Christmas Potato Side Dishes

Mashed Potatoes with Butter and Thyme | Brent Hofacker

Potatoes may technically be a side dish, but at Christmas dinner they often receive almost as much attention as the turkey, ham, or roast.

There is something particularly comforting about a serving bowl filled with creamy mashed potatoes, a pan of bubbling potatoes au gratin, or a platter of crisp golden roasted potatoes arriving at the Christmas table. Potatoes work with almost every traditional holiday main course, feed a crowd easily, and can be dressed up or kept wonderfully simple.

The difficult part may be deciding which kind to make.

From classic mashed potatoes and crispy roast potatoes to scalloped potatoes, cheesy casseroles, smashed potatoes, and make-ahead options, these Christmas potato side dishes can help you find the perfect addition to your holiday dinner.

🥔 Classic Mashed Potatoes

It is hard to imagine a more dependable Christmas side dish than mashed potatoes.

Soft, buttery potatoes provide the perfect partner for turkey, roast chicken, ham, pork, prime rib, and roast beef. More importantly, they give all that Christmas gravy somewhere to go.

Russet potatoes create particularly light and fluffy mashed potatoes, while Yukon Gold potatoes have a naturally buttery flavor and creamier texture. You can also combine the two.

For classic Christmas mashed potatoes, keep the ingredients simple: potatoes, butter, warm milk or cream, salt, and pepper.

Sometimes the simplest version is exactly what everyone wants.

🧄 Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Roasted garlic can make ordinary mashed potatoes feel a little more special without overpowering the rest of Christmas dinner.

Roasting mellows garlic and gives it a sweet, almost nutty flavor. Mash the softened cloves into cooked potatoes along with butter and warm milk or cream.

Garlic mashed potatoes are especially good with prime rib, roast beef, pork roast, chicken, or turkey.

Finish them with chopped parsley or chives for a little Christmas-green color.

🧀 Cheesy Mashed Potatoes

Cheese turns mashed potatoes into an even richer holiday side.

Cheddar provides familiar comfort-food flavor, while Parmesan, Gruyère, Gouda, or cream cheese can give the potatoes a slightly different character.

Cheesy mashed potatoes work particularly well with ham, roast beef, or chicken.

If your Christmas menu already includes macaroni and cheese, cheesy casseroles, and rich sauces, however, traditional mashed potatoes may provide better balance.

🌿 Herb Mashed Potatoes

Fresh herbs can make mashed potatoes feel festive while keeping them lighter than a cheese-based version.

Rosemary, thyme, parsley, chives, or sage can all complement Christmas meats.

Use one herb or a restrained combination rather than adding every herb in the kitchen.

Herb mashed potatoes are particularly good alongside roast chicken, turkey, pork, or beef.

🥛 Sour Cream Mashed Potatoes

Sour cream gives mashed potatoes a creamy texture and slight tanginess that helps balance a rich Christmas meal.

Combine it with butter, salt, pepper, and perhaps chives or roasted garlic.

This style of mashed potato works well with roast beef, turkey, ham, pork, and chicken.

Sour cream can also help make reheated mashed potatoes taste creamy, which makes this a useful approach for a make-ahead Christmas dinner.

🧀 Cream Cheese Mashed Potatoes

Cream cheese creates particularly rich and smooth mashed potatoes.

Because cream cheese adds both richness and structure, these potatoes hold up well when prepared ahead and reheated.

Add butter, milk or cream as needed to reach the consistency you prefer.

Garlic, chives, Parmesan, or herbs can provide additional flavor.

⏰ Make-Ahead Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes do not necessarily have to be made during the frantic final minutes before Christmas dinner.

Prepare them earlier, transfer them to a covered baking dish, and refrigerate them until needed. Reheat gently, adding a little extra butter or milk if necessary.

A slow cooker can also be useful for keeping mashed potatoes warm once they are ready.

Make-ahead potatoes can be particularly helpful when you are serving a large Christmas dinner with several dishes competing for stovetop and oven space.

🥔 Crispy Roasted Potatoes

If mashed potatoes are the comfort-food champion of Christmas, roasted potatoes may win for texture.

A properly roasted potato has a crisp golden exterior and a fluffy center.

Yukon Gold potatoes, red potatoes, baby potatoes, russets, and fingerlings can all work, depending on the style you want.

Toss the potatoes with oil or melted fat, salt, and pepper before roasting them until deeply golden.

Roasted potatoes are especially good with roast beef, prime rib, chicken, pork, and turkey.

