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Have an Italian-style Christmas dinner with yummy bread, soups, salads, meats, and pasta. Check out this collection of all kinds of Italian Christmas dinner ideas!
More Collections: Christmas Side Dishes, Mexican Christmas Food, Christmas Dinner Ideas
Love This Best Italian Christmas Food!
Italian + Family + Food – you really can’t have one without the other. Christmas is an especially wonderful time for all three.
Italians begin celebrating on December 8th and celebrate into the New Year. The climax of the celebration is, of course, Christmas.
Why we love it:
- Feeds the masses. Easily celebrate your own Christmas Cenone (big dinner) with these hearty dishes.
- Delicious! The smells, tastes, textures, and beauty of the dishes draw everyone in for a delicious and satisfying meal.
- Something for everyone. From start to finish, an Italian meal certainly satisfies the senses.
Buon Natale and Merry Christmas!
Italian Christmas Eve Dinner
I love learning about other cultures, and most often food is an integral part of celebrations. In Italy, La Vigilia Di Natale is celebrated the day before Christmas. It translates to the “Vigil of the Birthing”, fitting right?
Another way of referring to this day is as “The Feast of the Seven Fishes”. Catholicism has a heavy presence in Italy, and as far as I can tell 7 is a reoccurring number: 7-day creation, 7 Catholic Sacraments, and 7 deadly sins.
Also, Catholics refrain from eating red meat on Christmas Eve and serve seafood dishes like frutti di mare, or clams, eel (capitone), salt cod (baccalà), halibut, shrimp, mussels, anchovy, calamari, scallops, squid, and more.
A traditional Feast
Once the 25th comes, all delicious foods are fair game to eat. Whether you’re serving a big dinner on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, a traditional Italian Christmas meal will typically consist of 5 courses:
- Antipasti – the appetizers.
- Primo Piatto – the first part of the main meal. This is often a pasta dish such as ravioli, tortellini, lasagna.
- Secondo Piatto – the second part of the main meal and is served with contorni, side dishes. Often meat such as lamb or veal is served as the main meal with a side.
- Dolce – or dessert, is the final course. This often includes chocolate-covered fruits, chocolate bonbons, truffles, cakes, or especially famous Panna Cotta.
Favorite Italian Christmas Dishes
These classics should look familiar! Traditional Italian Christmas food is enjoyed by people all over the country, and these are our favorites.
From linguine to lasagne there are plenty of flavorful sauces and pastas to choose from!
1 Easy Lasagna Recipe
2 Fettuccine Alfredo Recipe
3 Chicken Parmigiana Recipe
4 Italian Pork Chops Recipe
5 White Sauce Recipe
6 Spaghetti Recipe
7 Italian Sausage Pasta Recipe
8 Chicken Scallopini Recipe
9 Chicken Piccata Recipe
10 Pasta Carbonara Recipe
Italian Christmas Appetizers
Everyone loves to start a grand meal with a few munchies and we have plenty of delectable Italian bites to choose from! Many are quick and easy – all are delicious.
11 Focaccia Bread Recipe
12 Mozzarella Sticks Recipe
13 Easy Bruschetta Recipe
14 Tortellini Skewers Recipe
15 Fried Ravioli Recipe
16 Spinach Puffs Recipe
17 Garlic Bread Recipe
18 Olive Garden Breadsticks Recipe
19 Caprese Kabobs Recipe
20 Italian Meatball Recipe
Recipe Video
Get the recipeItalian Christmas Soup And Salad
Soups and salads are frequently served as one of the courses of an Italian feast. These flavorful options are sure to be a hit!
21 Crockpot Tortellini Soup Recipe
Recipe Video
Get the recipe22 Chicken Gnocchi Soup Recipe
23 Chicken Alfredo Soup Recipe
24 Zuppa Toscana Recipe
25 Tomato Mozzarella Salad Recipe
26 Caesar Salad Cups Recipe
27 Pizza Salad Recipe
28 Creamy Pesto Dressing Recipe
29 Easy Tortellini Salad Recipe
Italian Christmas Desserts
Dessert is always a must, and Italians know how to do it right! From puddings to cakes to cookies there are sweets for everyone. I suggest making a few and indulging!
30 Panna Cotta Recipe
31 Italian Cookies Recipe
32 Easy Chocolate Cake Recipe
33 Bread Pudding Recipe
34 Pistachio Dessert Recipe
35 Shortbread Cookie Recipe
36 White Chocolate Lasagna Recipe
37 Chocolate Covered Strawberries
38 Mini Fruit Tarts Recipe
39 Cream Puffs Recipe
Recipe Video
40 Lemon Lasagna Recipe
Our Go-To Italian Christmas Dessert
With an Italian menu, you have to top it off with dessert.
Even though we listed a few other ideas above, a MUST-HAVE are these Italian Christmas cookies.
Not only are they soft and simple, but they’re the perfect addition to your Christmas menu and are especially festive with Christmas sprinkles.
Here is the recipe:
40+ Italian Christmas Dinner Ideas
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 6 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond anise, or vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
Glaze
- 2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond anise, or vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 3-4 tablespoons cream or milk, warmed
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Whisk together eggs, oil, sugar, and extract in a mixing bowl. Stir in flour, baking powder, and salt.
- Roll dough by tablespoonfuls into balls. Chill balls of dough for at least an hour, or freeze for 15-20 minutes. Place cold dough balls on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.
- Bake at 350° for about 9 minutes, or till tops are set. Bottoms will be lightly browned, but tops should still be white. Remove cookies to cooling racks and cool completely.
- For glaze, combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk till smooth, adding enough warm cream to get a thin but creamy consistency.
- Dip tops of the cookies in the glaze, then top with Christmas sprinkles.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
An Italian Spread
We hope this helps you in creating a delicious Italian Christmas dinner menu. It’s sure to be a big hit!
We hope you enjoy this list of Italian Christmas dinner ideas.
Be sure to check out all of our Christmas Recipes!
More Collections: Italian Appetizers, Italian Side Dishes, Italian Soups
I appreciate the explanation of the courses of an Italian dinner as well as the recipe suggestions that fit. I’ve already made several of your appetizers and cant wait to work through the different pasta dishes.
Amazing recipes looking forward to making them
I love this list!! I make your tortellini salad all the time!! It helps to see all the options on this one post, so thank you!
Thank you so much, these are even better than my Italian grandmother’s cookies!
We do a different theme for Christmas dinner every year, and this year is Italian. So glad I found this GREAT collection of recipes to help me put together my menu!
Aside from Mexican this is the next best dinner for us……Italian! We love pretty much anything pasta. The food is great and not hard to make.
The students really liked the layout of this website.