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Simple yet “Fancy” Christmas Eve Dinner Ideas for Busy Families

10-photo picture collage of stuffed meatloaf, chicken tetrazzini, biscuits and gravy, amazing spaghetti sauce, sunshine salad, baked potato and meatloaf with peas, quiche, parmesan chicken with angel hair pasta, cranberry fluff salad, and parmesan pork chop with linguini noodles. The title Simple yet "fancy" Christmas Eve Dinner ideas for busy families is overlayed and centered on the photo collage.

 Simple, Delicious, and Fancy Christmas Eve Dinners for Busy Families

At this time of year, life is so busy with parties, children’s concerts, gift buying, etc., and it can be overwhelming. You want a fancy and memorable Christmas Eve Dinner, but it needs to be simple and easy to make. So today, I am sharing my top picks for Simple yet “Fancy” Christmas Eve Dinner Ideas for Busy Families. From dinner ideas prepped the day before to a “fancy” breakfast casserole, there is a variety to choose from to make the night special. 

Amazing Stuffed Shells
  • The spaghetti sauce on my site makes them sooooo good! This recipe can be prepped the day before. Once you have prepared it, store it covered in the fridge until you are ready to bake it. Serve with a salad and really good garlic bread.

A glass 9x13 baking dish filled with stuffed shells with a black serving spoon scooping out some shells from the corner.

The Best Chicken Tetrazzini Recipe
  • Readers rave about this recipe! This recipe can also be prepped the day before. Once you have prepared it, store it covered in the fridge until you are ready to bake it. Serve with a vegetable or salad and store-bought rolls. 

A serving of The Best Chicken Tetrazzini Recipe with a fork inserted vertically into it on a Polish pottery peacock patterned dinner plate with a serving of broccoli and a roll.

Pesto Parmesan Chicken
  • Always a crowd-pleaser. Serve with Angel Hair Pasta with Garlic and Parmesan and a salad or vegetable. Not only is it easy to throw together, but it can be on the table in under an hour. While the chicken bakes, make the angel hair pasta, so it’s ready to serve with the chicken.

a juicy chicken breast with seasoning and cheese next to noodles and green beans

Pesto Parmesan Pork Chops
  • Three ingredients, 45 minutes to bake, and dinner is done. This is one of my easiest dinners ever and is also a crowd-pleaser! Serve with pasta or baked potatoes and a salad.

Pesto Parmesan Pork chop served on a bed of linguini pasta on a white plate with a fork on the left sitting on a mustard yellow napkin.

Stuffed Meatloaf
  • One of my ALL-TIME FAVORITE meals. People love it! This recipe can be made up to 36 hours before cooking and serving it. Cover it tightly with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge. Serve with baked potatoes or mashed potatoes and this Sunshine Salad.

blue baking dish filled with stuffed meatloaf covered in a creamy mushroom gravy.

Easy Quiche
  • Readers love it! This recipe is easy to make, especially when you use a store-bought pie crust. With this Easy Quiche recipe, you can use all meat, all veggies, all cheese, or a combination. SO MANY OPTIONS! Serve with sausage or bacon and fresh fruit.

A 9-inch glass pie dish of Quiche with a white kitchen towel with blue stripes.

Down Home Biscuits and Gravy
  • Tony’s Creole Seasoning takes these biscuits and gravy over-the-top! If you have the time, you can make homemade biscuits. If you don’t, store-bought refrigerator biscuits work. Serve with scrambled eggs and fresh fruit.

Down-Home-Biscuits-and-Gravy-

Cheesy Ham and Potato Breakfast Casserole
  • It is just soooo delicious! Cooking the cheese and ham with the potatoes before adding the egg mixture gives it a slightly “fancy” feel. Serve with bacon or sausage, fresh fruit, and English muffins.

A light blue plate with a slice of breakfast casserole, a bunch of red grapes, and a whole grain buttered English muffin. A fork is placed diagonally on the corner of the casserole square. On the left is a dark grey cloth napkin.

Easy Side Dishes for Simple and “Fancy” Christmas Eve Dinners

Cranberry Fluff Salad
  • This salad is AMAZING! With just five ingredients, it’s a no-fuss, quick recipe… You must only remember to prepare the cranberries the night before–crush them in a food processor, sprinkle them with sugar, and refrigerate overnight.

Cranberry Apple and Walnut Fluff Salad

Angel Hair Pasta with Garlic and Parmesan
  • A simple and easy side dish with some serious pizzazz! It’s a 10-minute recipe that goes well with many of your favorite dishes. You can use any pasta you like–penne, rigatoni, spiral, fettuccine, spaghetti…whatever your family likes. 

a fork getting a bite of angel hair noodles with sauteed garlic and parmesan out of a large bowl of the recipe.