🌿 Rosemary Roasted Potatoes

Rosemary and potatoes are a natural combination, particularly during the winter.

Toss potato pieces with olive oil, chopped rosemary, salt, and pepper before roasting.

Garlic can be added as well.

The aroma alone can make the kitchen feel like Christmas dinner is underway.

Rosemary potatoes pair beautifully with beef, pork, lamb, chicken, or turkey.

🧄 Garlic Roasted Potatoes

Garlic roasted potatoes provide plenty of flavor without requiring a sauce.

Combine potatoes with olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, and perhaps rosemary, thyme, or parsley.

Roast them until the edges become crisp and browned.

A little Parmesan added near the end of cooking can create an even more savory version.

🧀 Parmesan Roasted Potatoes

Parmesan can create a delicious crisp coating on roasted potatoes.

Toss the potatoes with oil, Parmesan, garlic, and seasoning before roasting, or add the cheese partway through cooking.

Small potatoes cut in half work especially well because the flat surface can become deeply browned.

These potatoes are particularly good alongside chicken, beef, or pork.

🥔 Roasted Baby Potatoes

Small baby potatoes are ideal when you want an attractive side dish without much preparation.

Leave the smallest potatoes whole and cut larger ones in half.

Toss them with olive oil, herbs, salt, and pepper and roast until tender.

Red, yellow, and purple baby potatoes can create a particularly colorful Christmas platter.

🌿 Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

Fingerling potatoes look elegant with very little effort.

Their long, narrow shape makes them slightly different from everyday roasted potato chunks, and their creamy texture works well with simple seasonings.

Roast them with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, or thyme and arrange them on a platter beside a Christmas roast.

🥔 Crispy Smashed Potatoes

Smashed potatoes combine some of the best qualities of mashed and roasted potatoes.

Boil small potatoes until tender, gently flatten them, and roast them until the broken edges become crisp.

Finish them with salt, garlic, Parmesan, herbs, or melted butter.

They are especially good when you want a potato side that feels casual but a little more interesting than ordinary roasted potatoes.

🧀 Potatoes Au Gratin

Few potato dishes feel more indulgent than potatoes au gratin.

Thinly sliced potatoes are layered with cream and cheese and baked until tender, bubbling, and golden on top.

Gruyère is especially good for gratin, but cheddar, Parmesan, Swiss, or combinations of cheeses can also work.

Potatoes au gratin pair particularly well with ham, roast beef, prime rib, pork, or chicken.

Because the dish is so rich, pair it with simpler vegetables such as green beans, asparagus, or roasted Brussels sprouts.

🥛 Scalloped Potatoes

Scalloped potatoes are another Christmas classic.

Thin potato slices are baked in a creamy sauce until tender, creating a comforting casserole that works especially well with ham.

While the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, traditional scalloped potatoes generally focus on the creamy sauce, while potatoes au gratin usually include a more prominent cheese component.

Either one can earn a permanent spot on a Christmas table.

🧄 Garlic Scalloped Potatoes

Garlic adds extra savory flavor to creamy scalloped potatoes.

Infuse the sauce with garlic before layering it with thinly sliced potatoes.

Thyme or rosemary can also be added, although a light touch keeps the side from competing with the rest of dinner.

Garlic scalloped potatoes work particularly well with beef, ham, chicken, or pork.

🧀 Cheesy Potato Casserole

A cheesy potato casserole is ideal for a casual family Christmas dinner.

Potatoes can be combined with a creamy sauce and plenty of cheese before being baked until bubbling.

Some versions include a crisp breadcrumb, cracker, or cornflake topping.

This type of side dish is especially useful for a crowd because it can be assembled in a large casserole dish and served by the spoonful.

🎄 Funeral Potatoes

Despite the decidedly un-Christmassy name, funeral potatoes are a popular cheesy potato casserole that can fit perfectly on a holiday table.

Typically made with potatoes, cheese, a creamy sauce, and a crunchy topping, they are unapologetically rich and comforting.

They pair particularly well with Christmas ham.

If you are serving them alongside other heavy dishes, add a simple green vegetable or salad for balance.

🥔 Twice-Baked Potatoes

Twice-baked potatoes turn an ordinary baked potato into something much more festive.

Bake the potatoes, scoop out the centers, and combine the potato with butter, cheese, sour cream, seasonings, or other additions before returning the filling to the skins.

Bake them again until hot and lightly browned.

Chives, bacon, cheddar, Parmesan, or roasted garlic can all be added.

Because each guest receives an individual potato, twice-baked potatoes work particularly well for smaller Christmas dinners.

