‘Tis the season when traditions abound—from family Christmas tree excursions to our heirloom ornament collections, Southerners rejoice in holiday merrymaking through rituals we hone over time. It can be as simple as the tinsel-lined tree that reminds you of Grandma’s Christmas decor or as coordinated as the extended family matching pajamas you have to plan far in advance. Perhaps it’s the decades-old record you dust off each year to bring your ears back to Christmases past. No matter the effort involved, there’s a touch of enchantment in it all.
But perhaps the most magical of all our Christmas traditions starts in the kitchen. It’s here that the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping and light detangling give way to treasured time together and tastes that can transport us through time. Those lucky enough to work alongside family to fill casserole dishes and roll dough know all too well that the recipes we make together each year are true holiday treasures. So we invite you to step into the Christmas kitchens of Southern Living editors as we share the holiday recipes passed down through generations we look forward to each year.
Victor Protasio; Food Styling: Ruth Blackburn; Prop Styling: Christine Keely
“We spend the eight days of Hanukkah celebrating with different groups of people each night,” says Rebecca Angel Baer, senior digital editor. “While these get-togethers take place in the homes of various cousins, aunts, uncles, and friends, the one constant is my mom’s potato latkes. She brings them to every gathering because no one makes them better.”
James Ransom; Food Stylist: Chelsea Zimmer; Prop Stylist: Lydia Pursell
“Like all the best family recipes, this keeper was passed down by word of mouth, to my dad from his Mémère, my great-grandmother,” says Ivy Odom, senior editor. “In her thick French Canadian-in-Connecticut accent, she would say the layers out loud to my dad as she assembled them: “meat sauce, cottage cheese, cheese, noodles.” Either due to Mémère’s strong accent or my dad’s foggy memory, somewhere along the line, “ricotta” had become “cottage” and we learned we’d been making the family recipe incorrectly all these years. Since we preferred our cottage cheese version, we decided to stick with it. It’s on our menu every Christmas Eve, just like it was on Mémère’s, and though it’s not her exact recipe, I think she’d be proud we turned her tradition into special memories of our own.”
Katie Strasberg Rousso
“I’ve never met anyone who loved chocolate quite as deeply as my grandma did. She was a wonderful baker, and though I could come to expect homemade cookies in her kitchen any time of year, her chocolate drop cookies and blondies were holiday staples,” says Katie Rousso, associate editorial director. “She used to make hundreds of them for my grandfather’s work holiday party each year, making a batch or two over time and freezing them months in advance. These days, her recipe cards have made their way to my mom’s kitchen, and these sweets were some of the first I copied down.”
Victor Protasio; Food Stylist: Karen Ranking; Prop Stylist: Julia Bayless
“We always make au gratin potatoes for Christmas Eve dinner,” says Cameron Beall, associate editor. “It’s the dish everyone helps make—from thinly slicing the potatoes and grating the cheese to picking fresh thyme from the garden and methodically layering everything together. It’s a family favorite dish.”
Caitlin Bensel; Food Styling: Torie Cox
“Drinking the Southern version of milk punch on Christmas morning is a treasured and respected tradition in my family. It is the first sign that Santa came and the first of many “Cheers!” of the day,” says Turner Spottswood, photo editor assistant. “Our milk punch tradition has been in my family for as long as I can remember, and the drink goes a long way in spreading joy on Christmas morning in my family.”
Caitlin Bensel, Food Stylist: Torie Cox
“My grandmother and my mother (when hosting was inevitably passed down to her) always make Swiss Steak for Christmas dinner, and Christmas Day wasn’t complete without a shrimp cocktail either,” shares Meghan Overdeep, senior news writer. “My grandfather was always very particular about his shrimp preparation and he taught my mom and all her siblings the correct (and only way) to make shrimp cocktail. Eating enough shrimp to ‘ruin your dinner’ is a Christmas requirement.”
Linda Pugliese; Prop Styling: Kay E. Clarke; Food Styling: Torie Cox
“We call them party potatoes because my mom only makes them for special occasions, but there’s nothing that tastes quite so deliciously celebratory to me as an extra creamy, cheesy scoop of her mashed potato casserole,” says Betsy Watson, senior home and features editor. “She always sprinkles the top with paprika for a little festive color.”
Southern Living
“During the holiday season, my mom always serves Crab Imperial on slices of Virginia country ham,” shares Brennan Long, associate director of social media. “This dish is a little difficult to eat, and might not be the prettiest in the world, but I love that it combines the mid-Atlantic South’s best-known exports. The country ham almost always comes as a gift from a family member or friend, which makes it taste even better.”
Greg Dupree; Food Stylist: Emily Nabors Hall
“For as long as I can remember, my grandma always served broccoli-cheese-and-rice casserole for the holidays. It’s a recipe from her late mother from back in the 50s, and my grandma still has the original recipe that her mother wrote down on a notepad decades ago,” says Abby Fribush, Southern Living fellow. “It was truly my favorite dish among the holiday spread growing up, and now that I’m older she puts me in charge of making it so I can carry on the tradition.”
Caitlin Bensel; Food Stylist: Torie Cox
“We’ve been using this recipe from the same old Southern Living cookbook my whole life. Since my grandmother is a full-blooded Italian who grew up in Alabama, it’s only fitting that an Italian Cream Cake from the pages of Southern Living is the dessert recipe my mom and I make every Christmas,” says Mary Shannon Wells, associate digital editor. “It’s beautiful and delicious, but you don’t need to be an expert baker to pull it off.”