My brother-in-law does red fish on the half shell that is out of this world. He's a big time fisherman. I don't know exactly how he does it, but the skin on the bottom of the filet gets crispy, and you can just slide your fork between the skin and flesh and get big chunks of buttery seasoned fish. I'm not sure, but I think he uses lemon pepper, lemon juice, and a ton of butter, maybe something else
. He does his on the grill.
I also don't think you can go wrong with court bouillon (coo-be-yahn). My nephew went to his in-laws last Christmas Eve, who are Cajun, and that's what they had. He raved about it. For Christmas, I think I'd add some more variety of seafood other than just the fish, not sure what all theirs had in it. Baguettes on the side and I'd be a happy camper.
Just for my tastes, I wouldn't put anything sweet on the fish.
Edit to Add - Thought of something else - Cioppino!