Our recipes to cook in December 2025 include loads of recipes for dishes for the festive season, for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day. We’ve got recipes for everything from homemade dips for crackers and crudités and cocktails for casual gatherings and festive parties to vibrant salads, vegetable sides and alternatives to roasts for holiday feasts.
For this month’s collection of recipes to cook in December 2025 I’ve pulled together some of our favourite recipes for the festive season, for Christmas, New Year, and the holidays, no matter where you are in the world, and what your weather’s like, whether it’s warming up or already sweltering (we have salads!) or it’s increasingly chilly or even freezing (we have warming soups, stews and curries).
Just for the fun of it, if you need an excuse to cook, I’ve included recipes for a handful of Food Days, but no more, as you have plenty of reasons to cook this month, for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, and New Year’s Day, and all the days and evenings in between leading up to the festive holidays, whether you want to be prepared for spontaneous gatherings or you’re planning to hold formal parties and family feasts.
And don’t forget, if you’re looking for more cooking inspiration, do browse our recipe archives, which are brimming with many hundreds of recipes we’ve cooked, created and collected from around the world, from places we’ve lived, worked, travelled, and loved. You could also browse our most popular recipes of November which were the most searched-for recipes on the site, the recipes where you all spent most of your time, and hopefully cooked.
Now before you scroll down to our recipes to cook in December, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader supported. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; booking a cooking class or meal with locals on EatWith; or by buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, or gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. Now let’s tell you about our recipes to cook in December 2025.
Recipes to Cook in December 2025 for the Festive Season
These are the recipes to cook in December 2025 for the festive season ahead, for Christmas, the holidays and New Year’s Eve, whether you’re cooking for a casual gathering of friends or making a Christmas feast for family.
Easy Pie Recipes for Pot Pies, Cottage Pies, Shepherds Pies, Meat Pies and More
The 1st December is National Pie Day so we’re kicking off our best recipes to cook in December 2025 with these easy pie recipes. They’ll make you everything from the absolute easiest pies to make, which are pot pies – adorable little pies made in ramekins – to meat pies, chicken pies, fish pies, and seafood pies.
We’ve got a handful of recipes for classic pies with a twist, which Terence has given Southeast Asian flavours. These include a Cambodian chicken curry pie, with a filling based on the classic Cambodian chicken curry, to a spicy pork mince pie recipe made with Cambodian prahok k’tis, a deliciously spicy dip of minced pork, coconut cream, pea eggplants, prahok (fermented fish paste), and yellow kroeung (a kroeung is a herb and spice paste).
We also have an Irish beef and Guinness pie recipe with mashed potatoes and a classic cottage pie recipe for the traditional Irish comfort food dishes synonymous with hearty, rustic, Irish farmhouse cooking. Endearingly old fashioned, a cottage pie consists of layers of savoury beef mince and vegetables, and cheesy mashed potatoes, which are baked, and served with buttery green peas. Wash it all down with red wine or Guinness.
Easy Pie Recipes for Pot Pies, Cottage Pies, Shepherds Pies, Meat Pies and More
Thai Corn Fritters Recipe for Tod Man Khao Pod with Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
It’s National Fritters Day on 2nd December so we’re sharing our Thai corn fritters recipe for tod man khao pod in Thai – crunchy, chewy corn fritters that we gently spice with a little chilli paste. Eaten as a snack in Thailand and neighbouring Southeast Asian countries, you could serve these Thai corn fritters as finger food or as an appetiser over the festive season.
If you made our Thai sweet chilli sauce, then you must make this Thai corn fritters recipe, one of our best corn recipes. These delightfully crunchy, chewy corn fritters are perfect for dipping into that sweet chilli sauce. If you have leftovers, you can make these corn fritter burgers. Bonus: these are also vegan corn fritters.
If you’re a corn lover, also try our recipes for this traditional Cambodian street food corn snack, poat dot, these fantastic grilled corn on the cobs with lime, butter and lemongrass mayonnaise (used the leftover cobs to create a delicious grilled corn salad with lime, chilli, lemongrass mayo, and croutons), this smoky Mexican grilled corn cobs, a Mexican grilled corn salad that’s great for barbecues, and the Mexican corn in a cup called esquites or elotes en vaso.
Thai Corn Fritters Recipe for Tod Man Khao Pod with Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
Best Recipes with Tomatoes from Tomato Salads to Tomato Soups and Salsas
One for our readers in the southern hemisphere where the weather is warming up and tomatoes are in season, this compilation of recipes with tomatoes includes tomato salad recipes from Myanmar to the Mediterranean, recipes for Thai tomato relish and Mexican tomato salsa, for tomato based soup, stews and curry, along with recipes for breakfast egg dishes with rich tomato sauces, and the classic Italian aperitivo snack of tomato and basil bruschetta.
I first shared this post after buying some sweet plump ripe tomatoes to make some stuffed tomatoes, a classic Cambodian dish that’s much-loved and is a culinary remnant from the French colonial period. I was thinking what other recipes with tomatoes I could make, and as I was browsing our archives, I realised how many tomato recipes we had and thought why not share them.
But if tomatoes aren’t in season where you and you can’t source fresh tomatoes, we also have lots of recipes using canned tomatoes, one of my favourite pantry staples, and in some cases you swap out fresh tomatoes for tin tomatoes, especially tinned whole tomatoes or canned cherry tomatoes. These are some of our best recipes to cook in December 2025 for the festive period.
Best Recipes with Tomatoes from Tomato Salads to Tomato Soups and Salsas
Five Spice, Peanut and Sesame Biscuits Recipe for a Crunchy Aromatic Cookie
December 4 is National Cookie Day so why not try our five spice, peanut and sesame biscuits recipe, which makes a crunchy, slightly chewy-centred, aromatic cookie that is extremely moreish. Like many of our recipes on Grantourismo these scrummy biscuits are inspired by the delicious local ingredients and flavours of our adopted home, and it’s another one of our best recipes to cook in December 2025 for the festive period.
This recipe came about because we wanted to make a biscuit similar in texture to the classic Anzac biscuits but were keen to use ingredients that were more local to our home, Siem Reap, in northern Cambodia. If you enjoy these also try our recipes for coconut biscuits with dried mango and pineapple, made with quintessential Southeast Asian flavours.
Five Spice, Peanut and Sesame Biscuits Recipe for a Crunchy Aromatic Cookie
Spicy Peanut Butter Noodles Recipe for a Quick, Easy and Tasty Bowl of Noodles
If you’re looking for quick and easy mid-week meals in the lead up to Christmas, try this spicy peanut butter noodles recipe for a speedy bowl of noodles that are perfect for a weeknight meal. If you’re in the mood for satay but don’t have time to pound pastes and grind peanuts to make a proper Thai satay sauce, this spicy peanut butter sauce should satisfy your cravings.
The recipe is versatile – use whatever noodles and toppings you have at hand and serve warm or cold. The noodles are drizzled with chilli oil, garnished with red chillies (optional) and fragrant fresh coriander, and sprinkled with crispy fried garlic and crunchy roasted peanuts, making it one of our best recipes with nuts.
My spicy peanut butter noodles recipe makes something of a fusion dish – as so many Asian dishes are, after all – inspired by China’s famous Shaxian and Fuzhou peanut butter sauce noodles, usually garnished with scallions and sesame seeds, as well as chilli oil, but clearly influenced by our decades cooking Southeast Asian food. They’re so delicious!
Spicy Peanut Butter Noodles Recipe for a Quick, Easy and Tasty Bowl of Noodles
Best Gazpacho Recipe for Andalusian Style Gazpacho from Southern Spain
It’s National Gazpacho Day on 6 December so we’re sharing our best gazpacho recipe for an authentic Andalusian style gazpacho from Southern Spain called gazpacho Andaluz. Made in minutes, this easy gazpacho recipe results in a vibrant orange gazpacho that tastes like a fresh garden salad in the form of a cold summer soup. Refreshing, light and healthy, this chilled summer soup tastes even better the next day.
Whether it’s gazpacho Andaluz or gazpacho de mango, there are few better things to slurp to cool you down on a sweltering summer’s day than a bowl of the cold Spanish soup. Or few better things to drink, because in Spain gazpacho is often kept chilled in a jug in the fridge and poured into a glass from which it’s sipped like a smoothie.
Hailing from the hot dry Andalusian region of Southern Spain, gazpacho Andaluz or Andalusian style gazpacho is essentially a liquid salad – a fresh garden salad of ripe tomatoes, cucumber, capsicum (bell peppers), garlic, salt, sherry vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, a little cumin, and stale bread that’s blended into a cold summer soup. It’s essentially a no-cook meal in a glass – or bowl.
Best Gazpacho Recipe for Authentic Andalusian Style Gazpacho from Southern Spain
Homemade Edible Christmas Gift Recipes for Sriracha, Spicy Peanuts, Pickles, and More
I don’t know about you but I love giving homemade edible Christmas gifts as much as I love receiving them. Who wouldn’t appreciate Christmas-wrapped jars filled with their favourite chilli oils, hot sauces, piquant pickles, spicy peanuts, preserves, and jams that loved-ones have taken the time to make?
They can get shared with family and friends the same day as you gift them or popped in the fridge to be savoured over multiple meals. While cheap to make, these are food gifts that are rich in meaning and imbued with love. And these recipes all make incredibly delicious edible gifts, we guarantee they’ll get used, rather than discarded or re-gifted.
If you like the idea of making some of our edible gift ideas for Christmas, then you could treat it as a weekend cooking project. That means you can start making them today, which is Sunday 7 December and you have three Sundays left until Christmas. I recommend making the pickles today, so they’re ready by Christmas; the peanuts, preserves can be made anytime between now and Christmas.
Homemade Edible Christmas Gift Recipes for Sriracha, Spicy Peanuts, Pickles, and More
Thai Nam Prik Ong Recipe for Spicy Tomato Pork Dip from Northern Thailand
We tend to make a lot of dips and relishes in December, so we always have something on hand to dunk crisps, crackers or crudites into, and this Thai nam prik ong recipe makes one of our favourite Southeast Asian dips. The recipe will make you a gently spiced dip of minced pork, tomatoes and dried chillies that originates from Northern Thailand.
