From Donna Pilato,
Your Guide to Entertaining.
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In many traditions, particularly Italian, Christmas Eve dinner means an all or partial, multi-course seafood feast. Some households will prepare anywhere from 7 to 13 fishes as part of this meal - a daunting challenge for any home cook. Christmas Eve dinner can also mean many guests at your table as family and friends drop by before or after Christmas vigil church services. This presents a unique problem that hostesses don't usually face - how do you prepare a seafood menu for a crowd? It's easy on other holidays to cook up a turkey or roast when you expect a large number of guests. But many seafood recipes don't take well to advance preparation or large quantity cooking, particularly fried seafood dishes. That's why I recommend planning a menu that avoids the kind of last minute cooking that will keep the hostess tied to her stove during the dinner.

• Begin the meal with an easy appetizer such as shrimp cocktail that can (and should) be prepared hours in advance to permit adequate chilling time. Shrimp Puffs is a dish that can be prepared, frozen, and baked when your guests arrive.
• Follow your cold appetizer with a soup dish. Soups can be made in advance, and often benefit from chilling and reheating. My husband's family always served bacala (cod fish) soup on Christmas Eve. If you're looking for a similar recipe, this recipe for Hearty Alaska Cod Chowder might suit you perfectly.
• A seafood salad course is commonly part of the Christmas Eve menu. Lidia Bastianich has a refreshing King Crab Salad with Citrus Fruit, a perfect dish to lighten up the lengthy Christmas Eve menu. This recipe can easily be multiplied.
• A pasta course might follow the soup in an Italian home. Pasta for a crowd can be tricky unless you're serving a baked dish that can be prepared ahead and baked in time for dinner. Seafood Lasagna is a great make-ahead dish for a crowd.
• I recommend preparing a baked fish recipe for your main course. Use fish fillets that will bake up quickly in the oven after the baked pasta is removed from it. The recipe should be one that can be assembled in advance and refrigerated prior to baking. You don't want something with citrus that will start to cook your fish before you bake it. This recipe for Baked Fish Fillets with Honey-Lemon Butter will serve 100 guests. Don't let that frighten you, it's a very easy recipe. To reduce the quantity, all you'll need is a calculator.

Merry Christmas!