The traditional Christmas Eve when I was growing up was held at my dad's mother's house in Berthoud, Colorado. All the cousins would gather at my Grandma's for a giant opening of presents. Santa Claus would come and all the children were waiting in the den so we only heard Santa come in and ring his sleigh bells and leave. Then, we'd file out into the living room youngest child first to find unwrapped gifts left by Santa arranged on armchairs around the edge of the living room. My cousins would receive kumquats and packages of bacon and cans of black olives. My sister and I would receive home-made doll cradles and dolls.

A couple of times our cousins from back east were there, and I have photographs the dads took of the huge pile of gifts under the tree and the kids rounding the corner from the den flinching and squinting into the bright lights from the 1950s movie camera, little hands held up to shield their eyes.

The way my grandma made oyster stew was just milk/cream with butter melted in it and the oysters added at the last minute. There are fancy recipes out there with celery and onions, but I like it plain, although I add bottled clam juice to give a nice seafood flavor. The quantities are approximate.

1/4 - 1/2 cup butter
1 quart milk
1 pint half-and-half
1 bottle clam juice
Salt and pepper
Fresh oysters, cut up if large

Use a double boiler. Over simmering water melt the butter and add the milk and half-and-half and clam juice. Simmer for about 1/2 hour while you listen to Christmas music and snack on a few raw oysters with catsup/horseradish cocktail sauce. Be sure to use those little cocktail forks that came with Grandma's sterling silver set.

When ready to eat, turn up the heat a little so the milk gets plenty hot, but not so hot it curdles. Drain the oysters and put the juice into the milk. Stir in the oysters and cook just until the edges curl and they come to the surface. It's nice if you count how many oysters went in so you can divide them equally between the servings.


Oyster stew was very popular in the small farm town I grew up in. The Methodist church used to have oyster stew suppers for fund raisers. Of course oysters are an acquired taste, one that Mr. Troutbend never acquired, so as far as he was concerned, oyster stew was hot milk with nasty things in it. One year my sister made a corn chowder so he would have something to eat while we all had the oysters. Her husband's ancestors were from Bavaria and they had a custom of serving Cream of Wheat on Christmas Eve, and there was an almond in one bowl, which meant something for the coming year. A lot of customs are strange-sounding if you didn't grow up with them.

For the rest of the meal we'd have some nice hot yeast rolls, crisp celery sticks, and chocolate candies for dessert. For a red/green touch sometimes my grandma would make tomato aspic, which is tomato or V8 juice with sliced green olives and chopped celery in it and unflavored gelatin to make it jell. It was cut into squares and served on a lettuce leaf, sometimes with a dab of mayonnaise on top.