A belly-busting dinner has been a central part of Christmas Day for centuries – and you might be surprised by how much has (and hasn't) changed over the past 150 years or so, since Christmas was made an official unpaid holiday in 1870. Here we step back in time to take a look at the plates of Christmases past, from the early 1800s to the present day.
Click or scroll through our gallery and feast your eyes on some of the oldest images of Christmas meals that exist today.
Christmas was made an official federal holiday in 1870, but the celebration had captured the imagination of Americans for many decades before. The man credited with popularizing the idea of the holiday as we know it today is beloved writer Washington Irving, who was hugely inspired by the traditions he experienced when living in England. In his 1820 book of short stories, The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Washington depicted a holiday filled with cozy fireside feasting and jolly St. Nick dashing over rooftops. After his death in 1959, his nostalgic stories were published in a stand-alone book, Old Christmas (pictured), which remains the source of some of America’s best-loved traditions.
Stores crowded with customers jostling to get their hands on the best food and drink is a hallmark of the pre-Christmas shopping rush – and things weren’t all that different in the 1870s. At places like New York City’s Early Fulton Market (pictured in an illustration from 1879), locals could choose from an array of delicious meats and game for their Christmas feast, including turkeys, chickens, beef, and mutton. An article published in The New York Times from the same year said: “The neighborhood of Fulton Market, and all the passages of the market itself, were thronged yesterday with holiday buyers, who elbowed each other about in the snow and slush…”
In the mid-19th century, there was a growing social divide between the rich and the poor – and while Christmas was considered a time for charity and generosity, the disparity between what different classes ate at this time of year was stark. This front cover from literary magazine Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, published in January 1873, is titled "The Two Christmas Dinners" and depicts a scene drawn from real life at New York City’s Washington Market. In the image, a wealthy gentleman buys a turkey for the Christmas table, while a poorer woman purchases scraps of meat.
During America’s Gilded Age, charitable giving was especially prevalent over Christmas. The Salvation Army, in particular, was famous for providing hot Christmas dinners to the needy, giving out 300,000 meals across America in 1900. This image shows two elderly men enjoying roast turkey given out at The Salvation Army's Loewenstein Cafeteria in New York.
Today, Christmas dinner wouldn't be complete without turkey. However, though the bird first appeared on the Christmas table in the Middle Ages, it was expensive at the turn of the century, and only the upper echelons of society could afford it. Alternative options included goose and pork, both of which remained popular for decades to come. Here, Salvation Army volunteers in Chicago distribute care packages containing turkey and other holiday treats in the early 1900s.
At the turn of the century, oyster soup or stew was a popular Christmas lunch accompaniment, and it's still a Christmas Eve staple in some parts of the US. For dessert, plum pudding, or Christmas pudding (pictured in this illustration from 1930), whose roots go right back to medieval England, was an enduring holiday favorite in the UK and the US.
The 1910s ushered in the First World War, and a time of hardship and scarcity for many. Soldiers serving on the front line had to make do with their rations, but some troops were able to sit down for a proper Christmas meal, complete with roast turkeys they'd likely plucked themselves. Here, a nurse gives a Christmas gift of cigarettes and apples to an injured soldier at a New York City veterans' hospital in 1918.
Americans may look at Christmas pudding with some confusion these days, but the traditional British dessert was actually very popular in the USA in the early 20th century. With his evocative description of a plum pudding in A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens cemented the divisive dish in the popular consciousness as the ultimate Christmas treat. Making and stirring the pudding together as a family was a popular activity, and this photograph shows a little girl helping out in the kitchen in November 1919.
In the early 20th century, ocean liner travel offered those who could afford it a fantasy world of luxury as they swept across the Atlantic. Liners were put into service as troopships during the First World War – so when it was over, the big shipping companies competed to make their vessels as opulent as possible, and also created more capacity for second and third-class travelers. In this photo from December 1923, chefs on the Cunard liner Aquitania present a lavish display of Christmas treats, including ornate pies, roasted meats, and a giant cake in the shape of the vessel.