When we used to travel regularly and write on Thailand, this Northern Thai specialty was one of the first dishes we’d order at our favourite Chiang Mai restaurants on our trips to Chiang Mai. It’s one of our favourite nam priks, a family of condiments that include dips, relishes and dipping sauces, served with fresh or steamed vegetables and sticky rice, which you roll between your fingers and dip into the bowl, and maybe some pork crackling.
While some nam priks can be incredibly spicy, funky and pungent, this ground pork and tomato dip is the most approachable of the Thai relishes, and depending on the type of chilli and amount of chillies used, can range from gently spiced to fairly fiery. If you’re after a spicier dip, try this nam prik num recipe.
Thai Nam Prik Ong Recipe for Spicy Tomato Pork Dip from Northern Thailand
Chebureki Recipe for a Crimean Beach Holiday Treat and Popular Street Food Snack
December 9 is National Pastry Day, which is a good excuse to try this traditional chebureki recipe for the Crimean Tatar crispy fried pastries filled with spiced ground beef and sautéed onions, which went from being a beloved Black Sea beach holiday snack to becoming a popular street food snack in Russia, Ukraine, former Soviet countries, and Central Asia.
They’re so big you need to hold the crispy crescent-shaped savoury turnovers in two hands to bite into their crunchy exteriors. Whenever I make these, I can’t help but imagine the cheeky grin and sparkle in the eyes of the little girl who became my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother, as she munched into these fried treats on the few seaside holidays she fondly recalled when she was alive.
If you make these classic Crimean chebureki and enjoy them, please try my mini chebureki recipe, which makes smaller, more manageable and spicier versions of these ground beef turnovers. I’m not sure which pastry I love the most. This is another one of our best recipes to cook in December 2025.
Chebureki Recipe for a Crimean Beach Holiday Treat and Popular Street Food Snack
Beef Lok Lak Recipe for Cambodian Pepper Beef, A Modern Take on a Traditional Dish
If you’re starting to think about what you’ll serve at festive cocktail parties and casual gatherings you’re planning to hold in the weeks leading up to Christmas, try our beef lok lak recipe, which delivers a delicious classic Cambodian pepper beef dish, prepared traditionally with Kampot pepper, but presented in a more contemporary form.
This beef lok lak recipe makes a popular Cambodian dish that served as inspiration for one of the creative Cambodian canapés we created for a New Year’s Eve spread some years ago. While the presentation of this dish was modern for our canapés, the recipe makes an authentic traditional Cambodian dish, albeit one whose provenance is often debated.
It’s believed that Cambodia’s beef lok lak is of Vietnamese origin as there’s a near-identical Vietnamese dish called thit bo luc lac. The Vietnamese dish has virtually the same name, which Vietnamese chefs translate to ‘shaking beef’, because the cook has to shake the wok or pan back and forth to evenly sear the beef. Whatever its origin, it’s absolutely delicious, and we love the dish in this petite form.
Beef Lok Lak Recipe for Cambodian Pepper Beef, A Modern Take on a Traditional Dish
Chicken and Potato Soup Recipe for a Comforting Soup that Starts with an Easy Stock
If you’re in the increasingly chilly northern hemisphere, this easy chicken and potato soup recipe makes a homemade potato and chicken soup from scratch that is comforting and warming. It’s a simple, hearty soup that’s subtly seasoned but given texture at the end with crunchy croutons and crispy fried onions, and is enlivened by fresh fragrant dill – or any aromatic herb of your choosing, as it’s also incredibly versatile.
It’s an easy soup to make, even if it is made from scratch – and by ‘from scratch’, I mean that you’ll be making a simple chicken stock from the water that you poach the chicken in, which you’ll use in the soup. It’s the same way that a stock is made for a Southeast Asian rice porridge or rice soup, such as this Thai rice soup for khao tom gai.
For that Asian rice soup, we make the same kind of stock from the poached chicken water, only I add lemongrass stalks, kaffir lime leaves and herbs for fragrance as much as flavour. For this European style of soup, the seasoning is subtle – bay leaves, sea salt, white and black pepper, but you can add any kind of herb or spice. But you will need a digital kitchen thermometer to check the internal temperature of the chicken breasts.
Chicken and Potato Soup Recipe for a Comforting Soup that Starts with an Easy Stock
Best Dip Recipes for Crackers and Crudités for Holiday Gatherings
Our best dip recipes for crackers and crudités make fantastic homemade dips for your holiday entertaining, whether it’s spontaneous gatherings or more formal festive parties over Christmas-New Year. We’ve got everything from an authentic Mexican guacamole recipe to a classic hummus recipe. (More hummus recipes here.)
If you’re a fan of making dips, see our guide to how to make a dip out of almost anything. We also have recipes for homemade croutons, crunchy pita chips, sourdough crackers, including spicy Sichuan crackers, and a herb and olive sourdough bread, all of which are excellent for scooping, dipping and dunking.
These are some of our best recipes to cook in December 2025 for the festive period. And if you’re looking for more ideas for small plates, browse our compilations of Spanish tapas recipes and Basque pintxos recipes. I’ll also be adding recipes for Italian aperitivi and Venetian cicchetti soon, so look out for those.
