Growing up, our family always hosted a big Christmas Eve open house, where friends would come for a drink or the whole evening based on their plans. That party mentality has always shaped our holidays, as well as the menu planning which usually includes a mix of favorites that we make every year, and new showstoppers that we are excited to try. Because there’s so much going on at that time of year, we like to keep our food to things that are easy to throw together quickly or to make ahead, so that we don’t have too much cooking to do. This year, it’s just our immediate family, but we still love to indulge and celebrate!

Cocktails

A signature cocktail is our favorite way to make a party extra-festive!

• One of our brothers love Moscow Mules, so we always try to make those one night over the holidays!

• A champagne cocktail really sets the festive mood, and a Kir Royale is so simple to make.

Appetizers

The key to making any night feel special is to start with a cocktail hour and appetizers. Sometimes, on Christmas Eve, we skip a sit down dinner all together and just have a few rounds of appetizers while we drink and dance and play a game,

• If there is one thing we love in our family, it’s baked brie. Usually Dinah makes it with holiday themed puff pastry shapes on top, but this year we expanded into new recipes that included Baked Brie Bites, which are individual puff pastry poppers and Grilled Brie, which is extra good because of the grilled bread on the side!

• A seafood moment always makes an occasion feel special. While we love shrimp cocktail, the men have been known to ambitiously make Grilled Oysters, and I have my eye on this recipe that uses a white wine butter sauce.

• Bacon Wrapped around anything! We’ll wrap it around scallops or shrimp (I like to add a slice of jalapeno to give it some kick), our mom will wrap it around Club Crackers or this year at Thanksgiving, I did Dates Stuffed with Goat Cheese and Wrapped in Bacon from Half-Baked Harvest and they were awesome.

• Sundried Tomato Dip from Barefoot Contessa with Veggies or Potato Chips. Our mom and the kids love to arrange the veggies in the shape of a tree on the tray to add some easy holiday flair.

Dinner

• Potato Fennel Gratin from Ina Garten is Dinah’s Christmas Night specialty. It always tastes good and the key is to have extra cheese mixture to sprinkle on top so you get that golden crispiness.

• This recipe for blanched String Beans with Shallots is delicious and an easy way to add in an extra vegetable side.

• The Kale and Wild Rice Salad from Camille Styles is an impressive hearty salad that make a statement in the winter or at the holidays. You can swap out wild rice for farro or another grain or skip the grain all together if you want-there are so many fun ingredients in this salad, that you can forgo an ingredient if you don’t have it and it will still taste great.

Desserts

• The Ice Cream Bombe from the Barefoot Contessa is one of the easiest and most beautiful desserts that we make for the holidays. You can use the fruity sorbet and ice cream suggestions in the recipe, or swap them out for your own-sometimes we’ll do peppermint, vanilla and chocolate at the holidays to mix it up.

• Palmiers are also simple! Just puff pastry and sugar that you roll together and bake and they keep for several days.

• One of our favorite things to outsource is a traditional, seven-layer Southern Caramel cake. The best ones come from Caroline’s Cakes and if you haven’t tried them before, we highly recommend it!

• When there’s no time to cook, just order a Yule Log! We get our from Kirsten’s Cakery when we’re in Maryland for the holidays or from Vesta Bakery when we’re in Rhode Island.