Christmas dinner shopping list
Pick your main dish, enter your guest count, check the sides you're making. The list updates as you go — grouped by store section, scaled to your guests, ready to print and tape to the fridge.
The meal
Sides
Pick whichever you're making. The shopping list updates as you toggle.
Drinks & dessert
Optional additions to the list.
Your shopping list
For 8 guests, turkey (whole), 6 sides, 1 extra.
Produce
- Celery3.25stalk
- Fresh green beans2lb
Or 1 large can per 4 people.
- Fresh or frozen cranberries12oz
Or 1 can per 6 people if going canned.
- Fresh sage1bunch
- Fresh sage, thyme, and rosemary1bunch
Pick up one small bunch of each.
- Garlic4clove
Optional — for roasted-garlic mash.
- Lemon2each
Quartered, in the cavity.
- Orange2each
Zest + juice.
- Russet or Yukon Gold potatoes4lb
- Yellow onion4each
For the cavity + roasting pan.
Dairy & eggs
- Heavy cream8oz
- Heavy cream (optional)4oz
- Unsalted butter20oz
For basting + compound butter under the skin. For serving.
- Whole milk4oz
Bakery
- Day-old bread (sourdough or French)16oz
Or use boxed stuffing mix and skip the rest.
- Dinner rolls16each
Bakery or frozen-and-baked.
Frozen
- Whole turkey10lb
Allow ~4 days to thaw if frozen. Aim for 1.25 lb per person.
Pantry & dry goods
- All-purpose flour8tbsp
- Chicken or vegetable broth24oz
- Cream of mushroom soup2can
- Crispy fried onions2cup
French's or store brand.
- Granulated sugar8tbsp
- Kosher salt4tsp
For dry brining, 24–48 hours ahead.
- Low-sodium chicken or turkey broth32oz
Beverages
- Red wine (Pinot Noir or Cabernet)3bottle
Pinot pairs with turkey; Cab with prime rib.
- White wine (Chardonnay or Riesling)2bottle
For the white-wine crowd.
Quantities are starting points based on standard per-person benchmarks (turkey 1.25 lb, ham 0.5 lb, etc.). Bigger eaters? Add 10–15%. Lots of kids? Drop 10–15%. Round up for anything you'd feel bad running out of.
About the list
Quantities are starting points. Per-person benchmarks: turkey 1.25 lb, bone-in ham 0.5 lb, prime rib 0.75 lb, whole chicken 0.75 lb, vegetarian Wellington 0.4 lb. Sides scale similarly. If your crowd skews heavy eaters (or you want generous leftovers), add 10–15%. If it's mostly kids and grazers, drop 10–15%.
How the list aggregates. If multiple recipes call for the same ingredient (e.g., unsalted butter appears in the turkey, the mashed potatoes, AND the stuffing), the list combines them into a single line item with the total quantity. No more buying three sticks of butter when you needed five.
What it doesn't cover. Pantry staples you almost certainly already have — salt, pepper, vegetable oil, flour, sugar (in moderate amounts) — are mostly assumed. The list includes them when a recipe needs a meaningful quantity beyond pinch-and-dash.
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