Best Dip Recipes for Crackers and Crudités for Holiday Gatherings
Braised Chicken with Olives and Capers Recipe for Juicy Med Style Chicken
One of our best chicken recipes, this braised chicken with olives and capers recipe makes incredibly succulent chicken legs in a Mediterranean style with a couple of surprising Asian ingredients. Adapted from a recipe by Australian chef Martin Benn, it’s a foolproof set-and-forget chicken recipe that no matter how long you leave it or reheat it the chicken remains juicy.
This recipe will make you amazingly juicy chicken legs, which we love to serve with creamy mashed potatoes or crunchy Hasselback potatoes made with baby potatoes (also called new potatoes), which cook faster than larger potatoes, and our radish cucumber salad with feta, rucola and fresh herbs. It’s my idea of a perfect dinner for two and it’s ideal for Christmas dinner, and it’s another one of our best recipes to cook in December 2025.
Braised Chicken with Olives and Capers Recipe for Basque Style Chicken
Italian Green Beans Recipe with Crunchy Breadcrumbs and Parmesan Cheese
One of our best vegetable sides recipes, this quick and easy Italian green beans recipe will make you crisp just-cooked fresh green beans given a boost of texture and flavour thanks to Italian pangrattato of crunchy fried breadcrumbs, and umami courtesy of the Parmigiano Reggiano and balsamic vinegar. For extra crunch, we use Japanese panko breadcrumbs, and for even more zingy flavour, try this pangrattato with lemon zest and parsley.
It’s an addictively delicious vegetable side dish that’s endlessly versatile. As we do with these blistered green beans on garlicky white bean puree with toasted almonds, you could lay the beans on a bed of savoury whipped goats cheese, call it Mediterranean and do the same with whipped feta, or fuse it with Middle Eastern flavours by piling the beans on creamy hummus and showering the lot with dukkah for even more crunch and spice.
Italian Green Beans Recipe with Crunchy Breadcrumbs and Parmesan Cheese
Warm German Potato Salad with Bacon, Celery and Scallions
This German potato salad recipe makes a warm potato salad – also called a hot German potato salad – with a dressing of fried celery, scallions or spring onions, and bacon. Time things right and you can deliver it hot to the table in winter or autumn-fall or serve warm or even at room temperature in summer or spring.
You’re going to love this German potato salad recipe if you’re a lover or potato salads, especially warm potato salads, and you made my Mediterranean-style warm potato salad recipe with capers, anchovies, chives, and celery leaves and enjoyed that. Like that warm Mediterranean potato salad, this warm German potato salad is a perfect side to chicken schnitzel or our chicken schnitzel burger.
Whatever temperature you decide on, this German potato salad recipe makes a terrific accompaniment to meatballs, particularly these German meatballs, roast chicken, sausages, any barbecued meats, and it’s also fantastic with a side of coleslaw.
German Potato Salad Recipe for a Warm Potato Salad with Bacon, Celery, Scallions
Devilled Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Caviar Recipe
Our devilled eggs with smoked salmon and caviar recipe makes an elegant canapé or a treat to savour with a glass of bubbly over the festive period. We love to serve these eggs on Christmas Day.
Traditionally served as part of a festive spread of zakuski or appetisers that were the prelude to a lavish family feast, they’re a particularly luxurious take on my zesty Russian devilled eggs recipe.
These retro hors d’oeuvres, which were popularised in the 1970s along with other Russian dishes, such as beef Stroganoff and chicken Kiev, have never gone out of style for me. This is another one of our best recipes to cook in December 2025 for the festive period.
Devilled Eggs with Smoked Salmon and Caviar Recipe for Elegant Canapés
Shrimp Dip Recipe for a Creamy Prawn Cocktail Inspired Dip
This speedy shrimp dip recipe makes a rich and creamy dip inspired by the retro prawn cocktail appetiser. Peeled cooked prawns are sliced into chunky pieces and stirred into a classic seafood sauce thickened with crème fraiche.
Apart from how delicious it is, one of the best things about it is that it’s made it ten minutes or less if you’ve got peeled cooked prawns. All you’re going to do is slice each prawn into three or four chunky pieces and stir them into a classic seafood sauce thickened with crème fraiche.
Serve this shrimp dip or prawn dip with crinkle cut crisps, Jatz crackers, homemade croutons, or round cucumber slices for scooping it up. It’s very much a retro 1970s style dip, so if you’re feeding a crowd serve it alongside other old-fashioned homemade dips such as this French onion dip.
Speedy Shrimp Dip Recipe for a Creamy Prawn Cocktail Inspired Dip
Christmas Cocktail Recipes with a Twist to Make Over the Festive Season
Traditional Christmas drinks such as egg nog aren’t suited to the weather here in Southeast Asia (or Australia for that matter), so over the years that we’ve spent Christmas in Cambodia, we’ve adapted classic cocktail recipes with spices and fruits to add some festive flavour, creating some of our favourite Christmas cocktail recipes with a twist.
