18 Best Christmas Dinner Ideas
Pick one of these easy Christmas dinner ideas and pair it with all the recommended side dishes for Christmas menu your family will love to enjoy on Christmas Eve or Day.
Planning your Christmas dinner menu doesn't need to be complicated.
To save you the time in matching main dishes and entrees, I'm sharing 16 completely organized Christmas menus that feature my very best make-ahead recipes for special occasions.
For Christmas Eve, we tend to do a more formal, fancy meal at the table with recipes that are easy to prep-ahead and just finish off after we walk in the door from Christmas Eve Mass.
Christmas Day tends to be more laid back and this year we're trying a slowcooker approach to the meal. I plan to dump everything into the Crockpot in the morning and get back to the living room to enjoy my family.
Whether your family approaches the holiday feast with an Open House style celebration or you've got picky eaters at the table, or you need a Christmas dinner for 2, there's a Christmas dinner menu to help you plan a meal everyone will love.
Bonus: Since they're easy, they'll get you out of the kitchen to be with your kids as much as possible!
Jump to:
- Why These are the Best Menu Ideas
- Macadamia Crusted Halibut
- Beef Tenderloin with Garlic Butter Pasta
- Make Ahead Lasagna
- Italian Christmas Dinner Ideas
- Blue Cheese and Cranberry Stuffed Pork Tenderloins
- German Sauerbraten
- Herb Butter Turkey
- Glazed Spiral Ham
- Roasted Pork Loin
- Roasted Pork in Applesauce
- Chicken Parmesan
- Italian Sausage Pasta Casserole
- Creamy Gnocchi with Sausage
- Crockpot Tortellini Soup
- Easy Christmas Crockpot Recipes
- Gooey Ham and Cheese Sliders
- Red Chicken Chili (No Beans!)
- Roasted Shrimp
- Roasted Chicken and Vegetables
- More Easy Christmas Recipes
- 💬 Comments
Why These are the Best Menu Ideas
Fancy magazines love to encourage complicated holiday menus that would leave most home chefs utterly exhausted.
These easy and ELEGANT Christmas dinners are perfect for real families who want to enjoy a festive feast with their loved ones without spending the entire holiday in the kitchen.
You'll find the perfect Christmas menu idea featuring everything from chicken recipes, make-ahead pasta recipes, easy seafood dishes, and delicious ways to serve both pork or beef that will make your Christmas dinner extra special.
Macadamia Crusted Halibut
This amazing macadamia halibut has been our family's special occasion dinner for Christmas Eve, birthdays, anniversaries, and more.
You can completely prep the fish in the morning and simply bake it before serving, giving it the perfect crispy crunch. Don't skip the lemon cream sauce to drizzle over the top.
What to Serve it With:
Serve with wild rice pilaf and roasted asparagus or broccoli, they can cook on a second pan in the oven at the same time.
Beef Tenderloin with Garlic Butter Pasta
This dish is affectionately known in our family as "steak and tubes," my mom's nickname for it when we were going up. It was our annual Christmas Eve dinner for more years than I can even remember.
The beef is marinaded in a 2-ingredient steak marinade and then sauteed in butter. It tastes amazing with the buttered noodles and is very kid-friendly.
What to Serve it With:
Serve it with glazed baby carrots topped with butter and brown sugar.
Make Ahead Lasagna
If you have never made a homemade lasagna and are nervous to try, this is the BEST lasagna recipe for beginners. Step by step photos walk you through how to prep and assemble an easy lasagna ahead of time that you can bake for a delicious Christmas dinner.
What to Serve it With:
Serve it with a light garden salad and homemade garlic bread or my super-easy bread machine focaccia.
Italian Christmas Dinner Ideas
While you're at it, you may as well plan an entire Italian Christmas dinner menu!
If my favorite lasagna isn't what you're looking for, one of the other delicious and easy pasta recipes, fresh breads, or Italian desserts might be.
Check out the whole list of ideas here:
Blue Cheese and Cranberry Stuffed Pork Tenderloins
I still remember my mom prepping these elegant and festive pork tenderloins for holiday dinner parties when I was young.
When you slice the tenderloins, you'll see a swirl of festive red cranberries mixed with a creamy blue cheese filling. They can be completely prepped ahead of time and just baked before serving.
What to Serve it With:
Serve them with roasted sweet potatoes or my make-ahead sweet potato casserole.
German Sauerbraten
This delicious and budget-friendly beef recipe is perfect for Christmas dinner because you can cook it on the stove top, in the oven, or in a slowcooker, whatever works best for your full menu.
What to Serve it With:
Serve it with German spaetzle in butter sauce with German red cabbage.
Herb Butter Turkey
Roasted turkey is such a traditional holiday recipe but it can often be overlooked at Christmas. My easy herb butter turkey actually tastes even more amazing the next day.
You could cook the turkey, slice it, and store it in the fridge. Reheat it in gently simmering gravy on the stovetop until it has just heated through.
