Easy Christmas Crockpot recipes help you spend more time with your family and less in the kitchen this holiday season. Easy slowcooker main dishes and make ahead side dishes to help keep your Christmas menu simple.
The best way to ensure you spend more time with family and less time in the kitchen this Christmas is to plan a Christmas menu all around your crock pot!
This year, I'm popping my favorite slowcooker turkey breast into one Crock Pot as soon as we're done opening gifts and it will be ready in plenty of time for dinner.
While it cooks? I get to hang out with my kids and watch Christmas movies or play family games.
Now that's what I want for my holiday, don't you??
Why Crockpots Make Great Christmas Dinners
If you want to make a large cut of meat like a holiday ham, turkey, or roast, you'll find that they always turn out better when they've been cooked low and slow.
The meat becomes more tender and flavorful and you can enjoy the aroma while you relax with your family.
If you're using your slowcooker to help make vegetables or side dishes, you'll find that it is an awesome tool for keeping everything warm on a buffet table.
This encourages slow, relaxing mingling at the table and is great for keeping second servings just as toasty as the first course!
Tools You Need
You could plan just one Christmas Crockpot recipe to keep your meal easy and it would be worth having a slowcooker on hand.
But, plan an entire Crockpot menu for a completely hands-off dinner? BRILLIANT.
Pick one main dish and one or two side dishes and stock up on the most basic slowcookers you can find.
You can read more about my favorite sizes of slowcookers to keep in my kitchen here:
13 Easy Christmas Crockpot Recipes
Spend time with your family, not in the kitchen! These easy Christmas crockpot recipes can be prepped and set to cook all on their own while you enjoy time with your kids.
Whether you serve this for Christmas Eve with cookies or for Christmas breakfast with homemade cinnamon rolls or coffee cake, your family is going to wild for this crockpot hot chocolate bar!
If you've never tried real homemade hot chocolate, you'll be shocked just how simple it is to make in a slowcooker!
This easy slow cooker spiral ham is the perfect Christmas Eve dinner for cooking while your family is out of the house at church or a special event. Come home to a hot ham ready to be glazed and broiled for just 5 minutes for that picture-perfect finish.
Serve it with crispy air fryer green beans and make-ahead baked mac and cheese for an elegant but delicious holiday feast.
Tender and juicy, this easy slowcooker boneless turkey breast recipe can be popped in your Crockpot right after you finish opening gifts on Christmas morning and be ready for Christmas dinner while you take a well deserved break!
Serve it with festive holiday sides like a wild rice pilaf, make ahead sweet potato casserole, or a light apple pear salad with dried cranberries.
If you want an awesome comfort food dish, make the turkey and gravy the day before and shred the meat into big chunks. Reheat the gravy and turkey together in one big crockpot and serve my favorite open face turkey sandwiches!
This awesome German Christmas recipe is actually prepped 5 - 7 days in advance so the beef can marinate in the fridge. This makes it the EASIEST make ahead Christmas dish ever!
The hint of crushed gingersnaps in the gravy make it perfect for the holiday feast. Serve it with make ahead German red cabbage and buttery spaetzle or egg noodles.
With a pretty red tomato broth base and festive green beans in the mix, this colorful soup is loaded with tender vegetables and savory beef.
You could mix and match your favorite tortellini flavors with ground turkey, sausage, chicken, or pork to mix things up.
Serve it with warm fresh bread or biscuits for a simple Christmas Eve meal that is ready and waiting for you when you get home from church!
The original recipe calls for an Instant Pot, but this sweet and savory apricot chicken would work perfectly in your slowcooker. Just follow the instructions but cook on LOW for 3 - 4 hours before serving.
Serve with my awesome herb butter rice and air fryer green beans for a simple but elegant holiday meal.
These rich and creamy mashed potatoes pair perfectly with the slowcooker turkey breast or Crockpot sauerbraten recipes above! They're also a great way to serve potatoes with your favorite Christmas roast.
If you're hosting a Christmas brunch these Crock Pot cornflake potatoes are essential for your holiday menu.
BONUS: The recipe also includes a way to bake them in your oven if you prefer. Whether you choose the slowcooker instructions or the oven method, you'll have crispy cornflake topping with awesome crunch.
We love Italian food for Christmas and the red sundried tomatoes and bright green spinach in this slow cooker Tuscan chicken pasta recipe is perfect for the holiday.
Serve it over boiled gnocchi or your favorite pasta shape. Farfalle or rigatoni are our two favorites.
This boozy bourbon chicken would be a fun alternative to a Christmas dinner for a crowd!
Serve a big crockpot filled with the tender, savory chicken and bourbon sauce alongside another crockpot filled with mashed potatoes (like the recipe above) or use it as a filling for sweet potatoes (recipe below.)
It also pairs really well with my Instant Pot herb butter rice.
Sweet potatoes make an awesome Christmas side dish because you can load them with butter, brown sugar, and chopped pecans on the simple side of things or make them extra fancy with a scoop of my saucy bourbon chicken mentioned above!
I'm a huge fan of green bean casserole for Christmas dinner. Sometimes it gets lost in the buffet at Thanksgiving, so I love to make it again when I can appreciate it better.
This is such a simple side dish for a festive meal and use my trick to keep the fried onions crispy when you serve it!
The Crockpot is a miracle tool for getting easy vegetables to be part of your Christmas menu. This festive acorn squash is sweetedn with butter and brown sugar and has a sprinkle of bright red dried cranberries and juicy apples in the mix.
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