Whether you’re celebrating Christmas in the southern hemisphere where you might be having Christmas Day lunch in the sun, or you’re spending Christmas in the wintery northern hemisphere dreaming of sunshine, we’ve got some fantastic Christmas cocktail recipes that will add much seasonal cheer to your Christmas dinners and parties.
Our best Christmas cocktail recipes make Champagne cocktails, classic cocktails, and even a beer cocktail, which is perfect if you’re spending Christmas in the sultry southern hemisphere and enjoying Christmas lunch in the sun. Having a wintery white Christmas in the northern hemisphere? Turn up the heating or make our negroni with warming spices.
Christmas Cocktail Recipes with a Twist to Make Over the Festive Season
Spanish Garlic Shrimp Recipe for Gambas al Ajillo
National Fried Shrimp Day is on 20 December, so we’re sharing our classic Spanish garlic shrimp recipe for gambas al ajillo, one of the most popular Spanish tapas dishes on the menu at tapas bars in Spain and around the world. It’s one of our favourites and one of our best shrimp recipes.
Sweet plump garlic prawns are quickly fried in a fragrant, gently-spiced, garlicky virgin olive oil that’s just calling for you to mop it up with crusty sourdough bread. We shared this recipe as part of our series of best Spanish tapas recipes and it’s one of the easiest tapas bar dishes to make at home, as long as you don’t over-cook the prawns – or shrimps, depending where you are :)
If you want to prepare a full spread of Spanish tapas dishes, we also have recipes for the scrummy Spanish meatballs called albondigas, chorizo and potato croquettes or croquetas de patata y chorizo, chorizo in red wine for chorizo al vino tinto, one of our favourite recipes with chorizo, and calamari al plancha for smoky squid cooked on a griddle.
Spanish Garlic Shrimp Recipe for Gambas al Ajillo – A Spanish Tapas Bar Specialty
Classic Pavlova Recipe with Kiwi Fruit and History of the Popular Australian Dessert
December 21 is National Kiwi Fruit Day, so why not try this classic pavlova recipe with kiwi fruit courtesy of food writer Matt Preston. The recipe and history of Australia’s signature dessert comes from Matt’s book World of Flavour, The Recipes, Myths and Surprising Stories Behind the World’s Best-Loved Food, a cookbook as much as a myth-busting culinary history that sets the record straight: pavlova is Australian, not from New Zealand.
If you enjoyed Matt Preston’s spaghetti bolognaise recipe and history of ‘spag bol’, which we also published, and you’re also a lover of that other great Australian dish, the pavlova, you’ll love Matt Preston’s classic pavlova recipe with kiwi fruit and his well-researched history of pavlova, Australia’s favourite dessert.
Note: we also have a passionfruit pavlova recipe, which Terence adapted from a recipe by one of our favourite Australian chefs, Neil Perry. And it’s another one of our best recipes to cook in December 2025 for the festive period.
Classic Pavlova Recipe with Kiwi Fruit and History of the Popular Australian Dessert
Seafood Recipes for Christmas Eve Dinner and Christmas Day Menus
We’ve got some easy seafood recipes for those of you who celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve with a fish focused meal in the Southern Italian tradition, transformed by Italian-Americans into the Feast of the Seven Fishes. Or if you’re like we Australians, who celebrate Christmas in the sweltering summer and feast on seafood for Christmas.
We’ve got loads of easy seafood recipes for you all, including a classic prawn cocktail, blini with smoked salmon, a ceviche-style appetiser, and devilled eggs with caviar. We’ve also got recipes for fish soup, seafood pies, shrimp pastas, salmon tray bake, and crispy salmon with creamy mashed potatoes, and they’re some of our best recipes to cook in December 2025 for the festive period.
Admittedly, many of our seafood recipes are shrimp recipes and salmon recipes. Both are super-healthy, easy to cook, and versatile. You could, of course, swap the prawns out for crab, and salmon out for your favourite fish. And if you’re cooking crustaceans, see our guide to how to cook crustaceans, including lobster, crayfish, crabs, prawns, and yabbies, with tips on how to kill them humanely.
Seafood Recipes for Christmas Eve Dinner and Christmas Day Menus
Christmas Breakfast Recipes for Light Brekkies That Won’t Spoil Christmas Lunch
Our best Christmas breakfast recipes make elegant, light Christmas Day breakfasts for those who find Christmas casseroles too heavy, and they’re some of our best recipes to cook in December 2025 for the festive period.
If you like Christmas morning to be a bit special and pop open a bottle of bubbly, then put one of our Christmas breakfast dishes on your Christmas Day menu and save the Christmas casserole for New Year’s Day to soak up the booze if you partied New Year’s Eve.
Our Christmas breakfast ideas include simple yet elegant scrambled eggs with smoked salmon, Russian salmon roe and dill that was a Christmas breakfast tradition for us for many years, creamy scrambled eggs with truffles for a decadent breakfast eggs dish with fresh winter truffles, and a sublime Southeast Asian style crab omelette for a luxurious Christmas breakfast dish.
