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Every year I serve a Christmas Eve Candlelight Dinner in our home. It’s a special way to spend this wondrous evening with family after a candlelight service at our church. Sometimes I prepare a large meal, while other times, it’s just a simple soup with bread and a yummy dessert. But always it’s a special dinner with candles, decorations, nice dishes, and glasses.
When planning your own Christmas Eve dinner, consider how many guests you’ll be hosting. Once you have your guest list, it’s time to go through your linens and dishes. Maybe you have a special holiday dinnerware tucked away in a closet. If so, it’s time to get it out! And it’s okay if you don’t have special dishes, because you can always dress up your table with a colorful tablecloth, napkins, chargers, or decorations.
For many years, I used my Blue Willow dishes and decorated the table with accents in ivory and green. This has been one of my favorite table settings, and I always enjoy coming back to it from year to year.
You might also dress your table in holiday colors of red or green with ivory or white dishes, which always looks spectacular. Many tableware items may be purchased on sale at stores such as Hobby Lobby. And don’t forget to check your local thrift stores or Dollar Stores for dishes and decorations. Sometimes you can find real treasures for a few dollars, which is always a good thing!
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Next consider your candles and stands. You could go with simple jars with tea lights in them. (The jars in the photo above are actually yogurt jars, which make great tea candleholders.)
If you have one, use a candle stand with taper candles. Votives, pillars, or Hurricane-type candlelight would also be very pretty. Go through your house and see what you have. And then go buy a few candles at a Dollar store. When shopping, keep in mind the colors you will have on your table and do your best to match them.
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Once you have your table decorations figured out, it’s time to start planning your menu. Below are a few ideas for appetizers and desserts, with a handful of suggestions for your main meal, both simple and more elaborate. Maybe some of these will help you create your own menu!
Appetizers for a Christmas Eve Candlelight Dinner
Start your guests out with mulled drinks and appetizers served on a side table or in the kitchen while you’re finishing the dinner preparations. Browse all of my Appetizers Here.
1
Christmas Wassail with Pomegranate Juice
Here’s a delicious mulled drink to enjoy at Christmas or during the holiday season. Sweetened with pomegranate, apple, and pineapple juice and flavored with cinnamon sticks. It’s good served warm or over ice.
Every winter, my grandma made Addicting Munchies Holiday Snack. The name is accurate as this is very addicting. At our house, we may go through 2-3 batches between Thanksgiving and New Years, to be enjoyed by all!
Here's a delicious recipe to serve guests when you want a little something special. We love how the cheese oozes once you slice into this yummy goodness.
Holiday Cheese Ball is a favorite family recipe that is so delicious and easy to put together. It uses two kinds of cheese (cream cheese, and cheddar) and is flavored with Worcestershire sauce and onion, and then coated in chopped pecans.
A Christmas gathering in our family would not be complete without a few dishes filled with yummy chocolate candies. Homemade fudge, chocolate covered peanuts or macadamia nuts, toffee, pecans, and caramel. Oh my!
5
Chocolate Caramel Pecan Clusters
Our family loves Chocolate Caramel Pecan Clusters and they make great gifts. Clusters of chewy caramel and chopped pecans covered in a delectable chocolate coating.
We enjoy making Chocolate Nut Clusters with Peanuts for the holidays. They are very easy to make and tasty too! Plus, this recipe can be adapted to make Chocolate Macadamia Nut Clusters, which are simply heavenly.
Here's my Mom's famous Pecan Brittle recipe that she makes every Christmas. Loaded with freshly picked Kansas pecans. My dad lives on this stuff from Thanksgiving to New Years, and somehow my mom always manages to make enough to give as gifts.
Below are four main course options to serve for a Christmas Eve Candlelight Dinner, along with optional side dishes, salads, breads, or even soup. I hope one of these will spark your interest enough that it might become a favorite in your household, too.
Dinner Option #1 – Soup and Meat Pie
Broccoli Cheese Soup with Christmas Chicken Pie and Onion Crescent Rolls makes for a lovely Christmas Eve dinner. I used to prepare the menu for our family when the girls were young. It was one of our favorite meals to enjoy following our Christmas Eve candlelight service. I always prepared as much of the meal as possible earlier in the day, then kept it warm in a crockpot or in a warm oven. This made preparation for the meal quite easy and quick once we returned home.
9
Broccoli Cheese Soup
ThisBroccoli Cheese Soup is perfect for a cool autumn night when you need a little comfort food. Creamy, cheesy, and seasoned with onion and carrot with small bites of tender broccoli. Add a crusty loaf of sourdough bread and it becomes a heavenly weeknight dinner.
Although this recipe takes some time to prepare, it's very good and has become a Christmas tradition at our house. Filled with tender chicken and mildly spiced sausage, it goes well with a creamy soup and crescent rolls.
Onion Crescent Rolls is a fantastic recipe I like to make for my family that is amazingly easy to prepare. So light and soft–like little fluffy pillows! I hope you'll take the time to try these and that you'll love them as much as we do!
