The Christmas Dinner Timeline

The short version

• Early December: set the guest list and menu, and order the roast or ham from your butcher.
• Two weeks out: bake and freeze cookie doughs, and shop for everything that keeps.
• One week out: bake gift cookies and make candy, and clear out the refrigerator.
• Two days out: pick up the roast, shop for perishables, and salt the roast if you're dry-brining.
• Christmas Day: a bone-in prime rib goes in about 4 to 4½ hours before dinner, and the sides take over the oven while it rests.

Early December

• Choose the main dish and order it. Butchers sell out of prime rib and bone-in hams in the last week before Christmas. For a bone-in rib roast, plan on about one rib for every two guests. The prime rib calculator and ham calculator size them for your guest count.
• Plan the menu with an oven column. Next to each dish, write its oven temperature and time, and whether it can be made ahead.
• Plan your baking days. Decide which cookies are for the table, which are gifts, and which can be frozen.
• Check your equipment: a roasting pan with a rack, a food thermometer, a carving knife, and enough platters.

Two weeks before

• Make and freeze cookie doughs. Most drop-cookie and slice-and-bake doughs freeze well for weeks.
• Shop for non-perishables: flour, sugar, butter (it freezes), chocolate, spices, stock and drinks.
• Need to double a family recipe? The recipe scaler converts every ingredient to amounts you can actually measure.

One week before

• Bake gift cookies and anything that keeps in a tin.
• Make candy: fudge, caramels, toffee and brittle all keep well. The candy temperature chart has every sugar stage, with an adjustment for altitude.
• Clean out the refrigerator to make room for the roast and make-ahead dishes.

Two days before (December 23)

• Pick up the roast and keep it in the refrigerator. Fresh beef keeps 3 to 5 days, so you can buy it earlier if you have room.
• Dry-brine the prime rib (optional): salt it all over and leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge. The seasoning goes deep and the crust browns better.
• Shop for perishables and make any desserts that improve overnight.

Christmas Eve

• Prep the sides: peel potatoes (keep them in cold water in the fridge), trim vegetables, and assemble casseroles to bake tomorrow.
• Set the table and put out serving dishes, each labeled with a sticky note.
• Frozen ham? It needs about 4 to 6 hours per pound in the refrigerator to thaw, so a big ham should already be thawing.

Christmas Day: prime rib

This example is for an 8-pound bone-in rib roast (4 ribs, serving 8) with dinner at 5:00 PM. The USDA estimates 23 to 30 minutes per pound at 325 °F to reach 145 °F, about 3 to 4 hours for this roast. Medium-rare gets there sooner. The prime rib calculator builds this plan for any size and doneness.

1. 11:45 AMTake the roast out of the refrigerator to take the chill off. Season it if you didn't dry-brine.
2. 12:15 PMPreheat the oven to 325 °F.
3. 12:45 PMRoast goes in, bones down and fat side up. Insert a leave-in thermometer in the center, away from the bone.
4. 2:45 PMStart checking the temperature every 15 minutes.
5. About 3:15 to 3:45 PMPull it at 125 to 130 °F for medium-rare, or keep going to 135 to 140 °F for medium (about 145 °F after resting, the USDA's recommended minimum).
6. As soon as it's outTent it loosely with foil and let it rest at least 20 minutes. A big roast stays hot for an hour. Raise the oven to 400 °F for potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and casseroles.
7. 4:30 PMWarm the rolls, finish the gravy or jus, and plate the sides.
8. 4:45 PMCarve: cut along the bones to remove them in one piece, then slice across the grain.
9. 5:00 PMDinner.

Christmas Day: ham

Most holiday hams are fully cooked, so you're really just warming them to 140 °F. Roasting times at 325 °F:

Sources: USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, "Roasting Those 'Other' Holiday Meats" and "Hams and Food Safety."

For an 8-pound spiral ham and dinner at 5:00 PM, put it in, covered with foil, at about 2:15 PM, start checking at 3:30, and glaze it in the last 15 to 20 minutes. The ham cooking time calculator works out the times for any ham.

Beef tenderloin instead?

A whole beef tenderloin (4 to 6 lb) roasts at 425 °F in just 45 to 60 minutes total, or 35 to 45 minutes for a half (2 to 3 lb), according to the USDA. That makes it a good choice when the oven is crowded. Rest it 10 to 15 minutes before slicing.

After dinner

• Refrigerate leftovers within 2 hours, sliced into shallow containers.
• Eat leftover roast and ham within 3 to 4 days, or freeze them.
• Reheat leftovers to 165 °F. More on storing and reheating leftovers.

Frequently asked questions