Christmas Breakfast Recipes for Light Xmas Brekkies That Won’t Spoil Christmas Lunch
Christmas Brunch Recipes for that Languorous Meal That Straddles Breakfast and Lunch
Our Christmas brunch recipes make Christmas Day dishes for that languorous meal that straddles breakfast and lunch that we all know as brunch. Whether brunch is a big late breakfast cum early lunch or a casual buffet style meal that stretches from mid-morning into the late afternoon, we have Christmas brunch ideas for all of you.
We’ve long thought a casual Christmas brunch is a great idea, but only if your main Christmas meal is on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day dinner. Christmas brunch obviously doesn’t work if you’re having Christmas lunch, unless you intend Christmas Day brunch to segue into Christmas lunch?
One of the advantages of a relaxed Christmas brunch is that it is just that. Guests should not have to sit down at a certain time at the table. They should be able to drop by at any time and be able to mingle standing up or sitting down. Being able to call into a loved-one’s home for a catch-up takes the pressure off those already torn between where to spend Christmas meals.
You’ll want a mix of buffet-style dishes that guests can help themselves to whenever they arrive, along with a hot dish or two that you prepare and distribute as individual meals that can be eaten on a lap or with one hand, or set down on the table for guests to help themselves to.
Christmas Brunch Recipes for that Languorous Meal That Straddles Breakfast and Lunch
Christmas Salad Recipes for Vibrant Salads for the Festive Season
These Christmas salad recipes make some of our best salad recipes and they’re some of our best recipes to cook in December 2025 for the festive period. While we prepare these year-round, they’re impressive salads that are perfect for festive meals and holiday feasting. They’re also salads that are not your typical Christmas salad, and will hopefully making a nice change from the usual potato salad.
So many cooks go all out to treat guests over the holidays with generous spreads of fresh seafood in the sultry southern hemisphere or roast turkey and vegetable sides in the wintery north, then serve a simple garden salad as a side. If that strikes a chord, these Christmas salads are for you.
These holiday salad recipes offer ideas for bright salads that are not only a feast for the eyes, as all good food should be, but taste absolutely delicious. They’re filling salads, yet they are salads guests will want to keep eating, so make them big salads. Lay the salad out on the largest serving plate you can find or serve the salad in multiple bowls if feeding a long table of loved-ones. They look so gorgeous, nobody will mind.
Christmas Salad Recipes for Vibrant Salads for the Festive Season
Chilled Cooked Prawns and Prawn Dipping Sauces for a Deliciously Simple Feast
A spread of chilled cooked prawns with various prawn dipping sauces has been a feature of our Christmas Day meals in Australia for as long as I can remember. As we have a summer Christmas, the day is marked by much seafood feasting. And even after Christmas, if we’re enjoying a summer holiday somewhere on the coast, with a Fishermen’s Co-op nearby, we’ll continue to tuck into seafood, especially prawns. More of our best prawn recipes here.
This spread of chilled cooked prawns with prawn dipping sauces comes together quickly but should be leisurely enjoyed, guests peeling their own prawns and dunking them into dipping sauces or piling them onto warm buttered bread or toast. Provide lime or lemon wedges for squeezing on the prawns, finger bowls of water and napkins, and serve with glasses of Champers, chardonnay or chilled beers.
Prawns seem luxurious, but they’re actually very reasonably priced in Australia – and sustainable, healthy and incredibly delicious. Bonus: a feast of chilled cooked prawns is quick and easy to prep. Fishermen’s Co-ops in Australia sell raw and cooked prawns, so unless you’re making garlic prawns – or, say, the Venetian specialty gamberi alla busara, one of my favourite prawn dishes – buy fresh cooked prawns. All you have to do is prep the prawn dipping sauces and you’re set.
Chilled Cooked Prawns and Prawn Dipping Sauces for a Deliciously Simple Feast
Creative Cambodian Canapés for Easy Holiday Entertaining
Creative Cambodian canapés for easy holiday entertaining was what was on our minds when we started to experiment with different ways of presenting traditional Cambodian dishes. We wanted to create Cambodian hors d’oeuvres or finger food that could be eaten in a bite or three. They’re perfect for casual get-togethers as well as more formal gatherings.
Cambodian cuisine is not one that easily translates to making finger food. However, it’s common among local families to cook up a spread of dishes shared family style. With that in mind, we thought about the different types of dishes that comprise a traditional Khmer meal and how we could turn them into a series of canapés. A traditional Cambodian feast might include a salad, a dip (such as prahok k’tis), vegetables, a soup, a stir-fry, a curry or braised dish, and rice.
So we decided that we should represent most of these in our series of creative Cambodian canapés. As with a traditional Khmer meal, where all the dishes are laid out on the table at once to be shared, we wanted to construct a series of creative Cambodian canapés that reflects how locals eat on special occasions — or every day, if they are affluent. Perfect for a buffet if you’re entertaining on Christmas Day.
Butterflied Roast Turkey with Stuffing Recipe by Chef Neil Perry + Christmas Tips from the Chef
This butterflied roast turkey with stuffing recipe comes from one of Australia’s best chefs, Neil Perry, who helms the Rockpool group of restaurants, which have long been some of our favourites. Here Neil shares his recipe for butterflied roast turkey with chestnut, herb and bread Stuffing – and some of the chef’s best Christmas tips.
