It’s that time. The holiday menu. So much to cover! Holiday traditions plus the menu for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas cookies and fun things for the kids. We, like all of you, have our favorites and I am sharing some recipes that we have enjoyed over the years and have become our ‘must haves.’ Truthfully, I love to try new recipes so some items like side dishes and desserts, I will switch up, but they are always anchored by faithful favorites. Last year, I was not hosting for Christmas Day so for Christmas Eve, I decided to take a trip around the world. We served Turkey but along with it, I did a French cheese board as an appetizer. I added a German apple sausage stuffing, some Italian lemon cream shrimp scampi over crostini, and a Spanish frittata. I circled back around to the US for dessert. It was interesting and I got to try my hand at some international cuisine. This year; however, I am back to the traditional Christmas menu.
Why do we eat what we eat anyway?
Not surprisingly, our holiday food traditions go back to our English roots. Charles Dickens made the Christmas Day meal popular in A Christmas Carol, as he depicted the Cratchit family sitting down to celebrate around the table. Later of course, he sends a young boy to buy a huge turkey and sends it to them. Roast beef is also a traditional English menu item. I read that we have England to thank for Christmas cookies and eggnog too. Funny that people always make fun of English cuisine, but we have them to thank for some pretty great culinary traditions. Prior to modern food production practices, if you wanted Turkey, you had to shoot it, making it more the choice of the wealthy. I’m sure there are still plenty of wealthy English estates out there that may still plan a traditional hunt in preparation for the big meal. Scenes of Downton Abbey come to mind. I did go on a quail hunt last year. The clothes were not as glamorous, but the dogs were impressive. Thankfully, no one is relying on me or anyone else to kill something in order to eat our Christmas Day meal.
Christmas Eve Delicious Testimonials
Below is my menu for Christmas Eve. Occasionally, we repeat some traditional favorites from Thanksgiving. I personally think that is fine because it is one meal per year so if there is something your crew really loves, there is no harm in recycling. If the Duchess of Cambridge can do it with outfits, we can do it with food. For this meal, we will have smoked turkey, sweet potato casserole, a holiday salad, rolls, and I am including a couple of good dessert options. I chose the turkey for Christmas Eve because we will be having beef on Christmas Day. The sweet potatoes are a rich, creamy casserole so I think the lighter salad is a good compliment. I have mentioned before that while you can make homemade rolls, Sister Schubert’s Parker House Yeast rolls are a close second and a time saver. I think a fruit option for dessert, such as a berry pie, would go well with the turkey menu. Marie Callender makes a cherry crunch pie with streusel topping that is delicious. Add some Homemade Vanilla Blue Bell ice cream and dessert is done! Go easy on yourself with this ready made option. Let’s face it, you have probably been baking all week and there will more than likely be no shortage of sweets around so cut yourself some slack and buy the pie. I did throw in the homemade blackberry cobbler below as well for another berry dessert option. It is very easy to make and very good. I add more berries than the recipe calls for, just FYI. I have included a link to my page of holiday side dishes where you will find the sweet potato casserole recipe.
Christmas Day Delicious Testimonials
Our Christmas routine starts with my favorite apricot almond coffee cake and breakfast casserole. We read the Christmas story, grab some breakfast, and then slowly start to open gifts one by one. We are usually so full of breakfast that we do not really have much of a lunch in preparation for the big Christmas dinner. For this holiday meal, here is a menu of beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, roasted veggies, raspberry jello salad and a couple of dessert options. My mom stumbled on the coffee cake recipe and started making it every year on Christmas morning. The flavor and texture are both perfect. To coordinate with our sweet breakfast we also have the sausage and egg casserole mentioned in the link below. The beef tenderloin recipe is one of the best I have ever had. I highly recommend it. To compliment the flavor of the beef, I recommend farmhouse style mashed potatoes. Everyone loves potatoes and these are creamy and seasoned just right. I discovered the roasted veggie recipe a couple of years ago and I love it. The brussel sprouts, squash and cranberries will add so much color to your holiday plate, not to mention all the yummy flavor! The Jello-O salad is one of my favorites too. It is something that kids will like and it adds some color and fruit to your menu. We love raspberries at our house so that is why I chose this recipe and have used it over and over but there are great variations out there and this can be an easy win. Again, add some Sister Schubert’s rolls and your meal is complete!
