What? I don’t make a traditional Christmas dinner at our house? Well, it’s traditional…for us. But it’s not normal for most.
First, let’s talk about how much I love Christmas. I MEAN I LOVE IT. So much. I go all out at Christmas and I don’t feel bad about it. (Though it’s going to look different from past years simply because we have so many kids now! It’s going to have to be smaller simply because we’re bigger. Eh?)
Current family count: 14
2 parents, 6 sons, 4 foster daughters, 1 daughter-in-law, and 1 very serious girlfriend.
This is amazing.
Side-note: If you’re going to date a Coppinger, you need to love babies.
Christmas last year looked like this:
But of course, that was before we filled our “loving room” with people.
And I mean FILLED. It gets nuts. The baby gate can’t handle how crazy this is. I have so much fun spoiling everyone at Christmas and in short: I don’t want to cook that day.
But Laura. You love to cook!
Yes, but not on Christmas day. I don’t want to miss one second of our Christmas fun! And there’s something else:
We eat turkey at Thanksgiving. Sometimes ham. Plus several days of leftovers. So we kind of want something different for Christmas.
What is our traditional Christmas dinner?
Lasagna, baby. It’s a family favorite and after so many years, it is now our Christmas favorite.
My personal favorite thing about lasagna for Christmas is that I can make it weeks ahead of time and freeze it. Then I pull it out and bake it low and slow while we’re enjoying our gifts. Mid-afternoon when we come up for air, we head into the kitchen and eat lasagna with salad and sparkling juice.
It’s easy. It’s delicious. It’s one of our favorite traditions!
I’m chuckling at this picture because it’s an old one from back in the day when one 9×13 pan would be enough to feed our family. Now I usually make huge lasagnas in these. They freeze great. And then we throw the pan away.
(Wow have I changed a little bit from back in the new HeavenlyHomemaker days, huh? Aluminum pans? Chuck it after using it? Yes. I’ve learned that people are a much more important focus and I don’t feel bad about taking some shortcuts so I can instead focus on people.)
How to Make Lasagna Ahead of Time
- This is the easiest way to make lasagna ahead of time. I make several at once.
- Freeze it.
- Cover it with foil, put it into a COLD oven, turn the oven to 250 degrees, and let it bake for 3 hours or until cooked through and through.
So there you have it. We enjoyed turkey at Thanksgiving. We got tired of turkey. I don’t want to mash potatoes on Christmas day. We eat Lasagna.
God bless us everyone.
What’s your traditional Christmas dinner?
This has become our tradition also! It’s wonderful! My mom will also make Chicken Tetrazzini, which has become our whole family tradition when we’re all together, and she freezes it and does the same thing. With the salad and bread, it’s easy and delicious! Guess what I’m making next week for our quiet family day on Christmas day? Yes! Your lasagna!
I have never cared for the traditional foods at Thanksgiving or CHRISTmas.
When I was growing up my mother owned a few different restaurants. She served Chicken and Dressing every week. She also had 7 or 8 different vegetables every day. I just saw so much of it I really am not a bog fan of big meals.
I used to do burgers for CHRISTmas. Now I am older I do not have get togethers any more. It is too much work for me.
We do hamburgers too and everyone is cool with that tradition!?
We have Mexican food. It’s delicious! I use to make tamales and posole. Now I buy the tamales and I’m going to make it real simple. Tamales, rice, beans, salad and chips and salsa. I think I’ll make the rice and beans ahead of time. Thanks for your lovely ideas and your beautiful family. God bless you and keep you this Christmas and always.
OOPS!!! Just noticed that said bog fan instead of big fan. HA!!
Thank you for the tip on how to cook this after freezing this, Laura. I’m assuming that you thaw it first before baking at 250, is that correct? Since I’ve never done this before, I want to be sure. I think we’re going to use your lasagna recipe for Christmas day since we have a church service that morning, and I love the idea of putting this in the oven before we leave and coming home to a lovely finished lasagna.
I actually bake it from its frozen state for 3 hours at 250. :)
Thank you, Laura! I’ll definitely have to try this! Great idea! Thank you!
Our family does a finger food potluck. Super easy and we can just snack all day in between games and conversation.
We don’t do a traditional Christmas dinner as well for the same reasons. I like being in on the fun rather than cooking and cleaning. So I pick something fun like chili and toppings or one year we did steamed hotdogs and lots of stuff to put on them! Of course lots and lots of cookies every year.
With you on the nontraditional! We host family Christmas for my side of the family, and we instituted Mexican style buffet with store bought cheesecake (we like the sampler cheesecakes for variety). The only thing that actually gets homemade is the meat (which I make ahead and freeze, then pop in the crockpot day of). Everything else is from the store. Guests enjoy being able to just bring shredded cheese or sour cream instead of transporting a hot dish, and it’s also a great change of pace from traditional holiday fare. I’m able to visit, not hover in the kitchen juggling food; it’s lovely! Also, it’s great for picky guests, since there’s usually SOMETHING they like on the sideboard.
This has been my tradition also, for about the last 5 years. But since it’s Christmas and I’m tired, I buy one meat lasagna and one vegetarian lasagna from the famous Italian place near us. My biggest splurge. I used to do ham, macaroni and cheese, homemade buns, etc. I’m a much more relaxed mama these days.
Laura,
I made one the other day and put it in the freezer. I used the uncooked noodles. Do you still add the 1/2 cup water, or just put it in frozen at 250 and leave it? Merry Christmas!
I still add 1/2 cup water!
Some years, we have steak. My grandmother buys a large cut and we slice off pieces to grill. My dad keeps a list of how everyone likes theirs for future holiday meals.
I know I probably “missed the point” of this post but I just wanted to thank you for the short bit where you talked about chucking the aluminum pan because people are more important. For most of my homemaking journey I’ve been focused on the small details & doing it all from scratch – isn’t that always the ideal? I’m in a new, hard & frankly scary season of life right now & for the first time in my children’s lives I bought grocery store bakery goodies for a birthday & just added my own sprinkles. Guess what? I wasn’t less of a mom. Everyone raved over those treats & we had a great time. For Christmas I bought break & bake chocolate chip cookies on the 24th. My kiddo & I rolled them in Christmas sprinkles & shoved lollipop sticks in before baking. Suddenly those “last on the shelf” cookies were a new Christmas Cookie On A Stick tradition with my child & a special memory. I pretty much just wrote my own post in your comments lol but that bit you shared was just very validating in this season. Thank you!!