40-Day Christmas Challenge | Day 24: Plan the Holiday Menu Before You Shop • Everyday Cheapskate

Christmas dinner has a way of growing. You start with ham. Obviously you’ll need potatoes. And a vegetable. Maybe two vegetables. Rolls. Salad. Something the kids will eat. An appetizer would be nice. And somebody loves that cranberry thing.

Then dessert. Well, you can’t have just one dessert.

Suddenly you’ve planned a meal for 14 people that requires 27 dishes and the coordination skills of an air traffic controller.

So today we’re planning the holiday meal. But we’re starting with a radical idea:

The cook should get to enjoy Christmas too.

Today’s Challenge

Decide what you’re serving for your main holiday meal before you start shopping for it.

Then check what you already have, decide who’s responsible for each dish and make one grocery list.

We’re going to decide what deserves to be on the table before the grocery store starts making suggestions.

Do This Today

1. Write the menu.

Start with the meal you actually want. Not the meal you think Christmas requires.

Ham and potatoes.
Turkey and stuffing.
Prime rib.
Lasagna.
Tamales.
Soup and good bread.
Brunch.
Chinese takeout.
A table full of appetizers.
Your family’s traditional meal that would cause an uprising if you changed it.

All legitimate.

Now build around the things people genuinely care about. Maybe nobody cares whether there are three vegetables, but Christmas apparently cannot proceed without Grandma’s potatoes.

Excellent. Make the potatoes.

2. Give the menu a kitchen reality check.

Look at everything you’ve planned.

How many dishes need the oven? How many need a burner? How many need to be made at the last minute? How many require chopping, mixing, stirring or assembling while everyone else is having a lovely time?

If six dishes need to be hot at exactly the same moment, you don’t have a menu. You have a scheduling problem. Simplify.

Aim for a mix of make-ahead dishes, oven or stovetop dishes, cold or room-temperature foods, store-bought items and things someone else is bringing.

That last category is particularly useful.

3. Shop your kitchen, then make one list.

Check the refrigerator, freezer and pantry before writing down what you need. Don’t rely on memory. I’ve purchased cinnamon while already owning enough cinnamon to supply a respectable bakery.

Look. Cross off what you already have. Add only what’s missing. And if someone else is bringing a dish, put their name beside it so you don’t accidentally buy the ingredients anyway.

One menu. One grocery list. Much better.

Quick Win

Write down only this:

Main dish: ____________________

Three things we’re definitely serving with it:

That’s enough to get the meal under control.

Let People Bring Things

When someone asks: “What can I bring?” this is not a test. Give them an answer.

Dessert. Salad. Rolls. Drinks. An appetizer. Their famous whatever-it-is that everyone loves. Be specific. “Bring anything” has a way of producing four desserts and no bread.

Not necessarily a tragedy. But still. If you’re hosting, you don’t have to cook every bite personally for the meal to count.

Buy Some of It

Here is another perfectly respectable category: STORE-BOUGHT.

You can make the main dish and buy dessert. Make the pie and buy the rolls. Use a prepared side dish. Order part of the meal.

The question isn’t whether you could make it. Of course you could. The question is whether that’s where you want to spend your Christmas time.

Spend where it matters. Skip what doesn’t. That applies to effort too.

Plan for Your Actual Kitchen

Your oven has only so much room. So does the refrigerator. So does the stovetop. And unless you’ve recently added a second version of yourself to the household, so do you.

If the main dish owns the oven, perhaps something else belongs in the slow cooker. If dinner requires a lot of last-minute attention, make dessert ahead or buy it. If everything needs you during the final 20 minutes, change something now.

Christmas dinner tastes considerably better when the cook gets to sit down and eat it.

Watch the “Just in Case” Groceries

Holiday grocery carts have a peculiar way of filling themselves with insurance food.

Extra appetizers. Extra cheese. Extra crackers. Another dessert. A backup dessert. Something “in case people are hungry later.”

Before buying for every possible scenario, ask two questions:

How many people am I actually feeding?
What happens to this if we don’t eat it?

If the answer is, “We’ll happily eat the leftovers,” fine. If the answer is, “It will live in the refrigerator until I throw it away,” perhaps leave it at the store.

Remember the Meals Around the Meal

If people are staying with you, remember that the big holiday dinner isn’t the only time they’ll eat. Apparently people expect breakfast the next morning too. Rude, but predictable.

Keep the other meals easy. Cereal. Eggs. Toast. Fruit. Sandwiches. Soup. Leftovers. Frozen pizza. Whatever works.

No need to produce another holiday feast every six hours.

Give Leftovers a Job

If you’re buying a large ham, turkey or roast, think briefly about what happens to what’s left.

Sandwiches? Soup? A casserole? Freeze some? Send some home? Good.

Now leftovers are part of the plan instead of a refrigerator problem waiting for you later.

And if you’re sending food home, find a few containers you don’t mind giving away. No need to send your good storage containers out into the world and spend January wondering where they went.

Why It Matters

A holiday meal should feel abundant. It does not need to feel excessive. The foods people love. Enough for everyone. A few special things that make the meal feel like Christmas. That’s plenty.

When you plan before you shop, you can spend your grocery money on food people will actually eat and your time on the things that actually matter.

Most important, you can sit down. Preferably while the food is still hot.

Your Turn

What’s the one dish your family considers nonnegotiable at Christmas? Not the fanciest. The one people would immediately notice was missing. Tell us in the comments. Those answers are usually a lot more interesting than any “perfect Christmas menu.”

Tomorrow

Tomorrow we’re not adding another Christmas tradition.

We’re choosing one that’s worth protecting.

Because traditions don’t become meaningful because we manage to squeeze them all in. They become meaningful because we make time for the ones we love.

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