- Holiday Breakfast Recipes
- Breakfast Casserole
- Roast Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine Sauce
- Easy Creamy Mashed Potatoes {Farmhouse Style}
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts and Cinnamon Butternut Squash with Pecans and Cranberries
- Cran-Raspberry Jello Salad
- Chocolate Raspberry Cake
- Best Ever Bread Pudding With Bourbon Sauce
- Red Velvet Cheesecake Brownies
I have included three great options for dessert. One is a chocolate cake, pictured below layered with raspberry filling. I opted for a cream cheese icing instead of the mascarpone but that is just a personal preference. I added some raspberries and garland on top with cinammon and this was a perfect Christmas cake. Cream cheese brownies are one of my favorite go to desserts when I just need some chocolate. This recipe converts them to a red-velvet version and just like that I can have one of my favorites with added Christmas flare. A great, easy chocolate option. This brings me to a confession. I love bread pudding and it is hands down one of my favorite Christmas desserts. We have a phenomenal bread pudding recipe but that is not what I have included here. My husband is pretty good in the kitchen. Annoyingly so. He also just happens to be a BBQ expert. Award winning, trophies, etc. In addition to that, he has some baking skills and the bread pudding recipe is actually his. While I have attempted to pursuade him to grant me permission to share, it remains under lock and key. So, you should just know that both the turkey recipe and the beef tenderloin above are recipes based on his expertise and are amazing. I will continue to work on him but for now, I have included a bread pudding recipe that does have the yummy bourbon sauce that I think is worth a try. I wanted to include a recipe for you to try to think about working bread pudding into your tradition. It is so, so good. I just can’t really comment on this recipe because I have my own hidden somewhere. Now, of course I am not suggesting you make all these desserts. I usually have a couple of options at my house. If you have already made some Christmas cookies, add one of these and you are done! The cake and bread pudding are both big enough that if that is all you make, you have plenty.
Speaking of Christmas cookies, I make these raspberry almond thumbprints every year. They are easy to make and the raspberry and almond flavors combined with the icing makes them delicious. Use a cork to make a good, round indentation in your cookie. Find the recipe on my site below at the link.
Christmas Cookies – Mockingbird Mom
A couple of years ago on our snowman day for the 12 Days of Christmas, I made these Oreo snowmen. They have become a tradition at our house. Add a hat and face to these traditional Oreo balls dipped in white chocolate. My boys love these so they always show up at our house this time of year.
Melted Christmas Snowmen Oreo Balls
Another thing I enjoy that centers around our feasting is a beautiful Christmas table. There are not that many holidays so when they roll around, I try to complete the decor with a some table flare we can enjoy all throughout the season. I love various shades of green and blue and those are the predominant accents at my house, so I stayed with that theme .
I am not going to lie, there has already been a lot of eating going on at our house. A particular DL Khaled song has been running through my mind with just a slight twist on the lyrics…
All I do is eat, eat, eat, no matter what
Christmas goodies on my mind, I can never get enough
And every time I step up in the kitchen,
The number on the scale goes up
And it stays there, and it stays there
Up, down, up, down, up down,
Cause all I do eat, eat, eat…
Anyone else find this familiar?
I am; however, very thankful for all the good food we are enjoying and will continue to enjoy over the next couple of days and likely through next week. I want to wish you great joy and hope that you get to gather with loved ones around the table and enjoy some wonderful holiday favorites.
Let’s eat!
Stay tuned for Day 10 of the 12 Days of Christmas!
