The Taggart Family Christmas Feast
My family has eaten basically the same meal every Christmas Eve for as long as I can remember. And when I say the same meal, I mean THE SAME MEAL.
If you have a copy of our family cookbook, you’ll already know the menu. But for those of you who don’t, let me introduce you. And if you want the entire cookbook, you can snag a copy here.
OUR CHRISTMAS EVE MENU
Appetizers + Drinks
Jane’s Baked Brie
Christmas Stuffed Mushrooms
Shrimp Cocktail
Homemade Eggnog
Martinelli’s Sparkling Cider
The Main Event
Prime Rib with Horseradish + Au Jus
Baked Potatoes with Butter + Sour Cream
Jane’s Brussels Sprouts
Margaret’s Rolls
Orange Rolls
Raspberry Jell-O with Whipped Cream
And then…
The Nut in the Pudding
We’ll get there.
HOW THE TAGGART CHRISTMAS FEAST STARTED
When my parents, Jane and Paul, started our family, they knew they wanted the holidays to feel special.
The traditions started simple, and then every year they added and adjusted things until eventually our Christmas Eve became an entire production that all of us looked forward to all year long.
When we were kids, my dad would take us skiing or bowling to get us out of the house while my mom stayed home and cooked Christmas Eve dinner. Which, now that I’m a mother, sounds less like a quaint family tradition and more like a strategic evacuation so our mother chef could have the kitchen to herself.
THE PRIME RIB
The centerpiece has always been prime rib.
My mom has been making this roast for 46 years, so when I tell you she has perfected it, I mean she has had nearly half a century of Christmas Eves to get it right.
She makes a giant bone-in prime rib with butter, garlic, rosemary and oregano and serves it with horseradish and au jus.
There are certain foods that instantly put you back in your childhood, and this entire dinner does that for me. I can see my parents’ house. I can smell the prime rib. I can hear everyone talking over each other. I can feel that energy that only Christmas Eve brought.
We ate this meal on Christmas Eve, never Christmas Day, and I always knew exactly what would be waiting when I sat down at that table.
YES, THE BRUSSELS SPROUTS ARE IMPORTANT
The Brussels sprouts came from my dad.
He served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in England and brought a few English Christmas traditions home with him. One of them was Brussels sprouts.
Please remember that this was the ’80s.
Brussels sprouts had not yet received their public-relations makeover.
Nobody was shaving them onto salads or roasting them until they were crispy with bacon. We were eating BOILED Brussels sprouts because Dad had been to England and apparently we all had to suffer the consequences.
I vividly remember my mom making sure every single one of us ate at least one to keep the tradition alive.
Thankfully, she eventually figured out how to make them delicious.
And because I think everyone deserves to know that Brussels sprouts don’t have to taste like 1987, I’ll give you this one.
JANE’S BRUSSELS SPROUTS
After many years of trial and error, my mom finally perfected these bad boys. They’re made with a few simple ingredients and are SO good.
CHRISTMAS STUFFED MUSHROOMS
I’m also giving you my mom’s Christmas Stuffed Mushrooms because these deserve to escape the confines of the Taggart family cookbook.
They’re stuffed with sausage, cream cheese and Swiss cheese and have been part of our Christmas Feast for as long as I can remember.
AND YES, WE EAT RASPBERRY JELL-O
With whipped cream and strawberries inside to make it extra fancy.
I was raised in Utah. Please respect my culture.
TWO KINDS OF ROLLS
We have Margaret’s Rolls AND Orange Rolls.
They’re pretty much the same recipe with a few minor tweaks, and people pay big bucks for this secret family recipe.
Could we survive Christmas with only one variety of homemade roll? Probably.
Are we interested in finding out? Absolutely not.
NUT IN THE PUDDING
And then we finish the meal with another tradition my dad brought home from England: Nut in the Pudding.
It also took me many, many years to understand that pudding means dessert, not actual pudding.
So… ours is actually Nut in the Bundt Cake.
My dad cuts the cake into slices and secretly slips a nut underneath one of them. Everyone chooses a piece and starts eating until somebody discovers the nut.
That person wins money.
We started with a $5 prize and increased the amount by $5 every year, which was a very cute idea until we continued doing it for decades.
The winner now walks away with more than $200.
Over an almond.
GET THE WHOLE CHRISTMAS FEAST
I’m sharing 3 of my mom’s recipes here, but I’m keeping the rest of the family jewels together. Slowly but surely we will be sharing more of the recipes as we go.
AND NOW WE’RE DOING IT TOO
Clearly my mom instilled in all of us a deep love of making things feel special, and that has absolutely trickled down into the families we’re building now.
I took some traditions from my childhood. Ammon brought some from his. And somewhere along the way, we started creating traditions that belong completely to us.
Some things we’ve kept exactly the same. Some we’ve changed. Some would be completely unrecognizable to our parents.
And honestly, I think that’s the best part.
You inherit a little magic, add some of your own, and eventually your kids grow up believing this is simply how Christmas is done.
Want to know what we were doing when we weren’t eating? See All Our Taggart Family Christmas Traditions →
