Low FODMAP for the Holidays: Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year's Eve

Michael Eisenwasser 8 min read

The six weeks from mid-December to New Year's Day are a rolling gauntlet of food events: Christmas dinner, Hanukkah with family, a work party Tuesday, cheese and champagne at midnight on the 31st. None of it is impossible on low FODMAP, but it all breaks the same way Thanksgiving does: stacking, hidden alliums in sauces, and two-glass-turned-into-four-glass pours of the wrong alcohol.

This is the sister guide to our Thanksgiving post. Same logic, different holidays: Christmas ham and sides, Hanukkah latkes and brisket, and how to survive NYE cheese and cocktails without ruining January 1st.

Christmas dinner

The American and British Christmas table usually centers on a roast: ham, prime rib, turkey, or goose. Each of those is low-FODMAP on its own. The problems are the glaze, the gravy, and the starch sides.

Ham: mostly safe, watch the glaze

Plain cured ham is meat and salt, so no FODMAPs. Most bone-in and spiral-cut hams from major US brands (Hormel Cure 81, Smithfield, Kirkland, Boar's Head black forest) are low-FODMAP in a standard 100 to 150 gram serve, as long as you pick the plain or honey-free variety. Read the label for these traps:

• "Honey glazed" or any glaze packet. Honey is low-FODMAP only in a very small serve (roughly a teaspoon); the sticky coat on a spiral-cut ham is way past that. Slice from underneath the coating, or buy a plain ham and glaze it yourself.
• "Brown sugar glaze" packets often hide honey, fruit juice concentrate, or garlic and onion powder. Read the ingredient list.
• Onion powder, garlic powder, shallot, or leek on pre-seasoned hams. Those are the reliable high-FODMAP flags; plain "spices" without alliums listed are usually fine.

A safe homemade glaze: 1/2 cup pure maple syrup, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon orange zest, a pinch of clove. Brush on the last 30 minutes of baking. See the low-FODMAP sweeteners guide for the full sweetener breakdown.

Mashed potatoes and roast vegetables

Mash potato with butter and lactose-free whole milk (or half-and-half), salt, pepper, and chives. Skip roasted garlic and cream-of-anything additions. For garlic depth, warm the butter with a smashed clove for five minutes, then discard the clove (don't mash it in) before stirring into the potatoes.

For roast vegetables, build the tray around carrots, parsnips, bell peppers, zucchini, and kabocha squash. Toss with garlic-infused olive oil, rosemary, salt, and pepper. Roast at 425F until caramelized. Skip the red onion wedges and whole garlic heads. The garlic substitutes and onion substitutes guides cover why infused oil works when the solids don't.

Gingerbread and Christmas cookies

Most Christmas cookies are low-FODMAP in a two or three cookie serve if you build them with safe ingredients:

• Flour: a 1:1 gluten-free blend without bean flour or inulin, or plain spelt flour in modest serves.
• Sweetener: table sugar, brown sugar, or pure maple syrup. Avoid honey, agave, and large amounts of fruit juice concentrate. Watch any recipe that adds inulin or chicory root fiber.
• Dairy: butter is fine; swap milk for lactose-free and cream for lactose-free cream or coconut cream in small serves.

Gingerbread swaps cleanly. A classic recipe uses flour, butter, brown sugar, molasses, egg, and warm spices (ginger, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg). The fail point is usually the honey some recipes add. Swap it for extra brown sugar or maple syrup 1:1. Almond-flour shortbreads stack fast, so keep portions small. One or two cookies is fine; six is stacking.

Hanukkah

Hanukkah food is, almost by accident, one of the more low-FODMAP-friendly Jewish holiday menus. The core dishes work with small tweaks.

Latkes

A traditional latke is potato, egg, matzo meal or flour, salt, and onion. Drop the onion and you're done:

• 2 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and grated
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup matzo meal (or gluten-free flour blend)
• 1/2 cup scallion greens only, finely chopped (green part, not the white bulb)
• Salt and pepper
• Neutral oil for frying

The green tops of scallions are low-FODMAP. The white bulbs are not. If you keep them separate and only use the greens, you get the onion flavor with no fructans. Squeeze the grated potato dry in a clean towel, mix everything, fry spoonfuls in hot oil until golden on both sides. Serve with sour cream (lactose-free if you're still in elimination) or a simple strawberry compote. Skip the traditional apple sauce. Apples are high-FODMAP in almost any useful portion.

