Calories & Fat in Popular Holiday Dishes

This list will give you an idea of how many calories and grams of fat are in popular holiday dishes, demonstrating why the average person gains weight over the holiday season! A typical holiday dinner alone can carry a load of 3,000 calories. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Here is an assortment of recipes for a lighter holiday menu.

APPETIZERS/DIPS/SNACKS

SOUPS

MAIN DISHES

SIDE DISHES

BEVERAGES

DESSERTS

EXTRAS

AND DON’T FORGET, CALORIES STILL COUNT!

• Use sugar-free gelatin instead of regular gelatin in your favorite salad (8 versus 70 calories per 1/2 cup serving)
• Use fat-free soup in your favorite casserole (fat-free mushroom soup has 70 calories per 1/2 cup serving vs. 120 for the regular)
• Use chicken bouillon to simmer the celery and onions for your turkey stuffing — instead of sautéing them in butter. (one bouillon cube has 5 calories, a tablespoon of butter has 102 calories)
• Try low-calorie cranberry juice cocktail (40 calories per 8 oz. serving) in place of the regular (140 calories).
• Light sour cream (35 calories per 2 tablespoon serving) has about half the calories of regular sour cream (60 calories per serving). Fat-free sour cream has 25 calories per serving.
• Fruit pie filling has 90 calories per 1/3 cup serving; the light version has 60 and the new no-sugar-added version only has 35.

This article was originally published in 2013 and evaluated for content accuracy in November 2021.