So many of our holiday celebrations center around food. The meals we share with friends and family at Christmas are the wellspring of memories that we carry with us and share with the subsequent generations.
Open Door number 24 if you’re feeling peckish.
December 24, 2025
This is it! The big night is here. It’s Christmas Eve!
All of the shopping, baking, parties, and wrapping are done. Tonight, we’ll enjoy a festive meal with friends and family, perhaps attend a midnight service, and hang our stockings. Children everywhere hope Santa will bring them their fondest wish while grownups reflect on the gift of Salvation. It’s a big night. But first, we eat.
Whether you prepare an elaborate Feast of the Seven Fishes or order your favorite takeout, Christmas Eve meals launch the festivities which carry into the feast day of the Nativity of the Lord. Every family has its own tradition that they enjoy. Sometimes it’s passed on to the next generation, and sometimes new traditions are born and take off. Dinner on Christmas Eve is an integral part of the celebration.
I asked my husband what his Italian family did for Christmas Eve. His uncle owned a pizza place in Queens, NY, and made pizzas for the whole family. That sounds like a lot of fun! I can imagine the smell of fresh dough and tomato sauce. The warmth from the kitchen combined with laughter and conversation must have been intoxicating. His uncle’s generosity and talent made for an evening to remember.
Meanwhile, here in Massachusetts, my father brought home Chinese food from his friend’s restaurant in Boston’s Chinatown. The cuisine was authentic. There was nothing else like it and we looked forward to it eagerly. While sitting in traffic, Dad would sometimes “sample” an hors d’oeuvre. He called it his delivery fee! His friend learned to double the order of Dad’s favorite treat so they’d survive the trip. We laughed at the half empty container when he unpacked the bag.
The memories we gather from these meals while in the on-deck circle for Christmas, often turn out to be our fondest. The gathering is usually smaller and the atmosphere more relaxed than Christmas Day. On Christmas itself, meal preparations are ongoing while wrapping paper is gathered up and everyone gets dressed and goes to Mass. There’s not much time to breathe before the guests begin to arrive. Tonight, while you eat your fish or low mein, absorb the moments; they are the next stitches in the tapestry of your Christmas memories.
We’ll be dining with my mother tonight. I asked her what she’d like to eat. We ran through a list of delicious options from Thai takeout to meatloaf. It all sounded good to her. When I asked what she really, really wanted, she said, “Honestly, I don’t care what we eat. All I want is your company.” On this Christmas Eve, indecision may keep us hungry, but rest assured, our hearts are full.
Merry Christmas, friends.
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