Each year in the busy lead-up to Christmas when our readers are beginning to worry about what they’re going to cook for Christmas Day lunch or Christmas dinner, we reach out to chefs we know to ask them to impart some of their worldly kitchen wisdom.
Over the years we’ve shared Christmas tips from Australia’s best chefs, Asia’s best chefs and some of the world’s best chefs, asking them everything from gift suggestions for home cooks to what they recommend you do if it all goes wrong in the kitchen on Christmas day.
We have Christmas tips from everyone from chef Lennox Hastie who provided his grilled pipis, garlic and karkalla recipe to chef Peter Gilmore of Quay and Bennelong, some of Sydney’s best restaurants – who also shared his recipe for a frappe-style white peach bellini – and tips from chef Neil Perry, one of Australia’s legendary chefs, who also shared his butterflied roast turkey recipe.
Butterflied Roast Turkey with Stuffing Recipe by Chef Neil Perry and Christmas Tips
Christmas Dinner Recipes for Delicious Alternatives to Traditional Roasts
These Christmas dinner recipes are for those of you in the increasingly cold northern hemisphere who want a hot dinner but are looking for alternatives to roasts. Our ideas for Christmas mains include everything from crispy-skinned salmon with colcannon and juicy cote de boeuf to five-spice crispy pork belly or pan-roasted pork chops with creamy mashed potatoes.
My pick is this super easy French-style braised chicken recipe which makes the juiciest chicken with crispy skin, doused in an addictively delicious chicken jus made from the braising liquid and chicken juices. It’s made in less than an hour – yet it makes one of our best chicken recipes: incredibly succulent chicken full of so much flavour.
We serve our braised chicken legs with easy vegetable sides such as these caramelised Brussels sprouts, blistered green beans or creamy mashed potatoes. With more time, we’ll make crunchy Hassleback potatoes. In hot weather, a simple fragrant herb salad or this radish cucumber salad with feta, rucola and fresh herbs.
Christmas Dinner Recipes for Delicious Alternatives to Traditional Roasts
Prawn Cocktail Brioche Buns Recipe for Shrimp Sliders
If you have some leftover prawns from Christmas, make our quick and easy recipe for prawn cocktail brioche buns, which takes the classic prawn cocktail and assembles the retro appetiser on sweet brioche buns to create deliciously simple shrimp sliders. Peeled cooked prawns coated in a classic seafood sauce are arranged on a bed of mini cos leaves and garnished with fresh fragrant dill.
These fantastic prawn cocktail brioche buns – or shrimp sliders, for our American readers – make brilliant finger food for casual gatherings or great picnic hamper stuffers. Essentially, a prawn cocktail between two pieces of bread – sweet soft fluffy French bread – these petite prawn burgers make the retro 1970s appetiser for these frugal times that are mid 2020s.
Can’t source brioche buns? Use burger buns, soft sesame rolls, hot dog buns, Turkish bread, the thick Japanese-style thick white fluffy bread used to make a tamago sando (Japanese egg sandwich), or just plain white bread – when super fresh and soft it will do the job. This is another one of our best recipes to cook in December 2025 for the festive period.
Prawn Cocktail Brioche Buns Recipe for Delicious Shrimp Sliders
Christmas Leftovers Recipes – Ideas for Using Up Christmas Day Leftovers
If you didn’t use up all your Christmas meal leftovers on your Boxing Day brunch buffet then we’ve got loads of tips for how to use any leftover food from Christmas meals so it doesn’t go to waste in this collection of Christmas leftovers recipes. These are some of our best recipes to cook in December 2025 for the festive period.
Our recipes offer lots of ways to use up leftover Christmas Day food, from using leftover ham and prawns in omelettes, scrambled eggs, quiches, frittatas, and fried rice, to using leftover roast turkey, chicken, beef or pork to make the best sandwiches, burgers, pies, rice soups, and noodles. What you can’t eat now can be frozen to avoid food wastage.
My top pick of the Christmas leftovers recipes? Use leftover mashed potatoes to make Spanish croquettes. You can also add finely diced ham or salami, leftover prawns, lobster or other seafood, and leftover cheese ends from the charcuterie cheese board to the filling mixture for the tastiest croquettes.
And if you’re feeling sluggish and bloated after over-indulging over Christmas, see our round-up of healthy recipes to cook this week, from recipes with yoghurt and ginger to reduce bloating, to recipes with turmeric, which contains curcumin, an antioxidant with anti-inflammatory properties.
Christmas Leftovers Recipes – Ideas for Using Up Christmas Day Leftovers
Traditional Russian Christmas Food Recipes
This collection of my traditional Russian Christmas food recipes for Orthodox Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas lunch was one of our most popular November recipes. I was surprised as Orthodox Christmas is not until 7 January 2026. But maybe it’s not so strange as the dishes that my Russian-Ukrainian grandmother spent days in the kitchen preparing for our family holiday feasts are wonderful to eat all year, but especially in winter.
If you’ll be celebrating Orthodox Christmas in January or you’re just a fan of classic Russian-Ukrainian dishes, such as borscht and piroshki, Russian pelmeni and Ukrainian vareniki, and salads such as the Olivier salad and pink beetroot potato salad called vinagret, then do browse the compilation below, or, for even more options, the full archive of my Russian-Ukrainian family recipes.
