Holiday entertaining is officially here! I’ve pulled together a range of Christmas Dinner menus to inspire you – from elegant to make-ahead, budget conscious to high-impact feasts. Here’s to stress-free planning and your most delicious Christmas yet!
Christmas is the Grand Prix of menu planning
I menu plan for a sport. I secretly get a thrill out of figuring out the optimum combination of dishes that balance oven space, prep time, richness, flavours and serving temperatures – not to mention dietary and budget requirements – so everything lands beautifully on the table without chaos!
So this years’ Christmas gift to myself is to indulge in putting together a range of Christmas menus for sit down dinners. I’ve got everything from sophisticated and elegant to “wow” factor ones, a really great low-cost one ($6 a head!) to speedy-prep one. I thought you might find them useful too – so here they are!
🎄The Menus🎄
Browse the Christmas recipe index for more ideas
1. Effortless Elegance
This is the kind of menu you’d expect to see at a white tablecloth restaurant – only you get to serve it at home where you can kick off your shoes and be as loud as you like!
Coquille Saint Jacques – scallops au gratin!
Roast Beef Tenderloin with a dreamy mushroom sauce, Fondant Potatoes and Sautéed Garlic Green Beans
Panna Cotta – elegant and a lighter way to finish a rich meal
2. Go Big or Go Home
A menu built for gasps! A mighty prime rib, potato gratin topped with melty brie, oysters with a glittering pile of granita…but those pavlova bombs will steal the show and be whispered about for years to come!!
Oysters with Cucumber lime jalapeno granita
Garlic Prawns with homemade crusty bread for mopping
A big juicy Standing Rib Roast with Red Wine Sauce with Brie Dauphinoise Potatoes, Spicy Maple Roasted Carrots with Whipped Yogurt and Garlic Sautéed Spinach
3. The Aussie Classic
While all the other menus are designed for groups of 4 to 10 as sit-down dinners, here’s a big-format menu for a crowd, focussed on all the heavy hitter classics for a big Australian Christmas gathering!
A glistening Maple Glazed Ham
Roast turkey – whole or breast
A side of salmon! Magnificent seafood centrepiece – choose from Christmas Baked Salmon (reader favourite!), Parmesan Crusted Salmon or for something special, a miso marinated Salmon!
A big bucket of prawns with your favourite prawn dipping sauce
The best Potato Salad of your life (thanks Mrs Brodie!)
Australia’s favourite Christmas Salad continues to be this Roast Pumpkin, Spinach and Feta Salad! Pine nuts not optional. 🙂
A big Pav piled high with berries and cream or a colourful Trifle! (PS You can buy the cake and custard but please please please make your own jelly, it’s sooooo easy and tastes a gazillion times better!).
4. Make-ahead Dream
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it forever – the only grande centrepiece roast that reheats 100% perfectly is lamb shoulder. 🙂
Prawn Cocktail – Straight from the fridge to the table!
3 hour or 12 hour Slow Roasted Lamb shoulder (the only roast that reheats perfectly!), Fall-apart Beef Short Ribs in Red Wine Sauce or Lamb Shanks in Red Wine Sauce (more lamb shank recipes here)
Make-ahead Mashed Potato Casserole – skip all or most of the toppings, seeing as there’s tasty sauces with the mains! Reheat covered, you’ll get a skin on it but just scrape that off.
Chocolate Mousse (beautiful classic French version) or Chocolate Puddings (easier, richer) – the only thing it needs is a dollop of whipped cream (stabilise it so you can make it ahead).
5. I’ve Spent 3 Days Cooking For You
For the cook who really wants to show off…!!! This is a pretty technical menu that needs to be started 3 days ahead with an estimated hands-on time of around 15 hours. The result speaks for itself – it is serious high-end cooking that will impress any professional chef!
Beetroot Cured Salmon – Stunning colours! Once you’ve tried homemade, you will snub store-bought forever. Thinly slice and plate individual portions. Vereeee fine-dining worthy starter!
