Christmas Entertaining
Oct 02 2026
Christmas dinner may have a turkey, ham, roast beef, or another centerpiece at the middle of the table, but the side dishes are often what people look forward to most. Mashed potatoes covered in gravy, stuffing with crisp edges, buttery rolls, roasted vegetables, macaroni and cheese, cranberry sauce, and rich casseroles are the foods that …
Oct 01 2026
Christmas ham is one of the easiest holiday centerpieces to build a meal around. Its salty, savory flavor works beautifully with creamy potatoes, sweet glazed vegetables, fresh green sides, buttery rolls, tangy sauces, and rich Christmas desserts. Whether your ham is glazed with honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, pineapple, mustard, orange, or cloves, there are …
Oct 01 2026
Christmas appetizers set the tone for the entire meal. They are the little bites guests enjoy while coats are being hung up, presents are being admired, drinks are being poured, and the kitchen is still finishing whatever needs another twenty minutes in the oven. The best Christmas appetizers feel festive without ruining anyone’s appetite for …
Oct 01 2026
A White Elephant gift exchange is one of the liveliest Christmas party games because nobody knows exactly how it will end. Everyone arrives with one wrapped gift. Players take turns either opening a new present or stealing one that has already been revealed. A gift that looked ordinary five minutes earlier may suddenly become the …
Sep 30 2026
Christmas dinner is much more enjoyable when you are not trying to chop vegetables, mash potatoes, assemble casseroles, bake dessert, make gravy, and check a roast all at the same time. The easiest way to create a calmer Christmas Day is to move as much of the meal as possible to the day before. Many …
Sep 29 2026
Christmas dinner does not need a huge turkey, eight side dishes, and a dining room full of people to feel festive. A Christmas dinner for two can actually be one of the most enjoyable ways to celebrate. You can choose exactly the foods you both love, splurge on a special main course that might be …
Sep 28 2026
Cooking Christmas dinner for a crowd can be one of the most rewarding parts of the holiday—and one of the easiest ways to end up with every burner occupied, every oven rack full, and three dishes somehow needing to be finished at exactly the same time. The best Christmas dinner for a crowd is not …
Sep 27 2026
Christmas Eve dinner has a different feeling from Christmas Day. For many families, Christmas Day is the big traditional feast, while Christmas Eve is more relaxed. Dinner might be cozy and casual, built around seafood, pasta, soup, appetizers, pizza, or a favorite family recipe that has become part of the holiday. For others, Christmas Eve …
Sep 26 2026
The hardest part of Christmas dinner is rarely making any one dish. It is getting the turkey, potatoes, stuffing, vegetables, gravy, and rolls onto the table at roughly the same time—preferably while everything is still hot. Christmas dinner becomes much easier when you stop thinking about cooking each recipe independently and instead build a timeline …
Sep 26 2026
One of the hardest parts of planning Christmas dinner is figuring out how much food to make. Nobody wants to run out of mashed potatoes before the bowl reaches the end of the table, but cooking twice as much food as everyone can possibly eat creates its own problems. Suddenly the refrigerator is packed with …
