Every December the same question comes around: what are we making for Christmas dinner?
Below are Christmas dinner ideas for every part of the meal, from the main dish down to dessert. Pick the ones that sound like your family.
Then there’s the part most menus skip. Once you find a Christmas dinner you love, you can make it every single year, and build a timeline once that does the planning for you from then on.
That’s how I do it, and it’s the reason Christmas Day stopped feeling like a project.
Table of Contents
Christmas dinner main dish ideas
The main dish sets the tone for everything else, so start here.
Ham. One of the easiest Christmas mains there is, since most hams come fully cooked and only need warming through.
It feeds a crowd, the leftovers go a long way, and a glaze in the last half hour is all the fuss it needs.
Turkey. If you skipped it at Thanksgiving, Christmas is the other natural home for it.
It takes the most oven time of anything on this list, so it shapes your whole timeline.
Prime rib or beef tenderloin. The splurge option, and the one that feels most like a special occasion.
It’s also the most expensive per serving, so it works best when it’s the one thing you spend on.
Pot roast. Not the traditional pick, and that’s exactly why it works.
It’s forgiving, it cooks low and slow without much attention, and a chuck roast costs far less than prime rib while feeding just as many people. It’s what we have every year.
Roast chicken. A good choice for a smaller table, when a whole ham or turkey is more food than you need.
Christmas dinner side dish ideas
Sides are where you can stretch the meal and make it feel generous.
Potatoes. Mashed, roasted, or cooked right alongside the main dish. Everybody eats them.
Green beans. Simple, quick, and they add some color to a plate that’s otherwise mostly brown and gold.
Mac and cheese. The side kids ask for first. Homemade holds up far better than the boxed kind on a holiday table.
Salad. The one lighter thing on a heavy plate, and it takes almost no time.
Rolls. Warm rolls with butter round out any Christmas dinner and soak up the gravy.
Other favorites if you want more: glazed carrots, roasted Brussels sprouts, stuffing, corn casserole, or sweet potatoes.
Christmas dinner appetizer ideas
Appetizers hold everyone off while the main dish finishes, and they keep people out of your kitchen.
- A cheese ball with crackers, made two days ahead
- Shrimp cocktail straight from the fridge
- A charcuterie or snack board
- Deviled eggs
- Meatballs kept warm in a slow cooker
- A veggie tray with dip
Keep it to two or three. Nobody needs a full appetizer spread when a big dinner is coming, and fewer means less to prep.
Christmas dinner dessert ideas
End on something you can make before the day starts.
Cheesecake. The perfect make-ahead dessert, since it has to chill for hours anyway.
Make it a day or two early and it’s finished before Christmas morning even begins.
Pie. Pumpkin, pecan, or apple, and all of them can be baked the day before.
Cookies. If you’ve been baking all December, a plate of cookies counts as dessert.
Trifle or a layered dessert. Assembled ahead in a big glass bowl, and it looks impressive with very little work.
Why I make the same Christmas dinner every year
Here’s the part that changed Christmas for me.
We eat the same meal every year. Same main, same sides, same dessert.
By the time we get to Christmas dinner, decision fatigue is real. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. Guessing what my kids will want to eat. I want something that’s a guaranteed winner.
It sounds boring until you try it.
When the menu never changes, there’s nothing to plan. The grocery list is the same list. You already know how much to buy, what goes in the oven when, and how long everything takes.
It also turns the meal into a tradition. Kids start expecting it, which means they start looking forward to it.
You don’t have to eat the same thing forever. But finding a Christmas dinner your family loves and keeping it for a few years takes most of the work out of the day.
Our Christmas dinner menu
Here’s the meal we make every year:
- Pot roast
- Potatoes
- Green beans
- Homemade mac and cheese, made from scratch
- Salad
- Rolls
- Make-ahead cheesecake
It’s a comfortable, filling meal that doesn’t need a lot of fancy steps, and most of the work either happens days ahead or cooks on its own.
The timeline below is built around this exact menu. If yours is different, the same structure still works, you just swap in your own dishes.
The Christmas dinner timeline you can reuse
This is the part that makes a repeat menu so easy. You build it once, then use it every December.
The trick is to work backward from when you sit down to eat, not forward from when you wake up.
I set this up in hours before dinner rather than clock times, so it works whether you eat at 2:00 or 6:00. Just count back from your own dinner time.
Two days before
Make the cheesecake. It needs a long chill, so getting it done early means it’s one less thing to think about.
Do the big grocery run if you haven’t already. Everything on this menu keeps fine for two days.
The day before
Assemble the mac and cheese completely, cover it, and refrigerate it. It bakes the next day.
Wash and trim the green beans and store them in the fridge.
Wash and dry the salad greens, and store them wrapped in a towel so they stay crisp.
Set out your serving dishes, platters, and the roasting pan so you’re not hunting for them on the day.
About 5 hours before dinner
Season the pot roast and get it into the oven or slow cooker.
This is the longest-cooking part of the meal, so it goes first and anchors everything else.
Follow your own recipe for exact time and temperature, since cuts and appliances vary.
About 2 hours before dinner
Peel and prep the potatoes.
If you’re cooking them with the roast, add them now. If you’re mashing them separately, get them ready to boil.
Pull the mac and cheese out of the fridge so it can take the chill off before baking.
About 1 hour before dinner
Put the mac and cheese in the oven to bake.
Start the potatoes if you’re boiling them separately.
Set the table, or better yet, hand that job to someone else.
About 30 minutes before dinner
Cook the green beans.
Take the pot roast out and let it rest. Resting keeps it tender and gives you a few minutes to finish everything else.
Mash the potatoes if that’s how you serve them.
About 15 minutes before dinner
Warm the rolls.
Toss the salad and dress it right before serving so it doesn’t go limp.
Pull the cheesecake from the fridge. It’s been ready for two days.
Dinner
Everything lands at the table at the same time, and the only thing left to do is sit down.
Christmas dinner for a crowd
If you’re feeding a big group, the same timeline still works. A few adjustments help.
Serve it buffet style. Set everything out on a counter or side table and let people serve themselves. It’s easier than passing dishes around a crowded table.
Double the dishes that scale. Mac and cheese, potatoes, and rolls all double easily. A second pan of mac and cheese is barely more work than one.
Let people bring something. Appetizers and desserts are the easiest things to hand off.
Assign categories rather than specific dishes. That way guests can bring what they’re good at.
Plan the night before, too
If Christmas Eve is busy at your house, it helps to keep that meal easy so you have energy left for the big day.
I put together a list of Easy Christmas Eve dinner ideas you can make ahead that pairs well with this timeline.
Find your meal and keep it
The best Christmas dinner isn’t the fanciest one. It’s the one your family looks forward to, that you can make without stress.
Try a few of these ideas, find the combination you love, and then keep it. Build your timeline once and reuse it every year.
A few Decembers from now, Christmas dinner will be the easiest part of the whole season.