I’ve wanted to write this blog post for several years but finally got around to gathering the perfect seafood recipes for yall. Though we aren’t Italian, we have celebrated the Feast of the Seven Fishes in some way every December. Traditionally, it’s meant to be celebrated Christmas Eve, but I find any excuse to eat a ton of seafood the perfect dinner party theme. Seafood is elegant, fancy, and sometimes a little more high-dollar than the traditional meal so it’s perfect for a Christmas celebration. As they always do when it comes to food, I think the Italians truly have this one figured out. I can’t think of a better way to celebrate Christmas Eve!
Here are some things to know about Feast of the Seven Fishes:
- It’s a very common, traditional, old school Italian Christmas Eve Celebration.
- Though it’s called Feast of the Seven Fishes, sometimes even more fish, shellfish, seafood are consumed. Many Italians may serve 8, 9, 10+ fish dishes!
- There are several different stories of how it came about or why it’s celebrated: some say it’s symbolic of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church, others say it was started as a way to fast and go meat-free before the bog meal on Christmas Day.
- Not every Italian celebrates it the same, it varies from family to family, and not all Italians do this on Christmas Eve. Just like everywhere else, every family has their own different traditions.
Here’s why it’s the perfect Christmas Eve or Holiday Dinner Party celebration:
- Christmas food can sometimes seem repetitive of Thanksgiving. This changes things up a bit.
- If you’re a seafood lover (and I hope you are), there is truly no better meal than sitting down for a literal feast of fish and shellfish!
- Seafood is light, clean, and mostly healthy so you will go into Christmas day ready to eat big and heavy.
- Seafood is hands-down the quickest, easiest, simple type of food to cook and serve.
- Aside from the actual fish, you only need a few ingredients (most of which you probably have on hand) to cook seafood: butter, olive oil, garlic, herbs, lemon, salt. So, it’ll be the easiest grocery trip you’ve ever had for a big gathering!
- You don’t have to do a full seven dishes to host Feast of Seven Fishes. Just put several different seafoods in a few dishes.
- Seafood cooks fast and sits well at room temperature so most of this can be cooked ahead.
- A lot of seafood can be refrigerated before serving (tuna dip, shrimp cocktail) so half of the meal/appetizers can be made early.
- Seafood can be cooked multiple ways grill/stovetop/oven – so you can have several dishes cooking at once, ready to be put on the table all at once.
- There is nothing that will make families linger longer at a dinner table laughing, talking, and carrying on than picking at a whole fish. When there’s a big, whole fish at the table, you have to pick the bones out while eating it, so you eat slower, talk longer, and have more fun together!
- Seafood is simply the best! It’s easy to deal with, however it’s extremely elegant, sometimes a little more expensive, so it’s truly the perfect Christmas meal!