Sunshine Salad
  • One bite of this salad and I was like, “WOW!” Not only is it “fancy,” but it’s also an awesome salad for pretty much any occasion. Make sure to cook the walnuts ahead of time so they have time to cool.

sunshine-salad-the-best- fall-salad-ever

How to Make the Perfect Baked Potato 
  • Salty and perfectly roasted on the outside and fluffy on the inside. These simple tips will be your new favorite way to make baked potatoes.

A large baked potato cut open with butter, salt and pepper on a dinner plate with a slice of meatloaf and a serving of green peas. A fork head is on the plate on the right of the potato.

Spinach Poppy Seed Salad
  • Sometimes all it takes to make a dinner “fancy” is a nice salad. Pickling red onion slices in the dressing results in the most incredible flavor. Cook the bacon and make the dressing several hours in advance on the day you plan to serve the salad. 

A horizontally placed white and blue polka-dotted Polish pottery bowl of Spinach Poppy Seed Salad.

Instant Pot Mashed Potatoes
  • You will love how no-fuss they are! After you smash them, leave them in the Instant Pot (with the lid on), and set them to “Keep Warm” for up to 3-4 hours or until you are ready to serve. 

Mashed potatoes with a small scoop of butter in the middle with parsley sprinkled on top all in a white Polish potter bowl with scallops, blue trim at the top, and dark blue polkadots throughout the bowl. On the left side of the bowl is a cloth yellow napkin scrunched up.

How to Cook Bacon in the Oven
  • My favorite way to cook bacon is in the oven. This simple technique will be your go-to way to cook bacon.

A cookie sheet full of oven-baked thick slices of bacon.

Layered Salad
  • A “fancy” and delicious salad perfect for special occasions. The dressing tastes amazing! You can make the salad up to eight hours in advance.

Layered Salad of lettuce, celery, water chestnuts, carrots, hard boiled eggs, crispy bacon, tomatoes, frozen peas, and dressing.

Five Minute Orange Fluff Jello Salad
  • Only five minutes to mix up four ingredients. Instead of mandarin oranges and orange jello, use raspberries and raspberry-flavored jello for a festive and bright holiday side dish.

Last, but not Least…Simple and “Fancy” Desserts for Christmas Eve

Cakes

A piece of Cranberry Christmas Cake on a plate with a bite out of it topped with three whole cranberries with a fork lying next to the plate. Three more pieces of cake on white plates in the background with cranberries on top.Cranberry Christmas Cake
A piece of gingerbread cake with cool whip on top sitting on a white plate. Someone has taken the first bite out. In the background, you can see other pieces ready to be served.The Best Gingerbread Cake
Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze on a round serving platter with three cranberries and a leaf on opposite ends. Whole cranberries are scattered around the plate.Cranberry Orange Bundt Cake with Lemon Glaze
Two white plates stacked on each other with a slice of Easy Black Forest Cake on top topped with a dollop of whip cream, chocolate shavings and one cherry. A 9x13 glass pan of chocolate cake faded in the background.Easy Black Forest Cake

Cheesecakes

No-Bake-Cherry-Cheesecake-2No-Bake Cherry Cheesecake {9×13 size}
A square slice of Magnolia Bakery Blueberry Jamboree sitting on a white plate.Magnolia Bakery Blueberry Jamboree
A mini cherry cheesecake on top of three small plates with two forks on the left of the plate. Faded in the upper background are more little cheesecakes on a large plate.Mini Cherry Cheesecakes
Amazing Strawberry Cheesecake Puff pastry tartAmazing Strawberry Cheesecake Pastry Bites

Pies

Two white dessert plates stacked on each other with a slice of no-bake peanut butter pie on top. On the right of the plate are two fork heads. In the background is a pie serving utensil, another piece of pie on a small white plate, and the pie with a couple of slices cut out.No-Bake Reese’s Peanut Butter Pie
Easy no-bake banana cream pie with a grey kitchen towel to the left, a banana on the upper left, and a peeled and partial slice banana and a few forks on the right.Easy No-bake Banana Cream Pie
a slice of french silk pie on a white plate. there is a bite missing and you can see the rest of the pie in the backgroundEasy French Silk Pie
No bake oreo pie with a bite out of itNo-Bake Oreo Pie

And a few more...

A horizontally placed oval dish of Apple Crisp.Apple Crisp
Coconut-Cream-Pie-Pastry-BitesCoconut Cream Pie Pastry Bites
Pumpkin-Pecan-Crunch-6Pumpkin Pecan Crunch
Berry cobbler in a ramekin dish with two spoons faded in the background. On the left side of the photo are partial pictures of two ramekins with berry cobbler. The text Single Serve Berry Cobbler is overlaid on the photo at the top right. Overlaid on the bottom right is the text reallifedinner.com.Berry Cobbler Recipe…Make it for one, two or twenty….

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