Greek Christmas Recipes

Christmas in Greece smells of honey, orange and cinnamon. Weeks before the holidays, Greek kitchens fill with trays of melomakarona and kourabiedes, and on Christmas Day the table is set for family and friends. These are the Christmas recipes we make at home every year: the Greek classics, many of them from my grandmother’s Cycladic kitchen, the festive dishes we’ve added over the years, and ideas for the leftovers, all tested step by step so you can make them too.

Greek Christmas cookies

No Greek Christmas is complete without a plate of melomakarona, soft honey cookies with walnuts, next to kourabiedes, buttery almond cookies under a snowfall of powdered sugar. We make melomakarona two ways: with beer, and the traditional way with semolina. Bake them a few days ahead: they all keep well in an airtight tin.

New Year’s Day: vasilopita

On New Year’s Day every Greek family cuts the vasilopita, a cake with a lucky coin hidden inside. Whoever finds the coin is lucky all year. Here are three of our family versions: with yogurt, with a crunchy almond crust, and a fluffy vasilopita cake.

The Christmas table

For the main meal: a turkey stuffed the Greek way with ground beef, chestnuts and pine nuts, cabbage rolls with pork and chestnuts, and a festive rice with pomegranate and pistachios on the side.

Festive mains

If you’d rather skip the whole roast turkey, these mains bring the same sense of occasion: turkey Wellington two ways, roast duck with an orange glaze, duck breast with raspberry sauce, roast chicken with yogurt and pomegranate, and a slow-cooked beef and stout stew with cranberries.

Starters and sides

Something to start with: Christmas canapés, goat cheese with fresh berries, and a velvety pumpkin and chestnut purée with sautéed mushrooms.

Christmas cakes and desserts

For holiday afternoons and the end of the meal: a light Christmas fruit cake, a sugar-free spice cake, a chestnut pavlova, chocolate truffles with dark rum, a classic French chocolate mousse, a 10-minute raspberry mille-feuille and soft white chocolate cranberry cookies.

Christmas leftovers

There’s always turkey left over. The next day it becomes croquettes, a puff pastry tart, a creamy pasta with gorgonzola or a hot baguette sandwich; the stuffing goes into a quick pita, and the last melomakarona become an ice cream bombe.