Brioche with Whipped Butter (just beat softened salted butter then pipe into tall swirls and sprinkle with flakes or any fancy salt you have – like Rosemary Salt)
Beef Wellington – Iconic. Big impact. Time consuming. Technical. And oh-so-worth it!! Serve with Red Wine Sauce (yes, this calls for homemade beef stock – you don’t get off lightly here!!🤣). Caveat – this is a recipe in my first cookbook Dinner. Apologies to those who don’t have it, it is the only recipe in today’s post that’s not on the website. 🙂
Alternative main: Duck Confit. A little less daunting, impressive in its own way!
Sides – Creamy Mashed Potato, Glazed Carrots (you can make this while the Wellington is resting), Pomegranate Salad
Mirror Glazed Chocolate Cake – With a glaze so mirror-like you’ll catch your proud face staring back at you! This recipe has layers of chocolate cake sandwiched with creamy chocolate buttercream.
6. The Bargain Banquet
Here is a generous, celebratory 4 course meal that will cost less than $50*! A whipped feta to start followed by a creamy sweet potato soup, a golden crackling pork then an enormous pile of profiteroles for dessert, all of these were chosen specifically because you get great bang for your buck!
* I’m in Australia and I did a back-of-envelope based on current grocery store prices (Coles, Woolworths).
Whipped Feta Dip with Crostinis – I love how affordable this dip is
Sweet Potato Soup – proof that simple ingredients can make a luxe-tasting soup. Don’t skimp on the toppings! They elevate it from mid-week to dinner party territory. 🙂
Crispy Crackling Pork Roast with Gravy with Creamy Mashed Potato and Garlic Buttered Peas – At $8/kg, pork shoulder delivers maximum flavour and crackling excitement at a fraction of the price of beef. And yes, I promise your crackling will be seriously crispy if you follow the simple steps!
7. “I Don’t Have Time! 😭”
The lowest effort dinner-party-worthy menu I can think of. Everybody dies over the garlic butter with the chicken!! Serious plate-mopping situation. And it all starts with this ⬇️ – a 3 Minute Festive Brie. (Maybe 3 1/2 minutes – depending on how much champagne you’ve had!)
3 Minute Festive Melty Brie – Serious. 3 minutes!
Herb & Garlic Chicken Marylands – Slathered in a simple herb garlic butter rub, zero maintenance in the oven. Makes its own butter sauce!
Easy Roast Potatoes – Uses small potatoes so you don’t have to peel.
Rocket Salad with Shaved Parmesan – The fastest salad in my repertoire. I make this a LOT.
Chocolate Covered Strawberries – This has saved me countless times! Melt chocolate in microwave, dip in strawberries, set in fridge. I especially love that it’s not too rich, and it’s bite size.
There you go! I hope you got some new ideas from these menu suggestions. But most importantly:
Don’t forget the most important ingredient….fun!
Christmas isn’t a cooking exam. It’s a bunch of your favourite people getting together to eat good food and have a laugh.
So don’t stress if something cracks, deflates, over-browns or needs a last-minute “fix”! Nobody is here to judge you, everybody is just happy that someone has gone to the effort to make a meal for them and to be around each other. 🙂
So crank up the music, accept chaos as part of the charm and enjoy the cooking as much as the eating. Relax, have fun and enjoy your own party! – Nagi x
Life of Dozer
I was supposed to be decorating the tree….but I got distracted!
To you and all RTE (hugs for Dozer) THANKYOU.
Hope you get a chance to relax and recharge those Eveready batteries. To you and yours a happy christmas and healthy 2026
So beautiful and scrumptious looking. Thanks for all the fabulous ideas and for the holiday photos of Dozer. So cute. Merry Christmas to you, Dozer and your team!
