Life In Jamaica: Elevate Your Holiday Spread With These Christmas Dinner Ideas
It is finally the Christmas season! Happy holidays from My Jamaica Vignettes. Welcome back. Today I felt like switching things up a bit and sharing some holiday cheer in the form of Christmas meal ideas. Now you might have already planned your Christmas 2023 dinner and that is fine, keep some of these ideas in mind for 2024. But if you are still in the planning phase or if you haven’t quite pinned down your Christmas dinner or Boxing Day dinner plans yet. I have some recommendations.
Christmas Dinner Ideas
Now these aren’t original recipes that I’ve created instead these are holiday inspirations from some of my favourite Caribbean food bloggers, food influencers and cookbooks. I am going to organise it by meats, side dishes and desserts and beverages. I hope you can find some inspiration in the ideas I’ve curated. And remember you can also use these recipes to guide your own creations so mix and match things and play around with flavours and portion sizes to fit your lifestyle and deitary needs.
The featured food bloggers are Guyanese born Jehan from Jehan Can Cook, and my IG favourite Jamaican food influencer, Chantay Campbell Neil, Greedy Girl Cooks , Jamaican born vegan recipe creator Jessica from Jessica in the Kitchen and Jamaica’s keto queen Kelly McIntosh.
Holidays Meats
The first Christmas holiday meats that most of us think of as Jamaicans and maybe as Caribbean people is Christmas ham and Greedy Girl Cooks has this incredible recipe for Sweet Lemongrass and Sage Glazed Ham. Sounds delicious doesn’t it. Head to her blog or do a Google search of the recipe name and take a look. Here’s the link to the Greedy Girl Cooks’ ham recipe.
Jehan posted this garlic butter roasted chicken on TikTok and IG in November 2023 and I so want to try it and it still might make it on my holiday dinner menu this year so I had to include it in this blog post. It looks so easy to make and watch her video it is juicy and looks like it could be a crowd pleaser.
Greedy Girl Cooks also has a delightful sounding ribs recipe that is perfect for a holiday meal, and while I believe the recipe was originally developed with Valentine’s Day in mind, I think it can be a great addition to a holiday spread. Try the choco-whisky ribs.
Sides
We love our traditional rice and gungo peas during the Christmas holidays and that’s great but there are options. Kelly McIntosh, Jamaica keto champion has a recipe for a delicious cheesy veggie casserole and will beat mac and cheese. It is included in her cookbook, Keto The Jamaican Way is available on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle ebook. But you can get the essence of the recipe from Kelly’s keto Christmas dinner menu post from a few years ago. But I do recommend getting a copy of the cookbook.
I am not vegan but I do enjoy some vegan foods, and here is a vegan recipe from Jessica in the Kitchen that can work well with your Christmas dinner, pumpkin alfredo pasta. Doesn’t that sound delicious?
Beverages
Yes I know you have sorrel and maybe some of you have eggnog but there are other beverages that you can try this Christmas. I recommend that you dust off your copy of Enid Donaldson’s The Real Taste of Jamaica cookbook and I know this popular at Sunday dinners across the island yearlong but what about a festive carrot drink, you can do lime and sugar for the little ones and those that don’t like dairy. Create a batch that has milk and spices and of course a boozy version. For your alcoholic beverage of choice try a planter’s punch.
Desserts
Have you ever made a pie? What about a gizzada pie? Greedy Girl Cooks explores this interesting take on a traditional Jamaican pastry in a 2018 blog post. Sounds fun, doesn’t it.
Another delightful option for the holidays is a hurricane cake. It’s coconut and pecans baked under a German chocolate cake mix with cream cheese topping. Sounds yummy doesn’t it? I am planning on baking one this holiday season.
Or try a rum cake this Christmas. Here’s a Caribbean rum cake recipe from Jehan Can Cook.
And of course go ahead and bake or order your Jamaican Christmas black cake because it really wouldn’t be the holidays without it.
That’s it, happy holidays. I hope these ideas help inspire you this Christmas season to try something new. Let me know if you plan on trying any of these Christmas dinner ideas.
Have a happy, happy Christmas. I had a full list of Christmas themed holiday posts ideas saved in my notes app on my phone but I think this might be the last post of 2023. I need some time to reflect privately and plan for 2024.
See you guys again in 2024 with new content surrounding wellness, books, mental health recovery and balance and some exciting personal passion projects.
Be well. Take care.
Chantel DaCosta
Chantel DaCosta is a storyteller, editor and lifestyle blogger. She is passionate about mental health awareness and Jamaican women's own-voices stories.
