Celebrating the holiday brunch has become an annual highlight for us, as it exudes a magical atmosphere. This past weekend, we played host to our friends for a Holiday Brunch and it was an absolute joy for everyone. To elevate the festive spirit, we decided to bring in a Santa character, providing our friends and family with the unique opportunity to capture Santa pictures in the comfort of our home, eliminating the need to wait in long lines at the mall. This addition brought a fun element to the entire brunch experience! Here is a quick glimpse of our Brunch- Holiday Brunch Video
The Santa was hired from an app called Gigsalad. I am linking the below items for y’all-
Christmas Backdrops- Shop Here
Our tree can be found here
Ornaments are linked here
Menu-
Bagel Egg Casserole – This is a crowd pleaser & its great because you can assemble it a night before & bake in the morning! Find the Recipe Here- Bagel Egg Casserole Recipe
French Toast Casserole- A favorite amongst the kids (and adults), don’t forget to drizzle some maple syrup on it and also keep maple syrup separately. Here is the recipe- French Toast Casserole
Hash brown Casserole- I also assembled this a night before and baked in the morning. The below recipe serves 10 & I made the double of it.
Ingredients:
- 32 ounces frozen shredded hash browns thawed
- ½ cup melted butter
- 10 ounces/1 can of Cream of Potato soup
- Half a pint sour cream
- ½ cup onion finely chopped
- 2 cups colby cheese grated, divided
- Salt & Pepper
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9×13-inch casserole dish.
- In a large bowl, combine thawed hashbrowns, melted butter, cream of chicken soup, sour cream, onion, 1 ½ cups of cheese, and pepper.
- Spread the mixture into the prepared baking dish and top with the reserved ½ cup of cheese.
- Bake for 45-55 minutes or until hot and bubbly
Scrambled Eggs with Veggies- This is one of those recipes where you can adjust it however you like! We used onions, red & green peppers, zuchchini, mushrooms and yellow squash, but you can always add more like jalapeños , spinach etc. or keep it simple with no veggies. We sautéed the veggies in extra virgin olive oil & butter, for about 3-4 minutes. Whisked 15 eggs along with one cup milk and added salt & pepper as per taste. Added the egg mixture to sautéed veggies and once the eggs were cooked, we added 3-4 tablespoons of Sour cream for a creamy texture and topped with chopped chives! Simple & sweet recipe that everyone will love for breakfast/brunch!
Holiday Salad- I got the Spring mix from Costco, added feta cheese, mandarin orange slices, pomegranate seeds and candied pecans. We got the Apple cider vinaigrette dressing from Target which was perfect for this salad.
Mac & Cheese- I wanted to make sure our littles were well fed & followed a simple & easy recipe that is linked here
Chocolate covered strawberries– Make sure your strawberries are washed & fully dry before you start them coating in chocolate. I used a combination of dark & semi-sweet chocolate chips and white chocolate chips from the baking aisle. You can also get mini M&Ms, candy eyes & Sprinkles to decorate them holiday themed. Here is a quick video- Chocolate Covered Strawberries
Very Berry lemon cake-
I recorded a quick video here and the detailed recipe is on my Blog- Very Berry lemon Holiday Cake
Ricotta Cheese & herb dip with Crostinis– I made this one a little extra spicy with some serrano peppers. The acidity of the tomatoes cuts the spice though, which makes it spicy & tangy! I followed the recipe by Palak Patel (thechutneylife) and here it is-Ricotta Cheese Herb Dip recipe. The Crostinis were Bruschettinis from Target.
The Christmas tree Cheese Board-
The cheese board is from Scoring Smiles. The ornament cheese ball was so much fun to make. I mixed 8 oz cream cheese (softened), 4 oz Mascarpone cheese, 6oz grated white sharp cheddar, 2 chopped green onions, 1 TBSP Ranch seasoning & Salt. Formed a ball & wrapped it in a cling wrap to set in the refrigerator overnight ( or at least 4-5 hours).
Took the ball out in the morning & covered with pomegranate seeds. This step was not as easy as I thought, so take at least 10-15 min to do it neatly. Added a Rolo Candy, Rosemary sprigs & a bow on top to make it look like an ornament. I served this with some herb crackers and rest of the board was fruits like grapes, berries and cheese cubes (pepperjack & cheddar). Here is a quick video-
The ornament ball was inspired by Seecandycook.
Sides–
We had setup a Toaster with breads, Apple butter, Peanut butter & Jelly along with Honey roasted nuts (from Costco), Ruffles Chips and Cookies. We also had mini Apple juice cartons for the kids. Here is a link to our Toaster.
Christmas Punch- This was such a hit! You can freeze ice in a big mold after adding fresh cranberries, rosemary sprigs & sliced navel oranges, like I did a heart (make sure the mold size fits into your Punch bowl). I originally wanted to do a snowflake but the mold was bigger than the opening of my punch bowl.
Recipe:
I added the Cranberry-Pomegranate juice to the Punch bowl and added one bottle of sparking wine (Lamarca), Ice block and some more fresh cranberries, rosemary sprigs and sliced navel oranges.
Hot Chocolate Bar-
This was so fun to put together! We had Marshmallows, Chocolate Chips, Chocolate spoons (you can get them at Home Goods/Target etc.), Pepperridge Farm Gingerman Cookies, Peppermint Sprinkle, Candy canes, the Starbucks classic Hot cocoa & Hot Milk (I used a carafe for the same) ! All of these are linked here for your reference- Hot Chocolate Bar
We also had a “Make your own coffee station” and here is the link to our Coffee maker- Philips 5400 Automated Coffee Machine
Products:
I am also linking a lot of our serve ware here- Shop Serve ware via my LTK Profile
Hope you found the blog helpful. Feel free to reach out to me on Instagram or comment here if you have any questions 🙂
