How Your Restaurant Can Offer Holiday Catering [+10 Examples]

We’re headed into the most wonderful time of the year, with Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve all fast approaching. These holidays usually create some of the busiest times in the restaurant industry for on-premise dining, with guests ready to dress up, host holiday parties, enjoy family dinners, and simply go big. But holiday catering has become an increasingly popular option for families more comfortable with staying and celebrating at home. 

According to Toast’s 2024 Voice of the Restaurant Industry Survey of 755 restaurant decision-makers, 48% of restaurant operators claim that catering is a top priority for the next 12 months.

Read on to learn more about catering for holiday gatherings and how to build a profitable holiday catering menu that will delight your guests. 

How to create a restaurant catering menu

Consider seasonal ingredients

Crafting a holiday catering menu is a chance to offer something truly special. Feature seasonal ingredients and holiday-inspired flavors to create a festive experience. This also allows your restaurant to stand out by providing the best flavors and ingredients possible.

Apply menu engineering for profitability

First, you’ll want to ensure that any holiday meal offerings are in line with your restaurant’s brand. While you don’t want to include everything from your menu, going with the most profitable and popular menu options is ideal. You can use the principles of menu engineering to help determine what those are. By carefully curating high-margin items, you can ensure your offerings are as financially rewarding as they are enticing.

Plan for kitchen efficiency and functionality

Holiday events and catering can put extra pressure on your kitchen. This especially applies during peak times when full-service catering coincides with in-house dining and special events. To ease the load, select menu items that are not only popular but also easy to prepare in large quantities. This way, you can maintain smooth operations without compromising on quality or overtaxing your staff.

Consider food and labor costs

Next, you’ll want to determine how profitable a holiday catering arm would be by factoring in your food and labor costs. You'll need more hands in the kitchen to crank out hundreds of catering orders on top of your normal, higher holiday volume, but catering for the holidays is a great way to bring in additional seasonal revenue if done right.

Check out our Restaurant Labor Cost Calculator to help ensure your catering orders are as profitable as possible. 

Address dietary restrictions

In 2024, offering options for dietary restrictions is more essential than ever. Be sure to include entrees, platters, and hors d’oeuvres that accommodate allergies, religious beliefs, and dietary preferences, so every guest feels good. Familiarize your kitchen and service teams with common dietary needs to avoid cross-contamination and ensure clear, confident communication with customers. Label dishes transparently and offer a variety of options to make your catering inclusive, accommodating, and appealing to all.

Holiday catering ideas and examples

Here are some holiday catering ideas for inspiration! These restaurant thanksgiving feasts show what your restaurant can offer for any holiday, whether it’s in peak holiday season or other points of the year. Get thinking about what holidays are celebrated in your community, and how you can cater to the needs of your guests who'd prefer that you do the cooking.

1. Cote's Korean Thanksgiving Barbecue

Turkey doesn’t have to be the only star of the show for Thanksgiving. For an alternative, Cote, a Korean steakhouse, offers their 10lb Roasted Prime rib rack along with Korean-inspired sides and dessert. What takes this up a notch, though, is the recipe that the chef includes for guests to enjoy their leftovers!

2. Maritime Parc’s Thanksgiving Dinner

This restaurant is pulling out all the stops for an unforgettable Thanksgiving feast, like walnut butter-roasted Brussels sprouts. However, it’s their add-ons — like appetizers, wine pairings, and batch cocktails — that make it a standout. Adding alcohol to any Thanksgiving offering increases your profit margins, and it’s one less thing your guests have to think about!

3. Stage House Tavern's Thanksgiving Dinner Package

The beauty of Stage House Tavern is that they’re providing everything you want for a classic Thanksgiving meal, all packaged in various sizes. They also make it easy for guests to heat and serve — there’s no fumbling with finding containers, as Stage House Tavern already provides reheatable containers.  

4. Bubby’s Thanksgiving Menu

If you don’t want to worry about catering for large groups, you might want to take a page out of Bubby’s book. Their only holiday catering package serves 2 people, $200 per package. The meal is served cold with reheating instructions.

5. Pulkies Jewish Thanksgiving

There are no rules for what can (or can’t) be served on Thanksgiving. If your restaurant team can’t (or doesn’t want to) offer a traditional meal, staying true to your restaurant’s roots may be the way to go. Pulkies offers a Jewish Thanksgiving Turkey Dinner and a Thanksgiving Vegetarian Dinner (your family's vegetarians will be thrilled!).

6. Kimika’s Japanese-Italian Thanksgiving Feast

If you’re looking to get creative, here’s your license to do so. Kimika is a Japanese-Italian restaurant that doesn’t veer away from its origins, and its menu reflects that. The crowning glory of the Thanksgiving table is a choice of Turchetta (turkey breast made like Italian porchetta) or porchetta served with truffle gravy, miso mustard, salsa verde, and cranberry mostarda.

7. Bistro d'Azur’s Thanksgiving Menu

While most of the restaurants above have prix-fixe options, you can also consider a pared-down a la carte menu, like Bistro d’Azur does. Their menu includes a la carte options for 2-4 people (and it even includes a half-turkey option, perfect for smaller groups).

8. Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen Thanksgiving Dinner at Home

Adding a beverage option is a profitable way to increase holiday catering sales (especially if they’re alcoholic). Jockey Hollow Bar & Kitchen offers a wine pairing with each dinner, taking the guesswork out for guests.

9. Table & Twine Thanksgiving or Christmas Dinner

Table & Twine offers several Thanksgiving and Christmas Dinner packages. The variety here is perfect for all different sizes of holiday meals. From a Christmas brunch package that includes quiche, croissants, cinnamon rolls, and bacon to a signature sides Thanksgiving package, they have it all! 

10. Kinship’s Thanksgiving Menu

This modern American D.C. restaurant offers a mouthwatering Thanksgiving menu featuring 3 courses and dessert! From Haas Avocado Carpaccio to the Pan Roasted Capon Breast And Stuffed Leg, this menu is a true delight. 

How to market and promote your holiday party catering

To effectively market your holiday party catering, start by updating your social media and website. Update your channels with mouth-watering photos of your catering dishes and post graphics of your promos.

You can also use email marketing to send targeted, visually appealing campaigns to past catering clients, loyal customers, and newsletter subscribers. You’ll want to highlight your menu options, special offers, and early bird discounts.

Get the word out there, your business is taking the stress of the holidays out of customers’ hands!

Plan your restaurant’s holiday dinner offerings

Now that you're inspired, get planning your restaurant's holiday catering menu! More revenue streams, more efficiency: From planning to execution, manage every step of your catering and event business with Toast. Use our menu engineering worksheet below to make sure you're including your most profitable items as well as the popular heavy hitters. 

Stay safe and warm this holiday season!

Related catering resources

• Catering Menu Ideas: How to Build a Restaurant Catering Menu

• How to Run a Catering Business: 8 Running a Catering Business Business Tips (2024)

• 15 BEST Unique Catering Business Ideas, Themes and Concepts (2024)

• The Ultimate Playbook For How To Get Catering Clients

• How to Open a Catering Business

• How to Write a Catering Business Plan