Christmas Breakfast Ideas You Can Set Out in Ten Minutes

By Jodie Smith, Product & Hamper Manager at The Gourmet Pantry.

Set the table, do not cook it. Good bread for toasting, two or three jars of jam and marmalade, a bowl of cold summer fruit, yoghurt, something sweet for the children, and a pot of tea or coffee. Ten minutes of work, it holds while the presents are opened, and every shelf stable part of it can be ordered in November.

Christmas morning has a job to do and it is not to be impressive. It has to feed people who are half dressed, keep children going until lunch, and be out of the way before the kitchen is needed for the real cooking. A cooked breakfast fails all three. A table that gets set out and picked over for an hour does all three, and the half of it that arrives in a jar or a packet, the jams and spreads, the tea, the biscuits, can sit in a cupboard from the day it lands. If you are planning the whole day rather than just the morning, our guide to Christmas food in Australia covers the rest of it.

The four things a Christmas breakfast table needs

Everything after these four is decoration. Get them onto the table and nobody notices that nothing was cooked.

Yoghurt in a jug rather than a tub, one sweet thing on a plate for the children, and the table is finished, inside the time the first round of toast takes.

Four jars beat fourteen

The usual mistake is buying one of everything. Four open jars look generous. Eight look like a stall, and six go back in the cupboard barely touched. Two fruit jams, one sharp marmalade and one sweet spread cover the table, and the sharp one is not optional, because everything else on a Christmas morning is sweet.

Jam and marmalade here runs from about $9.99 to $15.95 a jar. Daylesford Condiment Company strawberry jam is the one children reach for first, and the safest jar on the table at $9.99 for 330g. Seville orange marmalade from the same range is the sharp one, and it earns its keep again in January as a glaze. If you would rather the marmalade were the interesting jar than the sensible one, the Officers' Mess fine cut Seville orange marmalade at $12.95 is properly bitter, and the label carries the one tradition every officers' mess is said to share, which is marmalade at breakfast.

Two more things about jars. The 110g minis in the condiments range are the quiet trick of a long table: a strawberry conserve mini at $6.95 gives each end its own jar without opening four large ones. And if one jar is going to be looked at, make it a good one. The Ottolenghi apricot and passionfruit preserve at $15.95 is bright enough to eat off the spoon, and it is the jar people pick up and read.

Make the tea properly, it is the part people remember

Coffee gets made the way it always is. Tea is where the morning can be better than a Tuesday for almost no effort. The Whittard Christmas tea tin at $29.95 holds 75g of loose black tea blended with vanilla, cloves and citrus, which is what people mean when they say a house smells like Christmas.

Two practical notes. It is loose leaf, so it needs a pot and a strainer, and both should be out of the cupboard on Christmas Eve or the tea quietly does not get made. And 75g is a couple of weeks of pots rather than one morning, so it carries on past Boxing Day.

Something for the children that is not chocolate at seven in the morning

Children will have found chocolate by six regardless. What helps is one sweet thing that is clearly theirs, so the good jam is left alone. Gingerbread Folk Christmas minis at $7.49 do it: small Christmas-shaped gingerbread biscuits, made in Australia, vegan and nut free, in compostable wrappers, so a bag goes in a stocking as easily as onto a plate.

Five minutes on Christmas Eve, and how it scales to ten

Christmas Eve is busy, so this stays short. Slice the bread and leave it bagged by the toaster. Put the jars out with the lids on and a spoon beside each. Set out the pot, the strainer, the cups and the plunger. Wash the fruit and leave it covered in the fridge. That is the whole preparation, and it turns a ten minute morning into a five minute one.

If the rest of the day needs sorting out, our guide to make ahead Christmas food sets out what can be done on 23 December and what has to wait.

A crowd changes the quantities, not the plan. Count on two slices of bread a head, one 330g jar of jam between about six people, and a pot of tea for every four adults who drink it. Put the fruit into two bowls so both ends of the table can reach, bring the second round of toast out after the presents rather than with them, and put the kettle on again the moment the first pot is poured.

Order the cupboard half in November

Bread and fruit are a 23 December job from a bakery and a greengrocer. Everything else here is shelf stable, which is why breakfast is the easiest part of Christmas to get right: it can all be bought before December gets loud. Jams, marmalades and spreads sit in our jams and spreads range from $9.99 a jar up to $15.95 for the Ottolenghi preserves, the 110g minis are $6.95 over in the condiments range, and all of them keep unopened in a cupboard for months.

Shipping is free Australia-wide on orders over $100, and weekday orders placed before 12pm are dispatched the same day from our packing room in Corio, Victoria. The parcel then travels with Australia Post, which is the practical argument for ordering in November rather than late December.

Questions we get asked

What do you eat for breakfast on Christmas morning?

Something set out rather than cooked. Toast with two or three jams and a marmalade, cold fruit, yoghurt, a sweet biscuit for the children, and a pot of tea or coffee. It feeds people in shifts while the presents are opened and leaves the kitchen clear for lunch.

What can I prepare for Christmas breakfast the night before?

Nearly all of it. Slice the bread, set the table with the jars, spoons and cups, put the teapot and strainer out, and wash the fruit and leave it covered in the fridge. Nothing is cooked in advance because nothing is cooked at all. Five minutes on Christmas Eve buys you the morning.

What is a good Christmas breakfast for a crowd?

The same table, scaled up. Two slices of bread a head, one 330g jar of jam between about six, fruit in two bowls so both ends can reach, and a pot of tea for every four adults. Toast in rounds, keep the kettle going, and let people come and go. Nothing has to arrive hot at a set time.

What do Australians eat for Christmas breakfast?

Christmas morning here lands in high summer, so it runs cold and light: toast and jam, mango, cherries and berries, yoghurt, and iced coffee as often as hot. Bacon and eggs still happen, but they compete with a lunch that wants the kitchen from about ten, which is why most tables end up assembled rather than cooked.

Buy the jars early and Christmas morning stops being a job. Our jams and spreads range starts at $9.99 a jar and waits in the cupboard until you need it. If it is the middle of the day that worries you, our Christmas lunch guide picks up where this one stops. If you are sending the morning to someone else's house rather than hosting it, our Christmas hampers are packed by hand in that same room in Corio.