This is my dad’s favorite meal, which I’ve made for him a time or two on Christmas Eve.Ham and all the Fixin’s, Complete with Sides, Salads, and Oat Rolls.
12
Slow Cooker Holiday Ham
If you want a tender and juicy ham this Christmas, look no further than this Slow Cooker Holiday Ham recipe. It’s especially nice when you want to free up oven space for other dinner items. The pineapple, cloves, and brown sugar all lend extra flavor to the dish.
I love to make Easy Company Potatoes for family gatherings or church socials. It makes a lot and goes well with Country-Style Ribs or Holiday Ham. And it’s one of those “dump” recipes, so it’s easy to put together.
Candied Sweet Potatoes is an old family favorite for the holidays. Tender sweet potatoes covered in butter, brown sugar, and cinnamon and topped with pecans and marshmallows. Yum!
Oat Rolls are one of our family favorites! They are easy to make and so delicious. Soft, tender, with oatmeal goodness that turns it into a slightly sweet, hearty bread.
My mother-in-law first made this dinner for us one Christmas and I was enchanted by it’s old-world charm. Cornish Hens with Stuffing, Brussels Sprouts, Creamed Corn, Ambrosia Salad, and Braided Bread.
18
Cornish Hens with Grand Marnier Stuffing
I love to serve Cornish hens during the holidays. Here's a delicious recipe to make for your Christmas Eve dinner. Apricot-glazed Cornish hens with a cornbread stuffing flavored with dried apricots, pine nuts, and orange-flavored Grand Marnier. So good!
This recipe for Slow-Cooked Creamed Corn is so delicious, you will want seconds and will secretly hope for leftovers! Creamy, lightly sweetened corn that doesn’t run all over your plate. Comfort food, for sure.
Ambrosia – Five Cup Salad is an easy dish to make for a family gathering or church dinner. Full of fruit and mixed together with simple sour cream that melds together in a delicious fruity and refreshing salad.
My final dinner option is another simple meal of Potato Soup in a Bread Bowl, served with Spinach Artichoke Dip. Again, the items can be prepared in advance to keep warm until you’re ready to serve.
23
Easy Baked Potato Soup
Baked Potato Soup is perfect for a weeknight meal for your family or as an intimate holiday meal served in Sourdough Bread Bowls, which is what I did one Christmas Eve for our family dinner.
Sourdough Bread Bowls are so delicious and pretty with their seed toppings. Just slice the top, remove some of the bread filling, and spoon soup into them to enjoy.
Baked Spinach Artichoke Dip is a yummy appetizer when you want something a little salty and warm. This dip is perfect with crackers (especially Trisket crackers) or toasted sourdough bread.
Many years ago, when I was first married, my mother-in-law served Frog Eye Pasta Salad at one of our family gatherings. I had never seen or tasted it before and thought it was quite wonderful.
When preparing your dinner menu, be sure to include a fabulous dessert. I’ve listed candy above for munching on, but bring out one of these lovely desserts to end the meal. No matter how full your guests are, they will be unable to resist having at least a bite of one of these. See all of my Dessert Recipes Here.
27
Christmas Yule Log
Christmas Yule Log is a delicious chocolate sponge cake rolled up in a creamy filling and covered in a rich ganache icing. So yummy!
New York-Style Cheesecake is pretty amazing, and ranks high on our dessert scale. This will be my holiday go-to recipe for Cheesecake. It’s rich and creamy and oh so dreamy. Really, folks, it’s pretty amazing.
Elderberry Wine-Poached Pears with Chantilly Cream
Elderberry Wine-Poached Pears with Chantilly Cream is an excellent choice when you want a simple, yet elegant dessert worthy of Christmas, an anniversary, or a celebratory birthday.
Make this delicious Vanilla Pound Cake recipe during this year’s Holiday Season–or any time, really. The sugar topping sends this cake right over the top!
So there you have it, four of my favorite meals deserving of a Candlelight Dinner. I hope you’ll choose one of these meals for your holiday dinner, or that they give you ideas for other recipes. May this Christmas fill your hearts with love and peace that will last all the year through.
Hi, Deborah I have to tell you how much I enjoy just perusing all the wonderful pictures, recipes and your delightful explanations and comments throughout. Since my husband has died, I don’t have any reason to make beautiful table settings and big celebratory dinners, but maybe one of these days my scattered-across-the-country family will return for a big reunion and I will have a plethora of recipes and ideas at the ready! Thank you for sharing all your loveliness with us. Merry Christmas!
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Thanks Deb for all of your delicious and easy recipes that you post.
Thanks, Casey. Blessings to you on the New Year!
Hi, Deborah I have to tell you how much I enjoy just perusing all the wonderful pictures, recipes and your delightful explanations and comments throughout. Since my husband has died, I don’t have any reason to make beautiful table settings and big celebratory dinners, but maybe one of these days my scattered-across-the-country family will return for a big reunion and I will have a plethora of recipes and ideas at the ready! Thank you for sharing all your loveliness with us. Merry Christmas!