For some, sweet accompaniments like candy and chocolate were – and still are – as important at Christmas as the dinner itself. In this nostalgic photo from 1922, workers at a chocolate factory pack up Christmas boxes ready to be sent out to stores. Chocolate didn’t start to gain popularity as a treat in America until the late 1800s, but by the 1920s it was an affordable staple in many homes, enjoyed by children and adults from all walks of life.
The traditional American office party hadn’t yet reached the Mad Men-esque grandeur of the 1950s and 1960s, but even in the Depression era it was still customary for employees to be thanked for their hard work with tasty treats at Christmas. In this image from 1931, office workers gather around their boss’ desk for a low-key feast of coffee, cake, and what looks like whiskey or wine.
The 1930s saw the longest and deepest economic downturn in American history, but for those with the money, Christmas dinner was still a luxurious affair. The wealthiest might have chosen to dine at an exclusive hotel or club, where they could feast on everything from fresh oysters to game and roast duck, with plum pudding to finish. Here, the dining room of beloved New York institution the Parkside Hotel is decked out ready to receive guests in 1931.
The interwar years weren't a time of abundance for everyone, though. For some, turkey still wouldn't have been an option; instead, smaller birds would have been served with plenty of root vegetables – and you can spot a bowl of Brussels sprouts at this crowded 1930s dinner table, too. Those who could splurge on a turkey would need to pick it up on the last possible day, as most households wouldn't have owned a refrigerator.
The 1930s and 1940s are often classed as a golden age of rail travel and, for those who could afford it, a Christmas dinner aboard a train was a delightful holiday treat. Here, passengers don festive hats and finery, and tuck into Champagne and Christmas pudding presented by the on-board chef.
The Second World War brought yet more hardship, and Christmas looked rather different for many families. During the wartime years, millions of American servicemen spent Christmas across Europe, far away from their loved ones. Food was one of the greatest comforts available to soldiers, and the US military pulled out all the stops to supply turkey dinners to nearly all soldiers, regardless of where they were stationed on Christmas Day. In this photo from 1943, three servicemen enjoy their Christmas meal on the hood of a Jeep while serving on the front line in France.
By the end of the decade, magazines like Good Housekeeping were promoting the return of elaborate Christmas lunches with multiple courses and trimmings, suggesting things like meat pies as grazing starters or post-lunch tea offerings. This photo from the time shows a decadent platter of cold cuts.
By the 1950s, a post-war technology boom meant that many more households in the US had refrigerators and freezers in their kitchens. This allowed cooks to shop around for their Christmas turkeys and buy their meat well in advance of the big day, so tucking into a holiday bird was no longer only the domain of the most privileged in society. This 1955 photo shows a family in paper hats watching on as Dad carves the turkey.
Regional specialties have always added flair to Christmas dinner tables, and cooks in the Southern United States know how to lay on a feast like no other. This 1955 photo shows a family from Kentucky saying grace before their Christmas dinner. You can spot Southern favorites like mashed potatoes and green beans among the spread.
Still, though, some families eschewed fashionable turkey in favor of a little variety. This festive Floridian spread, snapped in 1959, features chicken, ham, and a pork crown, plus a side of spiced grape gravy.
A 1950s Christmas feast wouldn't have been complete without a cocktail or two, with top picks including the Tom Collins, the Sidecar, and the classic Gimlet. Snapped in 1955, this holiday table has everything you'd need to create some classic cocktails, from whiskey to dry sherry and Dubonnet.
Fast-forward to the 1960s, and turkey remains the winning choice for Christmas dinner. In this gloriously festive photo, a woman brings a plump roast turkey to the dinner table, which is already laid out with candied yams and bread rolls. The tinsel-covered tree and cheerful red holiday decorations deserve a mention too.
Canapés and hors d'oeuvres were having a moment in the 1960s – a craze that would last well into the next couple of decades. A smorgasbord of fun snacks is captured here, and crackers are topped with everything from shrimp and cucumber to ham and cheese. Our favorites are the dinky penguins fashioned from hard-boiled eggs and black olives.