It's the perfect way to have make-ahead turkey unless you want to cook the even-easier Crockpot boneless turkey breast.
What to Serve it With:
You could serve the meat as open faced sandwiches on warm bread or over a big scoop of Crockpot mashed potatoes with holiday sides.
Glazed Spiral Ham
A holiday ham is a stunning main dish whether you make my Crockpot spiral ham or this pineapple mustard glazed spiral ham.
What to Serve it With:
Serve the ham with Crockpot green bean casserole and a dish of cheesy cornflake potatoes.
Roasted Pork Loin
This elegant pork loin recipe features an easy and delicious green peppercorn sauce drizzled over the top.
I love that the entire thing can be prepped ahead for an easy Christmas dinner.
What to Serve it With:
Serve it with this crispy wild rice and roasted carrots salad for a fun holiday side dish. You could turn the leftovers into this roasted pork sandwich the next day.
Roasted Pork in Applesauce
If you prefer to cook a pork tenderloin instead of a whole pork loin, roast a pack of two plain tenderloins in rosemary herbs and applesauce.
What to Serve it With:
Serve it with make ahead potato pancakes with sour cream and homemade applesauce on the side or this festive apple pear salad.
Chicken Parmesan
Chicken parmesan can be fussy but this particular recipe has all the make-ahead tips you need to have perfectly crispy baked chicken cutlets for Christmas dinner.
What to Serve it With:
For a special treat, serve it with a side of homemade alfredo pasta and a light garden salad to balance out all the richness
Italian Sausage Pasta Casserole
Want to get your Christmas cooking done in advance? This freezer-friendly pasta casserole is always a huge hit.
When we don't want to fuss with lasagna, we always make a giant dish of this delicious Italian sausage casserole. There's baby spinach mixed in which gives it a fun festive color.
What to Serve it With:
Serve it with a big platter of fresh pineapple, the flavors pair together perfectly!
Creamy Gnocchi with Sausage
This simple skillet dinner is an excellent choice for a smaller family gathering. I love the festive red and green colors of the vegetables and my family loved the sauce on this creamy gnocchi with sausage.
What to Serve it With:
If you want to serve this as the main dish, you could add a fresh baked Italian bread and cut it into fingers for dunking into the sauce.
This would also make an excellent side dish in addition to your holiday roast if you need to feed a larger crowd.
Crockpot Tortellini Soup
This festive red and green soup is loaded with tender vegetables and satisfying cheesy tortellini.
It is a simple recipe to feed a crowd for the holiday. Add it to the buffet table with some easy sandwiches or use it as an elegant first course.
What to Serve it With:
Serve it with pesto chicken sliders or chicken parm sliders.
Easy Christmas Crockpot Recipes
In fact, if you like the idea of using a Crockpot for your Christmas dinner, you won't want to miss this list of all my favorite crockpot recipes that would be perfect for the holiday.
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Gooey Ham and Cheese Sliders
Do you have a few picky eaters in your family? If you need a reliable kid-friendly Christmas dinner to serve to the little ones, this pan of ham and cheese sliders is sure to be a hit.
You can prep the entire pan ahead of time and just pour the butter topping over the top before baking. They only need about 10 minutes in the oven and are good even lukewarm.
This makes it easy to serve something fancier for the grown-ups if everyone has happy kids.
Red Chicken Chili (No Beans!)
If Christmas dinner looks more like an Open House than a sit-down meal, you absolutely need this tomato-based chicken chili in your rotation.
Make a big pot of this festive red chili and keep it simmering on the stovetop or transfer it to a slowcooker to keep warm. Set out all the yummy toppings and let your friends and family serve themselves as they stop by for a visit.
What to Serve it With:
Serve it with a big bowl of tortilla chips for dunking or a basket of fresh dinner rolls. These bread machine crescent dinners rolls would be perfect since it makes a nice big batch.
Roasted Shrimp
Want to add a little "surf" to a surf and turf Christmas dinner? You don't need to have access to fresh shrimp to enjoy a delicious shrimp cocktail or entree.
This recipe for roasting frozen shrimp can be paired with your favorite shrimp dipping sauce or tossed in a lemon garlic angel hair pasta for homemade shrimp scampi.
Roasted Chicken and Vegetables
If you need a smaller Christmas dinner for 2 or 4, this roasted chicken with vegetables might be a better fit than a whole turkey.
You can mix and match the veggies to suit your family but the red potatoes and carrots are our personal favorites. A juicy lemon tucked inside coupled with sprigs of fresh thyme give this chicken a lovely holiday flavor.
What to Serve it With:
This is a perfect all-in-one Christmas dinner but you could also serve it with fresh bread from your bread machine.
More Easy Christmas Recipes
Don't miss some of our other favorite solutions to a family-friendly Christmas meal:
Oh! And don't forget to set the cutest Christmas kids table, too. It's easier than you think.
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