Christmas drinks plans!

I always enjoy this thread over on the UK Wine Forum so thought I would give this thread idea a run here. Sure some of us have some festive meals planned.
Tonight pizza and stollen but with no Chianti in the cellar, have dug out a 2015 Peloro Nerello Mascalese from Sicily. The wine was gifted to me a while back so hopefully near its peak with the pizza. Just 3 of us this evening, Covid restrictions et al.

Look forward to all the food/wine planning ideas. Roast Beef on Christmas Day.

I always enjoy this thread over on the UK Wine Forum so thought I would give this thread idea a run here. Sure some of us have some festive meals planned.
Tonight pizza and stollen but with no Chianti in the cellar, have dug out a 2015 Peloro Nerello Mascalese from Sicily. The wine was gifted to me a while back so hopefully near its peak with the pizza. Just 3 of us this evening, Covid restrictions et al.

Look forward to all the food/wine planning ideas. Roast Beef on Christmas Day.

Bob, for me roast beef would call for a good Bordeaux or a top Tuscan Sangiovese. As it happens, we have just eaten some succulent beef from Galicia in Spain and we paired it very successfully with a Fèlsina Fontalloro 2003 from near Siena.

I think Germaine has in mind goose for Christmas day and I think I will choose mature Burgundy to go with that but will I dare to choose one from Rousseau whose prices have now reached stupidly high levels?

BTW, I have just learned that since late June I am French as well as British.

[David M. Bueker]

We're likely doing Chinese take out, as the big dinner is planned for Christmas Eve. So I expect there will be German Riesling.

[Jenise]

Bob, I haven't even begun to think about wines yet for Christmas Eve, our standard celebration day. I am having the Booze Group over for a cognac tasting on Monday, which will be a holiday-ish affair. I'll be able to think more clearly after that.

We're likely doing Chinese take out, as the big dinner is planned for Christmas Eve. So I expect there will be German Riesling.

Is main celebration on Christmas Eve (Jenise too) normal practice in the USA? It is in France and Belgium and probably in most other European countries, but not in the UK. As an Anglo/Belgian family, we compromised by having celebration dinners on both days, which is tough on the waistline and the liver .

Additionally in Belgium and the Netherlands (and probably in many other countries), a big thing is made of St.Nicolas' day (6th December), when Santa Claus distributes presents to the kids accompanied by Père Fouettard or Zwarte Piet, who threatens naughty kids with punishment if they do not behave. Zwarte Piet is the subject nowadays of overwhelming Political Correctness objections owing to his traditionally black face. In our family we never made anything of St. Nicolas day.

Last year I had Xmas day wines carefully planned for my son and his partner who were coming from Wales to spend Xmas with us; after a Lanson Black Label Champagne aperitif we'd have a 5 and 10 year old Kanonkop Estate Pinotage with the turkey roast, and because they have much greater capacity than me, a 15 and 20 year old ready to open, followed by a sticky with flaming Xmas pud.

But a last minute lock down scuppered that - so we shared a Champagne aperitif over Zoom....

This year (like last year) Boris promised faithfully that we could have get-togethers at Christmas, but the rising numbers of Omicron variant infections have got the medical advisors demanding another lockdown immediately and the news outlets are reporting the Govt are drawing up plans for one.

So, we have the darned turkey being delivered Wednesday, but whether our guests will arrive that evening is looking increasingly doubtful. Depends not only on what Boris says but also the Welsh Govt.

Therefore I am not even thinking of what wines to have....if the son & partner do come, they can choose. I'll print out a list from CellarTracker.

[David M. Bueker]

We're likely doing Chinese take out, as the big dinner is planned for Christmas Eve. So I expect there will be German Riesling.

Is main celebration on Christmas Eve (Jenise too) normal practice in the USA? It is in France and Belgium and probably in most other European countries, but not in the UK. As an Anglo/Belgian family, we compromised by having celebration dinners on both days, which is tough on the waistline and the liver .

Additionally in Belgium and the Netherlands (and probably in many other countries), a big thing is made of St.Nicolas' day (6th December), when Santa Claus distributes presents to the kids accompanied by Père Fouettard or Zwarte Piet, who threatens naughty kids with punishment if they do not behave. Zwarte Piet is the subject nowadays of overwhelming Political Correctness objections owing to his traditionally black face. In our family we never made anything of St. Nicolas day.

We just do it out of convenience, and have gotten into the habit. Our Christmas holidays always involve a bunch of travel, and Christmas Day itself is so full of other things that cooking a big meal feels like one thing too many.

No travel plans here. In fact on Christmas Boxing day am helping deliver dinner to needy senior citizens.

Have some nice duck breasts ready to go here, will braise in a red wine sauce with shallots and herbs. Not sure on the wine matchup at this moment?

[Jenise]

Bob, you're a good person.

Tim, to answer your question, it's all over the place. I know as many people who do Xmas day as do just the Eve. Growing up, our big dinner was Xmas Eve, which Grandma would join us for. That night we could open presents from her and from friends. In the morning, we kids would open our Santa gifts which would magically appear in the living room overnight. I have zero memory of any special food that day--any meal--(and I would remember as I was born loving every tradition around food). The meal was usually a ham or leg of lamb given that we'd just had turkey for Thanksgiving.

Bob's family tradition was similar so we've never changed our ways. Our Christmas Eve dinner is always prime rib, creamed spinach and yorkshire pudds for the main. I have added the tradition of corned beef hash and champagne for Xmas breakfast. Seems a natural, given the red color of the beef and the addition of green bell peppers I love.