Breakfast
Easy Christmas Recipes
Christmas is easier when most of the cooking happens before the day. Here is a full holiday menu, from a make-ahead Christmas morning breakfast to a roast dinner with sides and a tray of homemade cookies.
Christmas Day 2026 falls on a Friday. Use the plan below to bake cookies early in the week, prep breakfast on Christmas Eve and keep the day itself relaxed.
Christmas morning
The main
Sides
Cookies, desserts and drinks
Make-ahead plan
1 to 2 weeks before
- Order your roast or a halal turkey.
- Make the sugar cookie and gingerbread doughs and freeze them.
- Bake the dinner rolls and freeze them.
Weekend before
- Bake and decorate the cookies; royal icing needs 6 to 8 hours to set.
- If roasting a frozen turkey, check the thawing time with the turkey calculator and move it to the fridge in time.
Wednesday, December 23
- Make the mashed potatoes and refrigerate.
- Peel and cut the carrots and trim the Brussels sprouts.
- Assemble the green bean casserole without the onion topping.
Christmas Eve
- Assemble the French toast casserole or shape the cinnamon rolls and refrigerate overnight.
- Bake the apple pie.
- Season the roast beef and refrigerate it uncovered.
- Thaw the dinner rolls on the counter.
Christmas Day
- Bake breakfast while the coffee brews.
- Roast the beef (about 1 1/4 hours for 3 lb) or the turkey, and rest it.
- While the meat rests, roast the carrots, air fry the sprouts, bake the casserole and reheat the potatoes and rolls.
- Make hot chocolate for dessert with the cookies.