arrives. It has been a truly wonderful time and I wouldn’t change anything about the last few weeks. (I will also add that if anyone wants some exceptionally easy houseguests who will help with cooking, cleaning, and grocery shopping might I suggest inviting either Kyria or my brother and sister-in-law; I highly recommend both.)

But.

I am an introvert who thrives on copious amounts of quiet time and mid-January will be a welcome change of pace.

I have a gift recap post and all the details about our annual Christmas morning clue hunt for the kids still to come (better late than never), but today I thought I’d do a quick overview of Christmas 2024 logistics.

FOOD HIGHLIGHTS

Christmas Adam:

• Seafood casserole. This is John’s favourite meal of the entire year and it has become a Christmas Adam tradition. We serve this with rice, and dessert was pumpkin and pecan pies (always store-bought, never homemade – life is way too short to make pastry). This year I also roasted some cauliflower and broccoli.

Christmas Eve:

• A tradition from my childhood is having pizza on Christmas Eve. We’ve adopted the same habit in our family and this year planned to order pizza (instead of making it at home) for the first time. The weather had other plans. Because of a fairly significant snow storm, the roads were not in ideal condition and at the last minute we pivoted – cancelling our order and making homemade pizzas (donair and pepperoni) on Naan bread. Served with a salad and homemade Christmas goodies like peanut butter balls. Delicious.
• For supper, we had homemade Mac n’ Cheese and homemade brown rolls – both courtesy of my mom.

Christmas Day:

• Cinnamon coffee cake (monkey bread). A beloved tradition that has already spanned generations! Served alongside plain yogurt, fruit, orange juice, and eggs + bacon.

• We skipped lunch and ended up having a late-afternoon supper of open-faced croissants with ham/cheese and tuna. We also had a fruit and veggie tray. Dessert was Unbaked Cherry Cheesecake.

Boxing Day:

• Turkey dinner! We had a late breakfast, a mid-afternoon snack, and then an early (4:30 pm) supper. I cooked the turkey a bit early and my brother carved it and then we kept it warm in a slow cooker while we finished the rest of the dishes. Maple syrup glazed carrots in a(nother) slow cooker, baked potatoes, Stove Top, bread and butter pickles, homemade brown rolls, cranberry sauce (purchased), canned corn, gravy. Dessert was leftover pie and cheesecake.

New Years Eve:

• That take-out pizza we had to cancel on Christmas Eve? We ended up ordering in on New Years Eve and invited some friends over for supper. They brought a smorgasbord of items, we had a veggie tray, and then there was ice cream and/or homemade chocolate peanut butter cheesecake (made by John and every bit as delicious as it sounds).

TRADITIONS

• Ornaments on Christmas Eve.

• The food order listed above has pretty concretely become a tradition.
• A Christmas-morning treasure/clue hunt. More details to come!

• Writing Bible verses on gift tags as clues. This is one of our favourite traditions and it makes the whole experience of opening gifts last longer. It’s so fun to see people guess the contents of their package based on (often obscure) Bible verses.

THINGS THAT WORKED WELL

• Watching a show with Belle on Christmas morning. It really helped keep the kids happy until my parents/brother and SIL were ready. We didn’t start opening gifts until about 9:00 am, so kudos to the kids for their patience. This year we snuggled in her room and watched A Charlie Brown Christmas on a laptop. John and Indy watched a car YouTuber they both enjoy. It all felt very festive and calm.

• An adventure on Christmas Day. We did some outdoor walks and it was lovely.

• Having two meals on Christmas Day instead of three. This made life easier AND we all felt less lethargic. John is a whiz at creating delicious sandwiches and flaky croissant sandwiches on Christmas Day felt practically perfect.
• Cleaning up after stockings (before breakfast), and then again after gifts. By the end of the afternoon I had all the Christmas gift bags, boxes, and bows mostly organized. It felt so good!
• Minimizing leftovers. We have a small apartment-sized fridge and it was very helpful to not have an excess of food at any given time. We accomplished this by going to the grocery store more frequently and not making too much extra food at each meal.
• Generally having outdoor time over the holidays. Fresh air + more time off screens + exercise. The snow added to the appeal.

• Playing games. Buzzword and Telestrations were especially enjoyed.

• Opening gifts one at a time. This gets easier and easier as the kids get older. Indy tires of the slow pace and we sent him off to play with LEGO when he started getting antsy. Because we had extra people in the house and they had brought their own gifts for each other from Denmark, there were a lot of fun surprises (I enjoy watching what other people receive even more than opening my own gifts). Extending the day as long as possible makes all the work that goes into preparations feel more rewarding.
• Other than Christmas morning, never doing anything special for breakfast. I made sure there was milk, cereal, toast, fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, and various spreads (butter, honey, jam, peanut butter) and then I let people pick what they wanted to eat for breakfast…when they wanted to eat it. It made cooking for a crowd feel less onerous.

THINGS I’D DO DIFFERENTLY

This is very nitpicky, as I really wouldn’t feel the need to change anything.

• Only attending one Christmas Eve service. I sang in the choir and that meant being at church from 3:00 – 7:00 pm. It was lovely, but I think I would have enjoyed coming home after the first service and hopping into my PJs.
• I’d watch more holiday movies. I didn’t watch either Grinch this year (for perhaps the first time in my life). I didn’t watch very many Hallmark movies. I don’t necessarily love spending time on the couch watching movies when I could be reading or blogging BUT it also helps makes the season feel extra festive. In 2023, most evenings were capped off with a Hallmark movie and I really liked the vibe and flow of that habit.
• I’d make a few more finger-food desserts. Extra peanut butter balls, saltine toffee, and peanut butter brittle bars. All were a huge hit and because we had extra people, my normal recipes didn’t make quite enough to last us through the holiday.

Your turn.

• What are your go-to Christmas meals. Do they happen at very specific times/dates each year?
• What worked well this year in your holiday celebrations?
• What didn’t work well – or, what would you like to function differently next year?