In addition to attending midnight Mass, I grew up with two other Christmas traditions: watching “Christmas Vacation” and a Christmas Eve appetizer spread that almost always included BBQ slow cooker meatballs.

As I am now a vegetarian, I am adapting this easy recipe with some veggie balls. This recipe is also vegan and makes four saucy “servings.”

Ingredients
1 12.7-ounce package frozen vegan meatballs
1 8.6-ounce bottle barbecue sauce

Instructions
Pour the meatballs and barbecue sauce into your slow cooker. We used a yummy low FODMAP chipotle BBQ sauce for ours.

Cook them for two hours on high, stirring occasionally.

Serve as part of an appetizer or snack spread or eat them on a sandwich! During the recipe test, I enjoyed mine with some gluten-free pita bread.

The Easy Route
This is already very easy, but you could get some vegan meatballs that have already been sauced to heat up or find a restaurant that makes vegan barbecue meatballs for you to pick up.

It’s also an option to cook them up in the microwave if you need a quicker option.

The Pairing
The “Vacation” movies were a big part of my childhood, and as I mentioned above, watching “Christmas Vacation” was an annual tradition.

If you haven’t seen the movie, it follows the Griswolds as they have a bunch of family visiting for Christmas, bringing both the joys and stressors of the holiday season with them.

The film centers on Clark (Chevy Chase) as he slowly goes from being Christmas’s biggest cheerleader to a massive meltdown just in time for Christmas. Beverly D’Angelo is perfect as always as his wife, Ellen.

Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) makes a surprise appearance with his wife and some of his kids in tow, only adding to the chaos at the Griswold house.

As I’ve gotten older, it’s been fun to pick up on different things, like this movie being a glimpse of the talent of Juliette Lewis and Johnny Galecki as they play the Griswold kids.

As I’ve gotten more into classic films, I’ve also started to recognize more of the older actors, including Diane Ladd as Clark’s mom and Doris Roberts as Ellen’s mom.

Every part of this movie combines to make it a classic, down to the Grinch-esque neighbors (Nicholas Guest and Julia Louis Dreyfus) and the fun animated opening credits.

What movies do you watch every Christmas? Share them in the comments.

Let us know if you make BBQ veggie meatballs and/or watch “Christmas Vacation!” Tag us in your Instagram posts & stories, tweets or TikTok videos: @veg_out_recipes