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Christmas morning breakfast has been a struggle for me over the years. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with this kind of kitchen work for a long time.

When my son was younger and still wide-eyed with excitement about Santa’s visit on Christmas morning, tackling the chore of cooking breakfast was always a sore spot with me. Seriously, you can’t even think about having breakfast before opening gifts – especially with little ones around. And, even after the gifts are opened, cooking breakfast bothered me since I wasn’t in the living room enjoying how excited everyone was over their new toys and gifts.

Several years ago I was able to break away from the kitchen on Christmas morning because I had actually prepared the breakfast two days before the big morning. I had a friend who treated me to a great breakfast casserole idea that was just the ticket for a busy, hectic and joyful morning.

I have some friends who shy away from casseroles because they don’t like their food to touch, but when it comes to choosing what the family will enjoy for Christmas morning, a casserole is the ticket.

In my years as a grown-up, I have often times given in to the whole idea of a good, home-cooked breakfast and have done the whole grits, eggs and sausage or bacon thing – complete with biscuits. Now that kind of cooking takes some time in the kitchen and can take away precious time with the family. I had done my best to find a way to fry an egg without watching it, but that just never was a possibility.

With casseroles, you have the option of making something pretty, tasty and easy for any morning of the year, but it’s especially helpful when it comes to holiday mornings.

If you haven’t tried making a casserole for breakfast, you may want to at least check out the possibilities. You’ll most likely find something that will meet your families expectations of a good, hearty breakfast without having you spend hours in the kitchen to provide a good meal.

There are so many things that can be done ahead for Christmas breakfast that making it even two or three days ahead can be a lifesaver when it comes to spending time with family on the happiest morning of the year.

By making some plans now, you’ll likely thank yourself for the extra effort leading up to Christmas morning.

Through the years, our family dynamic has changed with some years finding a few extra folks at the breakfast table and some years when it was just my little family enjoying the holiday together.

This year will probably look a little different for many people — around the tree and around the table at Christmas. With the pandemic dominating most things these days, we are all being a little more careful when it comes to opening ourselves up for an illness nobody wants.

As you prepare for the holiday, now just two weeks away, I hope that you can make some plans to enjoy your time with family and even a few friends for the holidays.

I plan on making my breakfast easy again this year by preparing the dish that has become a traditional Christmas morning meal for my family. By making our family-favorite casserole, I know that clean-up will be easy and I can spend time in the joy of the morning before heading back to the kitchen for the big feast coming later in the day.

I’m sharing some great ideas for Christmas morning breakfasts here this week. I hope that some of them are of interest to you and your family. Pick one, plan ahead and enjoy a relaxing Christmas morning.

Happy Cooking!