Our Very Own Christmas...help!

My family is the same way... not wanting to do the same thing Christmas eve and christmas day... so we have a tradition of doing smoked salmon, sweet potatoes, a spinach salad, etc for one of the meals. If everyone likes fish it's a good alternative (since you don't eat red meat.) And it's quite a bit 'lighter' than the traditional Christmas meal, so you don't really feel too guilty! A good, super easy, recipe for chicken that doesn't sound good putting it together, but truly is great... place chicken breasts (6 or so) in a 1inch baking pan (or whatever baking dish that is somewhat deep so the sauce won't spill over) mix together 1 can whole berry cranberry sauce, 1 jar catalina dressing, and 1 package french onion soup. Poor over chicken, and bake how you normally bake your chicken. Again, it's super easy, tastes great, and looks really pretty! Good luck!

I like making tabbouleh salad for Christmas because the colors are so Christmasy (red, green and white primarily) and it's vegetarian, it's alot of chopping, but well worth it and my kids LOVE it. There is no measurements here, I've been making it off the top of my head for years, but here's a good guess....

prepare one box of couscous (you can find it in the health food isle) and set aside. It must be completely cooled before adding it to the other ingredients.

Chop one cucumber, 2 tomatoes, one bunch of green onions, and one bunch of parsley (stemmed). Combine in large bowl.

Add one package of feta cheese crumbled, one small package of pine-nuts or sunflower seeds, and (roughly) 20 kalamata olives. (make sure they are pitted!!)

Squeeze the juice of one lemon into the bowl.

Add the couscous and toss all ingredients.

Salt and pepper to taste.

I say iot's your placeand what you are fixing is fine. If you are not sure everyone wont be satisfied then you can ask you company to bring thieir favorite dish to share.
We are hispanic and so thanksgiving is for turkey and christmas eve is for ham with brownsugar and honey crust, and christmas day we make a big pot of posole. Green chile and chile rellenos. These are things we rarely have. So it is our favs. Good luck and god bless

My husbands family's tradition is shrimp and other hors d'oeuvres. Everyone just munches and enjoys being together. It's nice because it's usually light type things and so not too heavy before the big meal the next day. One thing that's a huge hit is cucumber sandwiches on rye bread. I don't remember right off what you mix into the cream cheese, but they're very yummy and look pretty. Have fun!