In my family, while growing up, Christmas Eve was always a big seafood feast. The event usually began in the afternoon when my grandmother came over to stand side by side with my mom frying fish in the kitchen. We began our meal with shrimp cocktail, moved on to spaghetti with anchovy sauce (oil and garlic for the more timid), and then finished with an assortment of fried smelts, eels, shrimp, and flounder. I'm not sure if we ever hit the classic seven fishes that many Italians enjoy on Christmas Eve, but to my young palate, we had more than enough seafood. Now that I'm married, our seafood is scaled back a little bit, with less fried food, and the addition of other varieties. My husband brought bacala (cod fish) into the mix, and he insists it isn't the holiday without it. Here's a seafood menu that will work if you plan to entertain a crowd as we always did on the eve. What is your traditional Christmas Eve dinner? Share it with us in the comments section below.