Every Christmas morning since I was little, my family has celebrated with a beautiful brunch after stockings and presents are opened. It’s a tradition that brings back such great memories and now that we have kids of our own, I have continued our holiday breakfast in my home – something that I look forward to each year and I hope that my kids have fond memories of this when they are older. There are some recipes that have withstood the test of time, and some that I have adopted into my holiday breakfast to make my version a little more of my own. Of course, I’ve also set many different tables to add to the magic ambiance of Christmas morning . . . Read on for some ideas on how to create this for your family.
The Table
I normally don’t use a tablecloth AND a table runner together, but I wanted this holiday breakfast to feel extra special, so I layered both, and stayed with a traditional color scheme – mostly blending whites, creams and golds.
Shop the table decor here:
place settings
Gold sparkly charger plates provided the foundation for the place setting. From there, I added my new stoneware scalloped dishes, followed by delicate gold-rimmed dessert plates for a finishing touch on my holiday breakfast table.
decor
what to serve
A coffee cake has always been served at my family’s holiday breakfast, but I’ve varied it over the years. I’m really not a bake-from-scratch person, so this Lemon Blueberry Muffin Cake is simply a boxed yellow cake mix that I’ve doctored up a little. I’ve squeezed some fresh lemon juice into the mix (only about 1 tablespoon), along with some other ingredients, sprinkled powdered sugar on the top and added fresh blueberries and mint sprigs from my backyard garden for a pop of color.
Jump to Recipe
Lemon Blueberry Muffin Cake
Ingredients
- 1 box yellow cake mix
- 1 3.4 oz box lemon instant pudding mix
- 1 cup vanilla yogurt
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup water
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup fresh blueberries, plus a few extra for garnish
- 2-3 tbsp confectioner's (powdered) sugar
- 1 bunch fresh mint sprigs
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Grease bundt cake mold with non-stick spray and dust lightly with flour.
- Reserve 2 tablespoons of dry cake mix. Put rest of cake mix, pudding mix, yogurt, oil, water, lemon juice, zest and eggs in a mixing bowl. Mix for 2-3 minutes on meduim speed until well-blended, scraping down sides as needed.
- With the reserve dry cake mix, toss blueberries until covered.
- Pour 2/3 of the batter into cake pan, then spread blueberries over batter. Pour the remaining 1/3 of cake batter on top.
- Bake until gold brown on top and starts to pull away from pan – about 45 minutes.
- Remove from pan and place on wire rack for 15 minutes to cool. Loosen edges with a knife and flip gently onto plate or wire rack, then flip back again.
- Cool for one hour, then dust with powdered sugar and garnish with fresh blueberries and mint sprigs.
Christmas Potatoes
Ingredients
- 32 oz package frozen, shredded hash browns, thawed
- 1/2 cup melted better
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 12 oz grated cheddar cheese
- 8 oz sour cream
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 small onion, chopped
- 2 cups crushed corn flakes
- 1/2 cup additional melted butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Put thawed potatoes in 9 x 13 serving dish, or if serving individually, put in large bowl.
- Mix next 6 ingredients, pour over potatoes. If serving indivudually, fill each dish evenly.
- Top with corn flakes.
- Drizzle butter over potatoes.
- Bake uncovered for 45 minutes if in large pan. If serving in individual dishes, bake unconvered for about 20-30 minutes or until bubbly and corn flakes are golden brown.
I followed this recipe from a cute blog called Pinch of Yum to make these adorable egg pastry brunch cups. They take a little bit of time, but are a great addition to a holiday breakfast for the egg lovers in your family!
I hope you enjoyed seeing just one of the family traditions that we celebrate during the Christmas. This holiday breakfast has meant so much to me over the years, and this year, more than ever, I think we all appreciate those things that are familiar and comforting to us.
To see how I’ve set another classic and traditional Christmas table, check out my post here:
For more brunch ideas that you can adapt for a holiday breakfast, check out my post here:
