French Christmas Food Ideas for Holiday Dinners

Extravagant seafood delicacies, roasted meats, fresh vegetables, cheeses, and delectable desserts can all be found on French dinner tables on Christmas Eve. Curious to add some of these French Christmas food ideas to your Christmas dinner menu?

Tips for serving a fine French Christmas dinner

If you want to serve French Christmas food, what dishes will you put on your table?

• A roasted meat dish is the centerpiece of the meal. Use fresh herbs and seasonings to make it as tasty as it is beautiful.
• Offer some simple dishes, such as a cheese plate or fresh steamed vegetables to complement the main dish. 
• Don’t forget desserts and coffee, which are essential parts of the leisurely French Christmas dinner.

Seafood and delicacies are part of French holiday meals

These dishes are often on the menu at French Christmas soirées. Add some elegance to your holiday table with these dishes as appetizers.

1. Caviar

Although sturgeon caviar can be one of the most expensive food items you can buy, there are affordable varieties of caviar you can serve on an appetizer buffet. A few jars of chilled caviar served with water crackers or toast points, crème fraîche, and fresh lemon will bring high style to your table.

2. Escargots

Escargots (edible snails with a coiled shell) steeped in garlic butter can be served as an hors d’oeuvre—the epitome of French food. 

3. Sea scallops

Coquilles Saint-Jacques, a French dish of large sea scallops, requires a special recipe, but you can find fresh or frozen scallops in the seafood section of your grocery store and serve them any way you like.

4. Foie gras

Serve foie gras (a mousse made with duck or goose liver) with brioche, your favorite specialty bread, or canape crackers on a appetizer plate. 

5. Lobster

Lobster Thermidor is a dish that originated in France, but something as simple as boiled lobster tail makes a sumptuous starter for your Christmas feast.

6. Oysters

Oysters in the shell make a lovely addition to an appetizer table, or purchase them shucked to serve on ice with your favorite sauce. 

Serve a roast for the main French Christmas dinner dish

Depending on the region of France, the roast on the Christmas dinner menu might be venison, goose, or pheasant. Beef roasts, smoked hams, and stuffed turkeys find their way to French tables, too.

1. Roast turkey with chestnut stuffing

Add French flair to the traditional holiday turkey with stuffing made from roasted chestnuts.

2. Pheasant

Instead of traditional turkey, serve pheasant for your Christmas dinner.

3. Smoked ham

In the French countryside, a Christmas ham might be smoked in the fireplace, but yours can be pre-smoked.

4. Venison

Roasting a side of venison as some do in France might be a chore, but you can prepare venison tenderloins or steaks as part of a French Christmas dinner.

5. Beef roast 

A beef dish such as a pot roast is a fine country French tradition, or beef en croûte, such as beef wellington makes your French dinner a bit fancier. 

French wine, cheese, and side dishes complement the main course

Luxury seafoods and roasts might be what comes to mind when thinking of French Christmas food, but certain additions to the meal are important too. Champagne or fine wine, a cheese course, and delicious side dishes make the meal festive.

1. Champagne, brut or sparkling wine

While French champagne may not be available, your grocery store may have an excellent selection of sparkling wines to enjoy before, during, and after your traditional French Christmas dinner.

2. Wines paired with courses

It’s fine to sip champagne with an appetizer course and switch to red wine for the entrée course. Choose wines that complement the flavors of the French Christmas foods you’re serving.

3. Cheese course

A plate of cheeses served with or after appetizers is an elegant addition to a multi-course meal.

4. Fresh vegetables 

Fresh vegetables such as green beans, mushrooms, and broccoli or green salads complete the main course. 

5. Candied chestnuts

Candied chestnuts (des marrons glacés) make an edible garnish for vegetable or cheese plates. 

French Christmas foods and coffee for dessert 

In the Alsace region of France, a French Christmas dinner traditionally includes 13 desserts. That’s not just how many desserts are served, but what type. You don’t have to follow this tradition to the letter to complete your French Christmas meal with a sense of abundance.

1. Fruits and nuts and olive oil cake

Dried fruits and nuts are often served as part of the symbolic 13 desserts. Olive oil bread or cake is another traditional option.

2. Bûche de Noël Yule Log

A yule log cake is probably the most recognizable French Christmas dessert. 

3. Biscuits or cookies

Alsatian biscuits called bredele are another traditional 13 desserts option. Any Christmas cookies or biscuits make a lovely addition to your dessert spread.

5. Chocolate truffles

It seems you can never have too many desserts on your French Christmas dinner table. Chocolate truffles are an easy option to add with little effort. 

6. Coffee

A fine French roast coffee goes with dessert in a fabulous French tradition.

Abundance is key when serving French Christmas food

Regardless of which French Christmas foods you choose to serve at your holiday meal, a sense of abundance is a key French tradition, whether with multiple appetizers or desserts. A professional shopper can pick up everything you need and bring it to you within 2 hours via Instacart.  

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Salmon Roe Caviar (7 oz)

Balducci's ESCARGOT GARLIC BUTTER (each)

Nature's Promise Wild Caught Sea Scallops (16 oz)

D'Artagnan Duck Foie Gras Mousse (8 oz)

MacFarlane Pheasants Whole Pheasant With Giblets (4 lb)

D'Artagnan Venison, Tenderloins (12 oz)

Cuisine Solutions Beef Wellington (16.8 oz)

Agrimontana Candied Chestnut Marron Glaces Pieces (5.64 oz)

Chocolate Yule Log Cake (32 oz)

Taste of Inspirations Belgian Dark Chocolate Truffles with Sea Salt (5 oz)

First Street Coffee, Ground, Dark, French Roast (32 oz)

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