Brilliant Christmas Food Ideas

Put on your pinnies! We’ve got a few Christmas food ideas that anybody who is studying or interested in the Food Hygiene course is going to love. You might want to share it with your friends or keep it as your secret source of Christmas food ideas.  

Food features a lot over the Christmas period, and while it’s usually fun to eat, it’s not always as much fun if you are the person who has to plan and prepare food. But there are some great food ideas out there, and also great ways to make ‘normal’ food festive. 

Here are some of our favourite Christmas food ideas: 

Christmas Food Idea #1: Making Regular Food Festive

There are a variety of ways to make even the blandest of sandwiches festive (though we expect that nobody is planning to make bland sarnies for the Christmas period). There’s a saying that ‘we eat with our eyes’, which means that if you put a festive twist on how you present some of your Christmas food, it will surely taste extra special!

Some great ideas are:

Layout buffet food in festive shapes, such as in the form of a wreath, or a Christmas tree. If you take a look around online, you’ll find plenty of examples of 2D and even 3D versions of festive food layouts.

There are:

• Christmas Tree Pizzas
• Cheeseboard or antipasti wreaths.
• Sandwich Christmas tree stacks.
• Pinecone shaped cheese balls (use almonds to represent the pine cone spikes).
• Christmas shaped fruits and sandwiches. Such as stars, Christmas trees and snowmen (thanks to cookie cutters!).

Your creativity is your only limit, and the risk of cross-contamination. But that’s something you can quickly solve when you understand food hygiene.  

Spice It Up

Add extra festive spices to the food you cook by thinking of how you can add chestnuts, orange, cranberry, maple, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, rosemary, sage and mint to your food to make it ‘Christmas food’. Don’t forget to use some of these spices as garnishes too.

We like:

• Avocado, bacon and maple Sandwiches 
• Tuna salad with cranberries
• Pigs in blankets with cranberry stuffing sandwiches
• Cranberry and walnut hummus
• Sprout, carrot and chestnut sandwiches with pickles

Garnishes Are Your Secret Weapon

Talking of garnishes, you can make ‘normal’ food feel more festive by adding festive garnishes to your Christmas food. 

As we’ve already mentioned, spices are a great idea, but you can also include holly, mistletoe and spruce as a garnish too. Just make sure that you apply food hygiene principles to keep the food safe to eat. 

Christmas Food Idea #2: Let The Experts Organise Your Christmas Food For You 

Every year, Good Housekeeping Magazine publish details of the best Christmas food you can find in the supermarkets. So why not take advantage of that and fast-track some of your Christmas food by letting someone else cook it for you. 

Just makes sure your food hygiene is in place and follow all cooking instructions properly. 

Here are some of this year’s winners:  

• Turkey Breast Crown with Pork, Sage, and Onion Stuffing, M&S. 
• Finest Butternut Squash, Mushroom & Chestnut Wreath, Tesco. 
• Vegan Festive Wellington, Asda. 
• Mincemeat Tart, Costa Coffee. 
• Luxury 12 Month Matured Christmas Pudding, Iceland. 
• Richly Fruited Christmas Cake, Waitrose.
• Chocolate Praline Yule Log, PAUL 

Christmas Food Idea #3: Challenge Yourself To Create A Simple But Festive Buffet

If you don’t want to ‘cheat’ you can at least try to make things a little easier – fast-track your festive food with some of these easy but oh-so-delicious homemade Christmas buffet food ideas and a simple strategy.

Creating a buffet strategy makes organising things much easier. Have a more comprehensive than usual selection of dips and sauces, and then some easy staples such as:

• A big bowl of chopped salad
• Pitta bread
• Breadsticks
• Raw veg
• Tacos
• Bread Rolls

Then jazz things up with simple party pieces such as:

• Pigs in blankets
• Sausage roll twists.
• Bacon halloumi bites.
• Steak on sticks
• Chicken dippers
• Mini cheeseburgers
• Turkey 

Don’t forget to add festive spices to your sources and party pieces, or to use the tips above to find special ways to display and garnish your Christmas buffet food.  

Christmas food doesn’t have to be complicated to be fun and interesting. It is easy to make regular food look and taste festive. And with a well-considered strategy, Christmas buffets are a dream. The biggest issue most cooks face, at home or professionally is how they maintain their food hygiene, it’s not glamorous, but it’s a vital component to enjoy your Christmas food. Afterall nobody wants food poisoning or to be the person responsible for it.