Ham vs. Turkey: The Great Christmas Dinner Debate, Settled

The great Christmas dinner debate, settled honestly: the ceremony of turkey, the easy genius of ham, and the beloved third option — both.

Every December, the same delicious argument breaks out: ham or turkey for Christmas dinner? Other countries settled this long ago — Britain roasts turkey, Scandinavia glazes ham, Australia fires up prawns on the barbecue — but in American kitchens the debate is alive and well. Here's the honest case for both, and the answer most great cooks land on: it depends on your table, and sometimes it's both.

The Case for Turkey

Turkey is the ceremonial bird — it arrives at the table whole, it carves with drama, and it feeds a crowd for a price nothing else matches. If your household skipped a big Thanksgiving bird (or can't get enough of it), Christmas is its encore. Turkey also plays the diplomat: mild enough for picky eaters, glorious with gravy, and the leftovers become sandwiches, soup, and pot pie for the quiet days after. The catch: turkey is a production. Brining, roasting windows, resting times — the oven is committed for hours, and a dry turkey is a memory nobody wants.

The Case for Ham

Ham is the relaxed genius of Christmas dinner. A spiral-sliced, bone-in ham arrives mostly cooked; your job is a glaze (brown sugar and mustard, honey and bourbon, or marmalade and spice) and gentle warming. It slices beautifully, needs no gravy theatrics, serves hot or room temperature — which makes it the buffet king — and the leftovers are legendary: ham and eggs on Christmas morning, split pea soup, sandwiches for the movie marathon. Pound for pound it costs more than turkey, wastes less of your day, and almost nobody cooks it badly.

The Both Strategy

Big table? Do both, the way generations of Southern and Midwestern families have: a modest turkey for ceremony and a ham for abundance. Scale down each (a turkey breast instead of a whole bird, a half ham), and the work barely grows while the table looks like a feast paintings are based on. This is also the peacemaker move — every faction at the table finds its favorite.

Timing It With the Rest of the Menu

Whichever you choose, build the day backwards from serving time, protect the oven schedule like a flight plan, and let the bird or ham rest a full 30 minutes while the sides finish. Our complete Christmas dinner menu and timing plan lays the whole day out hour by hour.

The Verdict

Small table, low stress, leftovers for days: ham. Big ceremony, big crowd, gravy people: turkey. Feeding a family that contains strong opinions: both, and accept the applause. There is no wrong answer — there's only the one that gets you out of the kitchen and back to the people.

The Leftovers Plan (Decide Before You Cook)

Whichever bird-or-ham wins, the second-best meal of Christmas is the next day's — if you planned for it. Ham people should buy rolls and good mustard with the weekly shop: Boxing Day ham sandwiches are a tradition of their own, and the bone goes into split pea or lentil soup within the week, or into the freezer the same night before intentions fade. Turkey people play for the full hand — sandwiches, tetrazzini, pot pie, and a carcass that becomes stock, which becomes January soup, which is the cook's quiet revenge on winter.

One safety note that matters more than any rivalry: the clock. Cooked meats get two hours on the table, then into shallow containers in the fridge — not the all-afternoon counter rest that tradition romanticizes. Leftovers keep three to four days refrigerated, and freeze beautifully for a month. Decide the leftovers plan while you shop, and the main event decision makes itself: the right answer is whichever bird your household will still be happily eating on the 28th.

Shop This Article

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases — thank you for supporting the site.