It started small, with delicious homemade pizzas that Christmas Eve gathering. It has developed into some of the wildest and wackiest ideas we can dream up, and many friends of our family can’t wait to hear what we voted on each year.
The early years started with some simple, yet untraditional, ideas such as seafood, Italian, Mexican and Chinese nights. We became bolder with the themes as the years progressed.
Here is how it works:
Each year at our Thanksgiving celebration, members of the family nominate their ideas for an untraditional Christmas meal. Some ideas become instant classics, others get parked to be considered again in the future, and a few are never heard of again.
Each member of the family votes on their favorite ideas until we have a winner.
For instance, this year is a State Dinner. No, not the fancy events you might think of in Washington, D.C. Instead, each adult drew the name of a state in the U.S., and you are responsible for finding and bringing a couple dishes that state is famous for making.
I drew New York, so I am bringing a New York style pizza and New York cheesecake.
Other states my relatives have include North Carolina, Minnesota, Massachusetts, California, Florida and Tennessee. It should produce quite the mix of interesting foods.
Past legendary untraditional Christmas dinner themes included:
— Bacon Night. Every dish had to have some bacon in it. My nephew and his wife hosted, and they smelled bacon in their house for weeks. I think they have forgiven the rest of us by now.
— Birthday Night. Each person had to prepare dishes that were popular in the year of their birth. It involved some research and made the gathering fun, considering the generations of people gathered.
— Around the World Night. We each drew a dish — appetizer, side dish, main dish, dessert — then drew a name of a country and made something from that place.
— Color Night. This one probably will never be repeated, but we drew from one hat to decide if you were making an app, side, main or dessert, then pulled a crayon out of another hat, and the dish had to be that color. (Some of the colors stayed with us for a day or two after.)
Some choices have been so popular that they have been repeated. For instance:
— Sports Stadium Night. Each family brings foods that are popular at sporting events/stadiums. My niece was too young to remember the first time we did this one, so she lobbied for a few years to bring it back. She won us over with a passionate PowerPoint presentation that swayed the needed votes, and we all wore jerseys or T-shirts of our favorite teams.
— Steak on the Grill Night. Yes, on Christmas Eve night, in the snow and cold, I cooked steaks on the grill. It was fun, but cold, and one time, I moved my grill out front so those who were driving by to see the lights in my neighborhood would get a chance to see us being goofy. We had several folks roll down their windows and shout out to us.
— Seafood Boil. Well, actually the seafood boil was a daytime event, but how can you go wrong with shrimp, crab legs, sausage, corn and potatoes with some seasoning to give it a kick?
My relatives and I have friends plus current and former co-workers who each year want to know what the next theme is and to offer their own suggestions, some of which we have used.
Bottom line: make your own holiday traditions without fear of doing something different, and feel free to borrow from this list for your next big family gathering, Christmas or otherwise. You won’t regret it and probably will make some fantastic memories.
Happy Holidays!
(Ben McLaughlin is editor of the Springfield News-Sun and can be reached at ben.mclaughlin@coxinc.com)
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