Brisket

Brisket itself is meat, so no FODMAPs. The rub and braising liquid are the problem. Standard recipes lean on onion soup mix, whole onions, and garlic cloves. Swap the braise:

• Rub: paprika, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, brown sugar, dried thyme, dried oregano, a pinch of mustard powder. No onion or garlic powder.
• Liquid: homemade low-FODMAP beef stock (or a certified brand like FODY or Gourmend), 1 cup dry red wine, 2 tablespoons tomato paste, a splash of balsamic.
• Aromatics: chunks of carrot and parsnip, fresh thyme, bay leaves, and garlic-infused oil brushed on the meat before searing.

Sear, lay the brisket on the vegetable bed, pour liquid around it, cover, braise at 325F for 3 to 4 hours. Slice against the grain.

Sufganiyot

Jelly donuts are harder. Most use wheat flour plus a yeast dough with milk. One small donut is usually fine; a plate of four is stacking. Fillings matter too: raspberry or strawberry jam is lower in FODMAPs than apricot or apple. If you're hosting, make a half-batch with gluten-free flour and lactose-free milk. If you're a guest, eat one and move on.

New Year's Eve

NYE is less of a sit-down meal and more of a four-hour grazing session with alcohol. The main traps are cheese platters, crackers, and the cocktail order.

Cheese platters

Hard, aged cheeses are almost all low-FODMAP because lactose breaks down during aging. Safest picks, in normal portions: aged cheddar, parmesan, gruyere, manchego, swiss / emmental, pecorino. These are the anchors of the board.

Soft cheeses are a mixed bag. Brie, camembert, feta, and goat cheese are low-FODMAP but in smaller portions than the hard cheeses; check the current Monash app for the exact serve of each. Cream cheese is low-FODMAP in a small serve (roughly two tablespoons) and climbs from there. Ricotta, cottage cheese, and mascarpone are higher in lactose, so keep them to a spoon or two, or use lactose-free versions. A small spread of brie on a cracker is fine; half a wheel is not. See the dairy alternatives guide for the full breakdown.

Crackers

Standard wheat crackers and baguette slices add up fast on a grazing board. Better default picks: plain rice crackers (Lundberg or similar), corn thins, gluten-free seed crackers (skip anything with chicory root, inulin, or apple fiber), or a certified low-FODMAP sourdough in small slices. Avoid honey-wheat crackers, "Everything" crackers with onion and garlic, and fig-and-olive crackers.

Cocktails

Alcohol is already mildly irritating to the gut, so keep total pours low no matter what you drink. FODMAP-wise:

• Safe at one standard serve: gin, vodka, tequila blanco, and plain rum (distilled spirits don't carry FODMAPs), neat or with soda and lime or diet tonic; dry white or red wine (150 mL); dry champagne or prosecco (one flute).
• Watch the mixer: diet tonic is fine. Skip margarita mix, sour mix, and pre-batched cocktails with agave, honey, or large amounts of fruit juice concentrate.
• Avoid or minimize for IBS reasons (not FODMAP per se): spiced rums and liqueurs with added sweeteners, sweet dessert wines, port, sherry, cream-based drinks (White Russian, eggnog), and craft cocktails built on agave or honey syrup. These are more about sugar load and gut irritation than fructans.

A safe NYE rotation: champagne at the toast, a vodka soda with lime for the second drink, sparkling water between. A full bottle of red plus two shots of anything is going to cost you, FODMAP or not.

Host scripts

If you're hosting, give friends and family specific jobs that don't touch your core dishes:

• "Can you bring a bottle of dry red or champagne?"
• "Can you bring a fruit platter? Berries, grapes, orange segments, kiwi. Skip apples and pears." Specific guardrails without a FODMAP lecture.
• "I'm handling the main. Could you bring a cheese board with hard cheeses and rice crackers?"

Label dishes discreetly: "contains dairy," "gluten-free," "nut-free." Guests with other needs can navigate without asking you.

Guest scripts

A week out, text your host:

Hey, looking forward to Saturday. Quick heads up, I'm on a medical diet for my gut and avoiding onion, garlic, and wheat for a few more weeks. Don't change the menu for me. I'll eat what I can and bring a side I know works. Anything you need help with?

Then actually bring a dish. A pan of roasted carrots in garlic-infused oil, a plate of hard cheese and rice crackers, or a bowl of dark chocolate squares (low-FODMAP in 30 gram portions). You get a guaranteed safe food and the host gets free help. Same playbook as restaurants.

The morning after

Expect some symptoms across a six-week holiday stretch even if every meal goes well. Portion stacking, late eating, alcohol, and stress all add up. Drink water between drinks, walk after big meals, skip the 11pm leftovers plate, and keep breakfast boring: plain oats with lactose-free milk and berries, or scrambled eggs on gluten-free toast. January 2nd always looks better when you're not starting it from behind.

Track your symptoms and discover patterns with FODMAP Tracker. Includes a database of 1,000+ foods with FODMAP ratings.