Traditional Russian Christmas Food Recipes for Orthodox Christmas Feasts
Refreshing White Sangria Recipe with Sparkling Wine and Summer Fruits
This refreshing white sangria recipe makes a lighter summery Spanish sangria with sparkling white wine and summer fruits, with citrus fruits such as orange, lemon and lime, and summer berries like strawberries and blueberries. It’s perfect for sipping in the late afternoon or early evening sunshine over that relaxed period between Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Our white sangria recipe makes a lighter sparkling version of the traditional sangria from Spain made with red wine and macerated fruit, which can feel heavy and heady in a sweltering Australian summer or even a warm Southeast Asian winter. This sangria is fantastic with nibbles such as spiced roasted peanuts, crispy pita chips or spicy crackers, or a spread of Spanish tapas or Basque pintxos.
But it’s nothing if not versatile: use dry white wine and sparkling mineral water or soda water, and whatever fruit you have on hand. Or opt for cava, the Catalan sparkling white wine. Or pink sangria with sparkling rosé and pomelo or grapefruit juice. For a headier white sangria, stir in a white spirit such as a white Cuban rum or even gin, which would be more ‘authentic’ considering the popularity of gin in Spain.
And if you’re in the northern hemisphere, where it’s winter, then you could turn the heating up. Or you could use red wine, as the traditional Spanish sangria recipe calls for. Or a sparking shiraz. Or red wine and spices, and warm it up for mulled wine. (I’ll share a mulled wine recipe soon.)
If you’re looking for more summery beverages to sip, see our watermelon mint cooler recipe, classic pina colada recipe, authentic margarita recipe, and spicy michelada recipe for a beer cocktail I became smitten with in Mexico City.
Refreshing White Sangria Recipe with Sparkling Wine and Summer Fruits
New Years Eve Party Food Ideas – Dips, Crackers, Canapés, Hand Pies, Mini Salads, Cocktails, and More
Some of our best recipes to cook in December 2025, our best New Years Eve party food ideas include recipes for homemade dips, crackers, canapés, mini salads, cocktails, and more. If you’re envisaging a particularly boozy New Year’s party this year, we’ve also added recipes for more substantial food to soak up the liquor, from Russian hand pies to Mexican enchiladas.
I’ve included some more solid dishes to soak up the booze – from savoury Scotch eggs to fried spring rolls – for those of you planning a New Years Eve party. And, of course, I’ve included recipes for our favourite cocktails, including Champagne cocktails to toast to a new and better year, we hope!
New Years Eve Party Food Ideas – Dips, Crackers, Canapés, Hand Pies, Mini Salads and More
Classic Champagne Cocktail Recipe with a Tropical (Dragon) Fruit Twist
It’s National Champagne Day on 31 December, New Year’s Eve, which is the best excuse to try our classic Champagne cocktail recipe with a tropical fruit twist, which is a recipe for fun. Serve this exuberant champagne cocktail at the beginning of a New Year’s Eve meal or at the start of your New Year’s Eve party and I guarantee you’ll kick-start the revelry.
Champagne is a drink for celebrations and cocktail parties, a sophisticated way to commence a fine meal as an aperitif, and perfect accompaniment to a decadent dessert. But while I’ll happily open a good bubbly to launch a Christmas Day lunch or New Year’s Eve party, I wouldn’t want to drink it all day or night. The Champagne cocktail on the other hand is made for merry-making.
But while the classic Champagne cocktail is elegant, it’s also a little on the serious side (I blame the Cognac) and rather old fashioned (the Maraschino cherry’s fault – it’s beyond kitsch). Which is why you need to serve this classic champagne cocktail with a tropical fruit twist. This is a party drink that will be responsible for some serious carousing. Happy New Year!
Classic Champagne Cocktail Recipe with a Tropical (Dragon) Fruit Twist
New Years Day Breakfast Recipes to Match Your New Years Resolutions
Some of our best recipes to cook in December 2025, these New Years Day breakfast recipes will ensure you start the year right. We’ve got New Year’s Day breakfast ideas to match your New Year’s resolutions. Whether you’re resolving to get more healthy, spend more time with loved ones, live life to the fullest, learn a new skill, travel more, or save money, we’ve got breakfast suggestions for you for New Years Day.
Although the order appears to change a little each year, as we all adjust our priorities in life, according to my research, the most popular New Year’s resolutions are to exercise more, lose weight, get organised, learn a new skill or hobby, live life to the fullest, save more money or spend less money, spend more time with family and friends, travel more, and read more.
If you’re one of the billions of people around the world who make New Year’s resolutions each year – I make my list every New Year’s Day morning – then I’ve got a list of New Years Day breakfast recipes for you to match to your New Year’s resolutions, to make sure you kick the year off right.
New Years Day Breakfast Recipes to Match Your New Years Resolutions
Please do let us know if you make any of our recipes to cook in December 2025 as we’d love to know how they turn out for you. And don’t hesitate to ask questions in the comments below if you need help or ideas. Or share your feedback, tips and tweaks.