🧀 Loaded Twice-Baked Potatoes

For a more indulgent version, fill twice-baked potatoes with cheddar cheese, sour cream, butter, chives, and bacon.

They are substantial enough that you may want to keep the other side dishes simple.

Loaded potatoes work particularly well with steak, prime rib, roast beef, or ham.

🥔 Hasselback Potatoes

Hasselback potatoes look impressive but use very familiar ingredients.

Thin slices are cut almost—but not completely—through each potato, allowing the sections to fan apart as they bake.

Brush them with butter or olive oil and season with salt, herbs, garlic, or Parmesan.

The edges become crisp while the center remains tender.

Hasselback potatoes are an attractive choice for a smaller, more elegant Christmas dinner.

🧈 Fondant Potatoes

Fondant potatoes are another elegant option.

Thick cylinders of potato are browned in butter or oil and then cooked with broth until crisp on the outside and exceptionally creamy inside.

Garlic and fresh thyme or rosemary can flavor the cooking liquid.

They require a little more attention than ordinary roasted potatoes, making them best suited to a smaller Christmas dinner rather than a huge buffet.

🍟 Potato Wedges

Potato wedges can work wonderfully for a casual Christmas dinner.

Season thick wedges with olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, paprika, or herbs and roast them until crisp.

They may not be traditional, but they are easy, family-friendly, and especially useful when Christmas dinner is relaxed rather than formal.

🥔 Duchess Potatoes

Duchess potatoes can make mashed potatoes look dramatically more elegant.

Seasoned mashed potatoes are piped into decorative swirls and baked until golden around the edges.

They provide the familiar flavor of buttery mashed potatoes with a presentation suited to a formal Christmas table.

Duchess potatoes work beautifully with prime rib, beef tenderloin, roast chicken, or pork.

🧀 Potato Gratin With Gruyère

Gruyère gives potato gratin a nutty, slightly sophisticated flavor.

Layer thin potato slices with cream, Gruyère, garlic, salt, pepper, and perhaps thyme before baking until tender and golden.

This is an especially good accompaniment to roast beef or ham.

Because the gratin itself is rich, the rest of the menu can remain quite simple.

🌿 Potato Gratin With Herbs

A potato gratin does not have to rely entirely on cheese.

Rosemary, thyme, sage, chives, or parsley can add Christmas flavor to a creamy potato dish.

Fresh herbs also provide a little color when sprinkled over the finished gratin.

🧅 Potato and Onion Gratin

Potatoes and onions become wonderfully sweet and savory when baked together.

Layer thin slices of both with cream, seasoning, and perhaps a modest amount of cheese.

This rustic gratin works especially well with ham, pork, or roast beef.

🧀 Loaded Mashed Potato Casserole

If your family loves loaded baked potatoes, the same flavors can become a Christmas casserole.

Combine mashed potatoes with sour cream and cheese, then top them with additional cheese, chives, and bacon before baking.

This dish can be assembled in advance, making it convenient for Christmas entertaining.

It is rich enough that a simple roasted vegetable is usually the best companion.

🌱 Vegan Christmas Mashed Potatoes

Mashed potatoes can easily be adapted for a vegan Christmas dinner.

Use plant-based butter and an unsweetened plant milk or another suitable dairy-free ingredient in place of conventional butter and milk.

Roasted garlic, olive oil, chives, herbs, or nutritional yeast can provide additional flavor.

Serve them with mushroom or vegetable gravy for a comforting meat-free Christmas side.

🌿 Dairy-Free Roasted Potatoes

Roasted potatoes are one of the easiest naturally dairy-free potato dishes.

Olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, and fresh herbs are all you need.

This makes roasted potatoes particularly useful when you are preparing Christmas dinner for guests with different dietary preferences.

🍖 Best Christmas Potatoes for Ham

Ham works particularly well with creamy potato dishes.

Scalloped potatoes, potatoes au gratin, cheesy potato casserole, mashed potatoes, and roasted potatoes are all excellent choices.

Because glazed ham often has sweet and salty flavors, creamy or savory potatoes provide a pleasing contrast.

Scalloped potatoes and ham may be one of the most classic combinations of all.

🦃 Best Christmas Potatoes for Turkey

Turkey works beautifully with mashed potatoes because gravy connects the two dishes so naturally.

Garlic mashed potatoes, herb mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, or a potato casserole can also work.

If you are already serving stuffing and several casseroles, traditional mashed potatoes may provide the best balance.