Perfect for a post-dinner tipple, punch bowls have long been a Christmas favorite. The wassail bowl has its roots right back in the medieval era, when it was typically made with mulled ale, spices, and honey – and this 1960s punch is a spin on the centuries-old recipe. It's served here with apples and toast on the side.
It wasn't all about the main event in the 1970s; cooks got creative with appetizers, too. A cult classic in this decade was the shrimp cocktail, which graced Christmas dining tables in both the US and UK. Eye-catching, tasty, and easy to make, it remains a fail-safe dinner party dish to this day.
Another foodie hit in the 1970s was classic cheese fondue. By this decade, fondue parties – where friends would gather to feast on oozing cheese with dipping bread and vegetables – were hugely popular, and the fondue set would typically make a special appearance sometime after Christmas dinner.
Christmas dinner looked much the same in the 1970s – think turkey or ham, stuffing, roast potatoes, and heaps of vegetables, all smothered in gravy and cranberry sauce. This family, photographed in the 1970s, exchanges presents at the table before tucking into dinner together.
The 1980s were the decade of the dessert, with sweet treats like Black Forest gâteau and profiteroles becoming ever more popular post-Christmas dinner. In Britain, the era gave birth to a classic dessert, the Viennetta. This layered ice cream cake was first introduced by Wall's in 1982, and had a cult following for a period in the US, before being discontinued in the 1990s.
Many see the 1990s as the era of the celebrity chef, and food culture in the US changed forever in the 1990s with the advent of the Food Network cable channel. Famous faces like Bobby Flay and Emeril Lagasse inspired home cooks in the US to shake up their Christmas dinners, while Martha Stewart's iconic Home For The Holidays TV special in 1995 was filled with holiday cooking advice – not to mention delicious ideas like pomegranate and blood orange punch, and edible Christmas tree decorations. The show also famously had a segment where Miss Piggy helped Martha decorate gingerbread snowflakes.
The legendary ad where Hershey's Kisses play "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" is one of the most loved – and longest running – Christmas commercials of all time, and for those who remember, it first debuted in December 1989. This heralded an entire decade of iconic festive food ads, including a 1991 advert where children left a bowl of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes out for Santa, the birth of Coca-Cola's heart-warming polar bear mascots (in 1993), and a much-loved 1998 TV commercial from Campbells, where a snowman warms up with a bowl of chicken noodle soup.
This inviting holiday spread, photographed in 2007, shows that despite new influences coming in over the decades, the essence of Christmas dinner has remained the same. Just like in the 1950s, this turkey platter is adorned with Brussels sprouts, and accompanied by honey-roasted ham and cranberry sauce.
The Christmas table hasn't changed too much over the years, either. Also photographed in 2007, this family bow their heads in prayer before dinner is served. Decorative gravy boats, teacups, and side plates offer hints about the Christmas feast that's soon to be laid out.
By the 2010s vegetarianism had become more common, with around 2% of adults skipping meat and fish. Brands like Turtle Island Foods (makers of Tofurky) and Quorn were already well-established, and nut roasts and meat substitutes were beginning to make an appearance on the Christmas dinner table more frequently. Here, diners dig into a vegetarian wellington filled with smoked tofu and chestnuts.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Christmas dinner looked a little different in 2020 and 2021, with families gathering around computer screens rather than the dinner table. In this screenshot, a family makes the best of the situation by sharing their Christmas meal via Skype – a measure many families around the world had to take to spend time together.
After years of Covid-related uncertainty, we’re all looking forward to finally having a back-to-normal Christmas with family and friends this year. Unsurprisingly, a lot of us are going big for 2023, spreading the celebrations over as many days (and meals) as possible, from Christmas Eve cocktails to a really special breakfast on Christmas Day. Holiday nostalgia is a huge trend, too – think candy canes, gingerbread men, and an old-school turkey dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, and all the classic trimmings.
Now discover the common mistakes people make when cooking Christmas dinner – and how to fix them