No meat today, it's Christmas Eve

[ConservativeOne]

You really made me think…and remember !
I DO remember having fish on Christmas Eve…Having to buy fish for Christmas Eve dinner. But I can’t recall if it was required or just a tradition. I hope someone can absolutely clarify this question.
I do not remember it being a day of fast, however. Maybe, in different rites?

 

[JM3]

You really made me think…and remember !
I DO remember having fish on Christmas Eve…Having to buy fish for Christmas Eve dinner. But I can’t recall if it was required or just a tradition. I hope someone can absolutely clarify this question.
I do not remember it being a day of fast, however. Maybe, in different rites?

It was required, until 1966.

newadvent.org/cathen/05647a.htm

The number of vigils in the Roman Calendar besides Holy Saturday is seventeen, viz., the eves of Christmas, the Epiphany, the Ascension, Pentecost, the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, the eight feasts of the Apostles, St. John the Baptist, St. Laurence, and All Saints. Some dioceses and religious orders have particular vigils, e.g. the Servites, on the Saturday next before the feast of the Seven Dolours of Our Lady; the Carmelites, on the eve of the feast of Mount Carmel. In the United States only four of theses vigils are fast days: the vigils of Christmas, Pentecost, the Assumption, and All Saints.

SACRED CONGREGATION OF THE COUNCIL

DECREE

ON THE POSSIBILITY OF ANTICIPATING THE ABSTINENCE AND FASTING OF THE VIGIL OF THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

Favorable to the requests of numerous Bishops of several Nations, Our Holy Lord Pope John XXIII, through the present Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, has deigned to grant to all the faithful of the Catholic world henceforth the possibility of anticipating the obligation of fasting and abstinence from the twenty-fourth, Vigil of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to the twenty-third day of the month of December.

Given in Rome, December 3, 1959.

P. Card. CIRIACI, Prefect

P. Palazzini, Secretary​

[Source: AAS 1959 (918); translation: Rorate]

vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-vi_apc_19660217_paenitemini_en.html

Paenitemini doesn’t mention fasting and abstinence for vigils.

 

[Megan7]

It was required, until 1966.

newadvent.org/cathen/05647a.htm

SACRED CONGREGATION OF THE COUNCIL

DECREE

ON THE POSSIBILITY OF ANTICIPATING THE ABSTINENCE AND FASTING OF THE VIGIL OF THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST

Favorable to the requests of numerous Bishops of several Nations, Our Holy Lord Pope John XXIII, through the present Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, has deigned to grant to all the faithful of the Catholic world henceforth the possibility of anticipating the obligation of fasting and abstinence from the twenty-fourth, Vigil of the Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, to the twenty-third day of the month of December.

Given in Rome, December 3, 1959.

P. Card. CIRIACI, Prefect

P. Palazzini, Secretary​

[Source: AAS 1959 (918); translation: Rorate]

vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-vi_apc_19660217_paenitemini_en.html

Paenitemini doesn’t mention fasting and abstinence for vigils.

Thanks.

 

[babochka]

It doesn’t matter what tradition you have dug up The Church does NOT require us to abstain from eating meat on Christmas Eve.

Isn’t this forum about Catholic traditions? How wonderful that some still keep to traditions,whether they are required to or not. You don’t have to, but what on earth is wrong with somebody else wanting to?

I hope you all enjoyed yourselves by tucking into a nice juicy steak.

Nope. I fasted all day and greatly enjoyed a meatless and dairy-less meal in the evening, as the tradition and particular law of my Church requires. I enjoyed Prime Rib on Christmas Day.

 

[johnthebaptist2]

We had meat on Christmas Eve,the only time we fast from eating meat is durning Lent.

 

[Big_Feet]

It doesn’t matter what tradition you have dug up The Church does NOT require us to abstain from eating meat on Christmas Eve.

I hope you all enjoyed yourselves by tucking into a nice juicy steak.

(emphasis mine)
Doing a little bit of research on the internet, I have found that this tradition that the OP has “dug up” is a former valid practice in the history of our Church.
What you have said above could be said by some about the EF or other forms of the mass still in occasional use in the Roman Rite.
You are right, that the Church does not require us to abstain from meat on Christmas eve, just as in the US it does not require us to abstain on Fridays outside of Lent, but it is a practice MANY still do.
Traditions can change. Traditions can stay the same. It is nice to see some of these 't’raditions remaining in pockets around our faith family. It reminds us of where we have come from!

 

[jilly4ski]

This is interesting. I wonder if this is where the tradition in my family, of having oyster stew (Blech) on Christmas Eve came from. We don’t do it anymore, because no one except my mother likes it, but oh well.