Try these Simple Christmas Dinner Recipes and Ideas for a more memorable and relaxing holiday! Sometimes it’s the easiest things like Spiced Ham and Green Bean Casserole that make the best memories.
Mike and our sister in law love the Green Bean Casserole and my brother and I love the Red Jello Salad so we always try to incorporate foods we love into our Christmas Dinner. We hope some of these recipes will help you make new traditions and keep the old ones!!
Simple Christmas Dinner Recipes and Ideas
Tips:
- For a different and fun Christmas dessert, make a wreath out of green frosted cupcakes. Place the cupcakes in a small circle. Then place more in a circle around the small one. Lay a fabric or ribbon bow at the bottom of the wreath. You could also tuck a couple of sprigs of plastic holly berries here and there if you like.
- Most of the time we have to have a separate kids table, but it’s good to make them feel important, too! Place a battery operated candle on their table and give them stemmed glasses. It makes them feel so grown up to have “fancy” glasses. You will be surprised at how careful they will be with them.
- Remember: Don’t panic if something goes wrong, like if you burn the ham, mess up the mashed potatoes or add too much salt to the gravy. It will be fine. Those are the dinners that memories are made of and the family will remember fondly later.
Menu:
Spiced Honey Ham
Mashed Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Classic Green Bean Casserole
Relish Dish
Favorite Christmas Salads
Crescent Rolls
Pecan Pie, Apple Pie, Mincemeat and Pumpkin Pie
Gummy Bear Thumbprint Cookies
Recipes:
Spiced Honey Ham
1/2 cup mustard
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup orange juice
1 tsp. cloves
Ham
Mix all of the ingredients except the ham. Place the ham, cut side down, in a pan lined with foil. Score the top of the ham and pour the mixture over it. Cover with foil.
Bake at 250 degrees for 1 hour. Then turn the heat down to 200 degrees and cook another 12-15 hours, depending on the size of the ham. If you put it in the oven the night before, it should be ready to eat at your noon meal. Whenever you can, baste the ham with the sauce mixture and ham juices.
The cooking time is very adjustable. If you want to take it out of the oven an hour earlier so you can cook something else in the oven, you can do that. If dinner guests are late, you can keep it in the oven longer without hurting it because the cooking temperature is so low.
Classic Green Bean Casserole
1 can (10 3/4 oz.) cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
4 cups green beans
1 3/4 cups french fried onions
dash of pepper
Mix the soup, milk and pepper in a 1 1/2 quart baking dish. Stir in 2/3 cup onions and the green beans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes until heated through. Top with remaining onions and bake 5 more minutes.
Gummy Bear Thumbprint Cookies
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 egg yolks
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3 dozen gummy bears, one per cookie
Cream butter and brown sugar together. Add egg yolks and vanilla. Mix in flour and salt. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in the freezer for 10 minutes. Be sure to do this or you will have cracks when you make your thumbprint.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll the cookies into tablespoon sized balls. Place on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper about 1 1/2 inches apart. Use your thumb to press a deep hole in the middle of each cookie. Make each hole deep and wide enough so the gummy bears won’t melt over the edges but not so deep that you crack the sides of the cookies too much. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
Pull the cookies sheet out of the oven just enough so you can reach the back row of cookies and place one gummy bear in center of each cookie. Push the cookie sheet back into oven and bake until the bottoms are golden brown. The gummy bears should melt in about 2 minutes.
I’d never heard of “french fried onions ” before. This does look tasty and , to my family new.
They usually come in a can and are all ready to use. If you like onion flavor they add a nice taste to many different things like crumbled on top of casseroles or soups.
Magdalen .. We don’t have them in Canada, at least where I live.
If you can find frozen onion rings you can cook them by deep frying or baking
and then let them cool before adding them to the green bean casserole. I have done this before so I know it works. I don’t generally buy the french fried onion rings that come freeze dried in a can, so I tried this and the result was nice!
These recipes look good.
Perfect menu!! Thankyou!!
What kind of ham do you use ?
Any type of ham that you want. Now this recipe isn’t using a precooked have but you can still use the sauce on a precooked ham if you want. You just don’t need to cook it as long of course.