Easy Make Ahead Christmas Brunch Menu + Printable

Imagine a Christmas morning with friends and family all gathered around a delightful spread that has been prepared with love – but without the stress. It can be done with this tried-and-true family favorite Christmas brunch menu of recipes that can all be made ahead of time! Simply bake and reheat according to the provided schedule in the morning, print out the menu to share and you’ll have a festive feast on your hands that will become a wonderful tradition.

After simplifying our Christmas morning brunch menu a number of years ago and making everything the day before for a more relaxing morning, I thought I’d share it with you – along with a cute printable menu to display on a table or on each plate.

There are two main reasons why this Christmas breakfast menu has stood the test of time:

1. The recipes are SO delicious – every part of the menu has been tested by family and friends and only the best recipes made the cut for Christmas morning. The recipes are special and help to create that tradition we love about holiday foods.
2. Everything is EASY and can be made ahead the day before! That means all you have to do on Christmas morning is to set the oven temp and cook in between enjoying your family and opening gifts. #love

The Case for a Simpler Christmas Brunch

After many years when our kids were younger thinking I needed have a huge brunch spread that included two of everything (two savory/egg dishes, two meats, two fruits, two sweet breads…) and with a few new recipes every year, I came to my senses and simplified.

Because I realized I was crazy (ha!) and wasn’t enjoying this Christmas tradition I was so keen on producing. Sometimes you need to live and learn, right? Hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and start off simple – but also special and delicious.

Since I decided to go simpler (did I mention I used to decorate each plate with a wrapped candy gift that I was usually up until midnight finishing…), we’ve refined the menu to be the things we all really love and usually only have at Christmas. A key was getting my family involved and asking what they wanted, too.

So now the morning menu stays the same (and all the recipes are made with real foods) and we look forward to them every year. I hope that you try one or all of these recipes and that your family will come to look forward to this menu every year, too, making it one of your own family traditions.

Easy Make Ahead Christmas Brunch Menu

Below you’ll find all the links to the recipes included in the menu, a cooking timeline (see, I’ve done all the work for you!), and a printable menu – Merry Christmas!

Fruit

Slice up your family’s favorite fruit and arrange on a pretty plate – done.

Extra points (takes just one more minute): Sprinkle a handful of dried cranberries over the plate – they look festive and are really good with the citrus.

Eggs

Overnight Scrambled Eggs with Spinach and Cheddar Cheese (or cheese of your choice) – I sometimes change these up with a different cheese, which is an easy way to vary them.

I do like prepping and serving the eggs in individual ramekins – it’s an easy way to serve and kind of elevates it to a special level for Christmas.

You can also make this in a large baking pan, which also works for for weekend get togethers at the beach or snow.

Bacon

Make Ahead Peppered Maple Mustard Bacon – This is my lightened up version of the heavily brown sugared bacon recipe – not only do you use less sugar in the form of maple syrup, the syrup gives it GREAT flavor. Everyone loves this, but it’s my son’s absolute favorite.

Sweet Bread

Amazing Real Food Make-Ahead Monkey Bread – this recipe is really what everyone looks forward to on Christmas morning! Some in my family like this better than these incredible cinnamon rolls, but it’s a toss up.

The other great thing about the monkey bread is that it’s easy for others to help you make it. I mix the dough and after it’s risen, the kids would help me to roll and coat the balls so it became another traditional activity we enjoyed. Now that they’re older, whoever is home helps me!

Drinks

Peppermint Mochas or Macchiato Style Cappuccinos are our morning tradition along with sparkling cider. Use whatever drinks your family finds special.

Printable Make Ahead Christmas Brunch Menu

Click the image above to open in a new window and download the pdf to print out for your Christmas morning (or click here).

Menu printable note: This is a full 8×10 inch printable, so you can print one and display it or you can print at a 50% ratio and print one to sit on each plate, if you’d like to get a bit fancy (a LOT easier than buying and wrapping a little gift for each plate, a-hem.)

Merry Christmas, friends! I’m so thankful for each and every one of you who have visited, left comments and subscribed to the newsletter. I hope you enjoy this – and I’d love to know if any part of this menu becomes your tradition, too!

This article has been updated – it was originally published in 2017.

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