60 Best Christmas Side Dishes
These best Christmas Side Dishes, including everything from vegetables to stuffing to potatoes and salads, will round out your holiday menu and bring your feast together. Don’t let the Christmas Dinner sides play second fiddle this holiday season, these delicious, simple and festive recipes will most definitely be the star!
Whether you serve a traditional meal with a crispy skinned roast turkey or a juicy holiday ham or a tender slow cooked pork roast, these Christmas side dishes will pair perfectly with your meal.
Christmas Side Dishes
Sometimes the best part of your holiday meal isn’t the main dish in the spotlight – it’s the sides! Christmas makes me think of more elegant, pretty side dishes, while the Thanksgiving sides are more about stick to your ribs comfort food. It’s fun to celebrate the holidays with some classier dishes, but still trying to keep it simple can be a challenge. The side dishes you’ll find in this collection are easy enough for the home cook, yet pretty enough to be the star of your Christmas dinner.
What dishes are served on Christmas?
We have always had a simple meal on Christmas Eve with just our household, that included fish and German Potato Salad. That’s a 50 year old tradition that we haven’t broken yet! Our meal on Christmas Day though, that’s the elegant, classy meal that you see in the movies where the star is a giant prime rib roast. It always includes Twice Baked Potatoes (because they’re fancier than regular baked potatoes!) and some delicious homemade cranberry sauce, both of which you’ll find below!
If you need help planning your meal or your entire Christmas season, be sure to check out our handy FREE PRINTABLE Christmas Planner.
How to Pair Christmas Dinner Side Dishes
Crucial to the success of your meal is pairing the right accompaniments. Whether you’re carving a whole turkey or an elegant prime rib roast, you need to choose the right sides to go with it. Here are a few basic tips for pairing the right side dishes with your Christmas dinner. It’s all about balance.
- Round out the nutrition. Having a plate full of turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy might taste delicious, but it can also be pretty heavy. Lighter sides, like vegetables and salads, are a great place to bring in other nutritious elements that might not be part of the main dish recipe.
- Balance the flavors. Turkey, ham and beef can all have wonderful flavor but they are usually pretty mild. You want to balance that with a few bold flavors like tart cranberry, bright lemon or even something spicy or sweet.
- Textures and colors. When all the food on your plate is brown, or everything is a soft texture, the food can seem bland. When planning your Christmas side dishes, make sure to include a few different contrasting colors, and pair textures like crunchy and creamy.
Potato Side Dishes
You can’t have a holiday meal without potatoes. Crispy or creamy, buttered or fried, potatoes are the perfect side because they go with pretty much everything.
- Garlic & Herb Buttered Baby Potatoes
- Easy German Potato Salad
- French Onion Mashed Potatoes
- Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
- Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
- Twice Baked Potatoes
- Make Ahead Mashed Potatoes
- Hasselback Potatoes
- Roasted Purple Potatoes
- Cheesy Mashed Potatoes
- Roasted Red Potatoes
- Crock Pot Mashed Potatoes
- Deep Fried Loaded Mashed Potato Bites
- Crispy Herbed Potatoes
- Rosemary Onion Skillet Potatoes
- Asiago Potato Stacks
Vegetables
You can’t have a meal without some hearty, healthy vegetables, right? Right! But there’s nothing that says they have to be bland or boiled, and these vegetable side dishes are anything but!
- Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Brown Sugar and Bacon
- Cranberry Pecan Roasted Vegetables
- Roasted Honey Butter Carrots
- Creamy Corn Casserole
- Raspberry & Pear Salad
- Easy Oven Roasted Vegetables
- 7 Layer Salad
- Garlic Green Beans
- Green Bean Casserole with Bacon
- Crispy Baked Brussels Sprouts
- Roasted Brussels Sprouts Salad
- Baked Artichoke Hearts
- Garlic Butter Frozen Vegetables
- Honey Roasted Sweet Potatoes
- Easy Oven Roasted Asparagus
- Cream Cheese Asparagus Bundles
- Pomegranate Quinoa Salad
- Pan Seared Brussel Sprouts with Cranberries and Pecans
- Creamed Corn
- Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
Sweet Side Dishes
Something sweet to go with all that savory food is a welcome treat. These sweet Christmas Side Dishes are the best!
- Cranberry Orange Sauce
- Cranberry Fluff Salad
- Pistachio Salad
- Sour Cream Salad
- Green Jello Salad
- Frog Eye Salad
Bread, Stuffing and Rice
I don’t know about you, but there has got to be bread at my holiday table. Now I realize that rice isn’t bread, but it falls into the starch family so we’re just gonna roll with it.
- Homemade Stuffing
- One Hour Dinner Rolls
- Garlic & Rosemary Skillet Bread
- Parmesan Rosemary Dinner Rolls
- Classic Sausage Stuffing
- Parmesan Garlic Herb Quick Bread
- Easy Rice Pilaf
- Fluffy Homemade Naan Bread
- Garlic Cheese Biscuits
- Instant Pot Mushroom Risotto
- Funeral Potatoes
- Hawaiian Sweet Rolls
- Amish Dinner Rolls
- Chicken Sausage & Herb Stuffing
- Slow Cooker Stuffing
- Wild Rice Stuffing
- Cranberry Apple Pecan Wild Rice Pilaf
More Recipes for Christmas
For even more Christmas Side Dishes and Appetizers that are perfect for the holidays, check out these other Christmas dinner round ups:
Festive Christmas Appetizers and Sides
How to Host the Holidays Like a Pro
Absolutely stunning! Thank you on a list!
I love your items you put up. I have made a few and have pined some also.
Thank you Veronica! Thanks for stopping by.
Lovely recipe, can’t wait to try it.
I was so late to discover this amazing list! Anyway, New Year is coming and I’m going to choose some nice dishes for the Countdown party xD
– Luna
Thank you!
On the ad for the 35 Christmas sides the top keftnpicture is a dish topped with pomegranates. I can’t find that recipe anywhere but you show the picture. Could I please get the name of that dish and recipe.
Hi Selina, All of the recipes are linked below the photos. I’m not sure which one you are referring to – is it this one: https://www.cookingclassy.com/pear-pomegranate-spinach-salad/
I’m looking for the same one Selina was asking about. I don’t see it in any of your links provided.
Unfortunately some of the links are broken so I had to remove them.
This all side-dishes looks fabulous!!Thanks for sharing!!! Merry Christmas!!!!
This looks delicious and I need to make this recipe soon! Thanks for sharing!
Love your blog. So glad I happened across it.
I’ve never heard anybody else call them “funeral potatoes”! That’s been our family “joke” for years! 🙂
These sides all look so good! Thanks for including my cranberry salad! 🙂