Hello Dozer – she has done it again! Again! OK – the photo session is over and actually you look great (No, no – I won’t tell her!) Now – me, the ever, ever recipe follower for too many decades to count – Nagi > I actually like your ‘I don’t have time one’ (Sorry!) > all my fave dishes and not heavy on the tummy and you can call it ‘healthy’ and it looks SO appetizing and . . . I truly shall look at all the others and pass them on . . . I shall, I shall . . . with love . . .
It is not Christmas until I’ve made the trifle.
The cranberry jelly elevates the dish to a whole new level. Will never go back to packet jelly. It is the bomb !!
Thanks for a fabulous year of recipes and suggestions. I have tried and happily succeeded with sooo many of your recipes. You are an inspiration, giving me the passion, courage and confidence to cook and entertain with family and friends.
Wishing you, Darling Dozer and all the recipetineats team a very
MERRY CHRISTMAS and cheers to health, happiness, fun and great cooking in 2026 🎉🥂🥳🍾🎄🎅☺️
Thank you so much for these menus and the effort you and your team put into it!
You’re so welcome Jane!! – N x
Thanks Nagi and team
Great ideas. Great effort on looking festive Dozer.
Merry Xmas
He lay there and I covered him in tinsel. GREAT JOB DOZER! 😂
Hello Nagi and Dozer
Too funny about Dozer – love it.
And I love this very thoughtful selection of menu options. I have a crappy oven and stove top (thanks rental owners!) so you have given me great ideas which will work for me (did I mention I was also lazy?). Christmas menu planning solved! And for the other sumptuous selections – I can dream (and drool). Merry Christmas to you and your team and of course to Dozer.
He! I hear you – when I started this blog I was in a rental with an Ikea kitchen and it was so old and crappy, I used to cook on a portable gas stove!! Merry Christmas to you too Christine! – N x
Am I the 1st to comment ?
Aww Dozer . So cute ♥️💚♥️
Wow
Nagi
So many great 💡 ideas.
Must be so much fun at your and Dozers home at 🎄Christmas
Thanks so much 💙🙏
I usually follow a few of your recipes at Xmas.
Enjoy itadakamasu
from Vancouver 🇨🇦
Merry Christmas
Almost the first!! Merry Christmas to you too Lesley! – N x
Thank you Nagi, how did you know I was going to make prawn cocktail for entrees. Now I’m sure to get it right. Wishing you and Dozer a very happy Christmas 🎄
It’s such a great starter!! Grab and serve 🙂 Merry Christmas to you too Kathy! – N x
Fabulous. Thank you Nagi. Merry Christmas 🎄
So welcome Linda! Merry Christmas to you too – N x
Loooove this! Please do more of these types of posts 😊 I want to hold a dinner party!
I have wanted to do dinner party menus for so long!! 2026 GOALS! – N x
Tried & tested many of your recipes, they always taste fab. Have trialed the pork roast with crispy crackling & Beef Wellington, both absolutely delish! our Christmas Day dinner will be the roast pork with traditional UK trimmings & we’ll be having beef Wellington before New Year. Many thanks & Merry Christmas!
Wow! You did the Wellington – YAY! So happy to hear that Caroline. Merry Christmas to you too! – N x
Woooo hooooooo!! I’ve been looking forward to this post. This one and the chilli crisp. Thank you very much. I hope you and your family have an amazing Christmas xx
Wonderful thanks Nagi ❤️
Have a great Christmas in your new, much deserved, home🎄
Merry Christmas Dozer xx
The chilli crisp is coming! There’s a long testing lead time because we need to check the shelf life for WEEKS 🙂 It’s no good if the crispy bits aren’t crispy after a few weeks!!! – N x
Sending love to sweet Dozer!
Happy holidays, Nagi! And thank you for your wonderful recipes. I’ve used many! 🩵
Happy holidays to you too Liza! So glad you’re enjoying our recipes! – N x
Oh Nagi you truly are awesome, fancy enjoying making those menus! Go you! So wonderfully helpful, thank you! Merry Christmas to you and your team – and Dozer!
You’re so welcome Jodine! Merry Christmas to you too – N x