Winter - Christmas
All the best Christmas recipes needed to help you have the best holiday ever. From dinner ideas to cookies and desserts to breakfast and brunch recipes for any family in town,
I've have you covered!
THE BEST CHRISTMAS RECIPES!
I love Christmas!
And I have a feeling you do too if you’re here. We know the holidays center so much around food, so I want to make looking for those Christmas recipes as quick and simple for you as possible.
I've broken it down into several sections:
Main Dishes
CHRISTMAS RECIPE GAME PLAN
Answering these questions and putting together a game plan will help you come cooking time.
Plan a cooking schedule: Work backwards from your intended serving time.
Decide on the following:
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What order do the items need to be cooked?
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Can anything go in the oven at the same time?
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What can be cooked on the stove top? Crock pot?
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What can be made ahead of time? Will it need to be reheated?
Prep as many of the ingredients as possible ahead of time. Doing these things will help your holidays be more enjoyable and less stressful!
Side Dishes
HOLIDAY PREPPING
I want to share all of my best tips and tricks that have helped me over the years to help you with all your holiday meal planning.
PLAN YOUR MENU IN ADVANCE
Think about the following…
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How many courses will there be?
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How many dishes in each course?
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How many sides with your main dish?
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How many desserts, or cookie trays?
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Can you buy any of the dishes to make cooking easier?
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Which dishes can be made AHEAD OF TIME?
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Can some of the recipes be made in the slow cooker or on the stove to free up the oven?
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Can you make food assignments to make it less overwhelming?
DO AS MUCH AS YOU CAN AHEAD OF TIME + GO SHOPPING EARLY!
Desserts
GIFTING CHRISTMAS COOKIES
Gifting cookies is big Italian tradition for me, so here are some of my top tips for packaging and gifting cookies this holiday season:
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The easiest is to put the cookies in a store bought holiday box or tin. Dress it up by putting piece of tissue paper, or holiday napkin, in the box before placing the cookies inside and finish it off with a pretty bow of ribbon or twine.
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Wrap in Cellophane: On a ceramic holiday plate cover with plastic wrap or doily. Stack cookies in a pyramid form. Place the plate in the center of a piece of cellophane, bring all the sides up over the plate and gather them together. Tie with ribbon, tulle or twine.
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Bake the cookies the same size and stack them in a large mouth mason jar. Cover the lid with Christmas fabric or paper, or wrap jar in a pretty holiday kitchen towel. Tie a ribbon around the top and add a cute tag.
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Save those Pringles cans! Wash and dry, then wrap the can with decorative holiday paper. Stack the cookies in the can, cover with the lid, and top with a gift wrapping bow. So easy! Great for teacher gifts!
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A brown lunch bag is pretty in its simplicity. Stack cookies in a brown lunch bag. Fold the top over and punch two holes. Thread a simple ribbon through, tulle or raffia also work, and tie the top closed. Add a cute tag to the front of the bag.
For even more tips, be sure to check out my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies page.
A little history about CWT...
MY CHRISTMAS TRADITION
Every Christmas Eve, we ALWAYS had an Italian meal. It was tradition!
Although the menu changes up slightly each year, we typically always have the following:
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Zuppa Toscana Soup and Antipasto
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Meatballs & Braciola over Spaghetti & Sauce
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Caprese Salad & Bruschetta
And of course we have all the appetizers and sides like fried ravioli, spinach pies, Stromboli, crusty Italian bread, roasted shrimp cocktail, mozzarella sticks and more!
To prep for this we always cook the meat up a few days ahead of time and then we will make the antipasto cookies and cake the day before and the soup was prepared the morning of. The fried ravioli and mozzarella sticks were prepared in the mid morning and did all the frying right before family came. It’s easier than you think and always SO delicious! It was always my job to set up the picky table before guests arrived.
More Italian Dishes