🥩 Best Christmas Potatoes for Prime Rib

Prime rib deserves potatoes that can stand beside a rich roast without overwhelming it.

Garlic mashed potatoes, crispy roasted potatoes, roasted fingerlings, fondant potatoes, Hasselback potatoes, or potatoes au gratin can all work.

If you are serving au jus or another beef sauce, mashed or roasted potatoes are particularly good for soaking it up.

🐖 Best Christmas Potatoes for Pork

Pork is flexible enough to work with almost any potato preparation.

Try roasted rosemary potatoes, mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, smashed potatoes, or potato gratin.

If the pork has a sweet glaze, a savory herb potato can help balance the plate.

🍗 Best Christmas Potatoes for Chicken

Roast chicken pairs naturally with creamy mashed potatoes, garlic roasted potatoes, crispy smashed potatoes, Hasselback potatoes, or scalloped potatoes.

Because chicken has a relatively mild flavor, you can use a more strongly seasoned potato dish without overwhelming the main course.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Christmas Potato Side Dishes for a Crowd

When feeding a crowd, choose potato dishes that can be prepared in large quantities.

Mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes, au gratin potatoes, cheesy potato casserole, and large pans of roasted potatoes can all work well.

Mashed potatoes are particularly practical because they can be held warm in a slow cooker.

Casseroles can often be assembled in advance and baked closer to dinner.

Roasted potatoes are delicious for a crowd, but make sure they have enough room on the baking sheets. Overcrowding can cause them to steam instead of becoming crisp.

⏰ Make-Ahead Christmas Potato Side Dishes

Christmas dinner becomes much easier when at least some of the potatoes are handled ahead of time.

Mashed potatoes can often be prepared earlier and reheated. Scalloped potatoes and gratins can be assembled ahead, and many potato casseroles are specifically suited to advance preparation.

You can also do smaller jobs ahead, such as shredding cheese, chopping herbs, preparing toppings, or measuring ingredients.

Even reducing the Christmas Day preparation by fifteen or twenty minutes can make the final stretch before dinner much calmer.

🔥 Easy Christmas Potato Side Dishes

You do not need an elaborate gratin to serve great potatoes at Christmas.

Roasted baby potatoes tossed with olive oil and herbs are one of the easiest options.

Classic mashed potatoes are straightforward and universally familiar.

Baked potatoes can work for a casual dinner, while smashed potatoes require only a few basic steps.

Choose the preparation that works with your schedule rather than automatically choosing the most complicated recipe.

🍽️ How Much Potato Should You Make?

Potatoes are popular enough that it is wise to prepare a generous amount, particularly when they are the main starchy side.

The exact amount depends on the type of potato dish, the number of other sides, and the appetites of your guests.

A Christmas dinner with stuffing, rolls, macaroni and cheese, and several vegetables will generally require less potato per person than a simpler meal where potatoes are the primary side.

It is usually better to have a little extra than to watch the mashed potato bowl become empty halfway around the table.

Leftover potatoes are hardly a tragedy.

❄️ What to Do With Leftover Christmas Potatoes

Mashed potatoes can become potato cakes, shepherd’s pie topping, croquettes, or the base for soups.

Roasted potatoes can be reheated for breakfast alongside eggs or turned into a hash.

Baked potatoes can become twice-baked potatoes, while leftover gratin or scalloped potatoes can simply be reheated for another meal.

Christmas leftovers are often one of the best parts of the holiday.

🎄 Which Christmas Potato Side Dish Should You Choose?

If you want the most traditional option, make mashed potatoes.

If you are serving ham, scalloped potatoes are difficult to beat.

For roast beef or prime rib, try crispy roasted potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, fondant potatoes, or a rich gratin.

For a casual family meal, cheesy potato casserole is an easy crowd-pleaser.

For an elegant smaller dinner, Hasselback, Duchess, or fondant potatoes can make the plate feel more special.

And if your menu already contains several creamy casseroles, keep the potatoes simple and roast them with olive oil and herbs.

❤️ Christmas Dinner’s Favorite Side Dish

Every Christmas table has its own hierarchy of beloved foods, but potatoes tend to rank very high.

They are comforting without demanding attention. They work with almost every main course. They can be creamy, crispy, cheesy, buttery, garlicky, rustic, or elegant.

Most importantly, they are exceptionally good with gravy.

Choose the version that works best with the rest of your Christmas menu rather than trying to make several competing potato dishes.

Of course, if your family insists that Christmas requires both mashed potatoes and scalloped potatoes, there is no holiday rule saying you have to choose.

It is Christmas, after all.