Last Minute Tips for A Festive and Frugal Christmas Event

Having the family over for Christmas is always pricey but this year, inflation and supply chain issues mean that it will be a whopping 17% higher than pre-pandemic costs.  Escalating inflation and supply chain issues are causing the prices of holiday classics to skyrocket. Is a festive and frugal Christmas dinner even possible?

We know that the holidays are wonderful, but they sure can be expensive. We don’t want to spend a month’s grocery budget on just one meal. Other families are having a tough time financially, because of a job loss, a foreclosure, or exorbitant looming bills they can’t pay. When that’s the case, the holidays can be a time for stress instead of enjoyment.

Check out these tips for a frugal Christmas event.

Contrary to what you may think, you don’t have to sell a kidney on the black market to put together a memorable, delicious, and thrifty Christmas event. You can make a lot of it right from your pantry, and other items from reasonably priced groceries at the store.

If you’ve been building a stockpile, then the food in your pantry contains all sorts of basics for scratch cooking, purchased at the lowest prices available. Because of this, you can focus on purchasing only a few special items, like a turkey or a must-have goodie that is a tradition in your family, while you enjoy delicious yet thrifty treats for the rest of your Christmas dinner.

Break out the vintage cookbooks when looking for creative ways to use your pantry stockpile. My favorite cookbook is my old Fanny Farmer cookbook, which was written in 1896 and updated in the early 1900s.

With these types of recipes, you won’t be scurrying around looking for some of those crazy Martha Stewart-esque gourmet ingredients like the breath of a yellow garden snail, captured during the 2nd full moon of the month.

Make the presentation lovely, with fancy toothpicks in the appetizers, colorful napkins, and your nicest china. If served with the proper flair – think candles, cloth napkins, and a beautiful presentation – any dinner seems just a little more festive

Following are some ideas for a festive meal that will make your guests feel well-fed and pampered, without emptying your pockets.

You’ll discover that many of the ingredients already reside in your pantry or are standard groceries that you’ll have on hand, like eggs and cheese. For even more Christmas eats, check out this article.

Festive and frugal Christmas appetizers and party snacks

• Crackers (Usually on sale during the holidays)
• Warm up a fruity jam and add some hot pepper flakes. Serve this over cream cheese for a deceptively elegant appetizer
• Homemade yogurt mixed with herbs to make a dip for veggies
• Breadsticks with marinara sauce
• Chex mix made with melted white chocolate
• Deviled eggs
• Garlic roasted pumpkin seeds
• Make hummus from canned chickpeas
• Soup
• Slice a baguette and toast the slices. Serve with dishes of high-quality olive oil for dipping.

Festive platters

Platters of cheeses and meats are pretty expensive choices. Simply removing things from jars and arranging them on a platter will make them look far more elegant than their humble origins.

• Place a variety of pickles on a dish for a relish tray.
• Olives and marinated vegetables create a lovely yet inexpensive antipasto
• Don’t buy the ready-made veggie tray from the grocery store. Instead, peel and slice your carrots and cut up other veggies that you can find at a reasonable price.
• Instead of a fruit tray with out-of-season luxuries, go with fruits that are well-priced at this time of year, like mandarin oranges, pears, apples, and grapes.

Frugal Christmas dinner ideas

Don’t feel obligated to invest in out-of-season delicacies like fresh berries and asparagus in December. Splurge on a turkey and let the side dishes take a backseat.

And if you can’t afford the fanciest of dinners this year, don’t despair. Roast a chicken instead of a turkey or a ham, or make some homemade stuffing baked with drumsticks. Things like stuffing (or dressing, depending on what part of the country you hail from) were originally created as a way to use up something that would ordinarily be thrown out – stale bread.

Channel your Depression-era ancestors and make your goodies the frugal, old-fashioned way.

• Homemade rolls or biscuits
• Pasta or potato salad
• Whip butter with a touch of honey- it makes the butter go further but looks fancy
• Canned or frozen veggies will seem more festive when topped with breadcrumbs, bacon, and/or cheese
• Mashed potatoes
• Scalloped potatoes
• Dumplings (maybe this is a Southern thing, but we always had dumplings with turkey dinner when I was a kid)
• Stuffing – save up your bread scraps or make a batch of homemade cornbread for the base. Skip the fancy add-ins like water chestnuts and oysters and go back to the basics
• Mashed sweet potatoes or winter squash with a sprinkle of brown sugar
• Homemade cranberry sauce (far tastier and about the same price as canned)

Desserts

Don’t go all out on a bakery-made dessert. Make it from scratch from basic ingredients. Consider these humble ideas.

• Decorate a cake (or cupcakes) with christmas-colored sprinkles
• Pies can be more expensive if you make the crust with pounds and pounds of butter. Try a single crust pie or make it with shortening.
• Banana bread or pumpkin bread
• Homemade cookies (check out our cookie recipes straight from the pantry)
• A fruit crisp
• Pudding with whipped cream
• Brownies
• Ice cream (put it in cones or add some toppings to jazz things up)

The most important ingredient

Remember, Christmas isn’t about food – it’s about much more than that. Any meal is a feast when you’re spending time with the people you love.

What are your frugal Christmas dinner tips? Share them in the comments!