My Top 10 Christmas Recipes for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day & Christmas Morning
I actually got this idea from one of my followers! Someone commented, “Melissa, can you give me a menu for Christmas?” and I thought… YES. Absolutely I can.
These are my Top 10 Christmas recipes that will take you from Christmas Eve → Christmas Morning → Christmas Day. These are my real family recipes, the ones I’ve been making for years and years, and they are shockingly simple but insanely delicious.
This menu is a little different than Thanksgiving, but if you want more classic holiday side dishes, make sure to check out my Top 10 Family Holiday Side Recipes!
Top 10 Holiday Cakes, Pies & Desserts
🗒 More Delicious Recipes
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Top 10 Easy Super Bowl Appetizers & Dips Everyone Always Asks Me For
If you’re hosting a Super Bowl party, heading to a tailgate, or showing up to game day with a dish you know will disappear, this list is for you. These are my top 10 easy Super Bowl appetizers, dips, sliders, and one must-make dessert — the recipes my family makes on repeat and the ones…
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Easy Strawberry Tres Leches Poke Cake (With Strawberry Ice Cream!)
If I’m hosting or bringing a dessert to an event, I make one dessert — and I make it count. For Super Bowl Sunday, this Easy Strawberry Tres Leches Poke Cake is that dessert. Soft, soaked, creamy, fruity, and honestly… dangerous. Most tres leches cakes use three types of milk. I do too — but…
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6-Ingredient Dilly Pickle Chip Dip
If you’re looking for the ultimate game day dip, this is it. Creamy, tangy, loaded with real dill pickle flavor, and made with just six simple ingredients, this Dilly Pickle Chip Dip is one of those recipes people will ask you to bring every single time. And the secret? Dano did the dang thing with…
1. No-Fail Prime Rib
This is ALWAYS the star of Christmas Day.
I learned to make this from my mother’s partner, who is a chef. They owned a restaurant together, and every Christmas Eve he would make a ton of these Prime Ribs for the next day. This is literally the best Prime Rib I’ve had in my entire existence on this planet.
Just follow the recipe exactly — no wasting expensive meat over here. Perfect, juicy, tender Prime Rib every time.
2. Italian Sautéed Broccoli Rabe
A fresh, lighter side to balance the richness of the Prime Rib. This is a traditional Italian-style Broccoli Rabe: sautéed with olive oil and garlic, and I teach you the little trick so it’s NOT bitter. It tastes like you ordered it at a steakhouse — clean, bright, and perfect.
3. No-Peel Perfect Mashed Potatoes
I use Honey Gold or Yukon Gold potatoes — the skins are so thin that they mash right in.
No peeling, no fuss, and the skins add fiber and extra flavor. These are incredibly creamy, buttery, and honestly the best mashed potatoes ever. One pot, super easy, zero effort.
4. Honey Glazed Carrots
These totally rival a Sweet Potato Casserole but feel more elegant. They caramelize beautifully in the oven — buttery, sweet, salty, glossy… insane.
5. Grandma’s Artichoke Quiche
My grandmother handed down this recipe and it is a Christmas staple. Since we eat Christmas dinner around 2pm, a quiche is perfect. You can prep it the day before and just bake it off.
It’s the best quiche you will ever eat — creamy, savory, packed with artichokes — and YES, I just use a Pillsbury deep dish pie crust. So easy and so delicious.
CHRISTMAS EVE MENU
6. Shrimp Scampi
Perfect for Christmas Eve or your Feast of the Seven Fishes. I make a quick homemade shrimp broth using the shells — takes minutes and makes the scampi unbelievably good.
Bright, buttery, garlicky, and so simple.
7. Go-All-Out Lasagna
This is the lasagna you make when you want to impress. Rich, cheesy, layered perfectly — it’s our first course pasta on Christmas Day, but many families serve it on Christmas Eve too.
Here are both my Homemade Sauce recipe and my Ragu Sauce recipe, You can use either!
8. Stuffed Shells (The Secret Recipe!)
These shells will RUIN all other stuffed shells for you. The trick is making the sauce with pork-style ribs, then pulsing a tiny bit of that pork into the ricotta mixture.
No one will know what the magic is… they’ll just lose their minds over how good it is.
This recipe requires the homemade sauce recipe!
CHRISTMAS MORNING
9. Make-Ahead Hash Brown Breakfast Casserole
Prep this the night before Christmas, stick it in the fridge, and bake it while you open presents. It’s made with hash browns, eggs, sausage, cheese — cozy, hearty, and low-maintenance.
If they prefer the bread-based version,
Melissa’s Christmas Morning Breakfast Casserole right here!
10. My Famous Broccoli Salad
This broccoli salad is SO good — I swear, people will beg you for the recipe. It’s simple, fresh, crunchy, and tossed in the most delicious creamy dressing.
Made with broccoli florets, cheese, red onions, and that sweet-salty-tangy dressing that makes everyone go, “Wait… why is this so good?!”
Broccoli salad sounds boring, but not this one. It’s a total crowd-pleaser and perfect for Christmas because you can make it ahead and it never gets soggy.
My family every time say that I am wasting my time here at web, but I know I am getting know-how everyday by reading such pleasant articles.
I love all your recipes. I follow them to a T and my boyfriend is more in love with me now than before I started your recipes hahaha 😝 Happy Holidays!
HAHAH! I love it!!! Happy Holidays!!