Stretch-It Kitchen

A Cheap Christmas Dinner for Six: Menu, Shopping List and What It Costs

A glazed ham Christmas dinner for six with five sides rang up at $88.20 at a Greer, SC Harris Teeter at regular shelf prices, or $57.83 counting only what goes in the dishes. Pot roast and chicken thigh menus priced the same way, plus a potluck split.

Christmas dinner for six, built around a glazed spiral ham, came to $88.20 at the register. That buys the ham, scalloped potatoes, roasted green beans, homemade cranberry sauce, a dozen rolls and an apple crisp, at regular shelf price at the Harris Teeter at Hudson Corners in Greer.

We priced it on October 22, 2026, two months early, so you can plan the budget before the December sales start. Count only what goes into the dishes and the same dinner is $57.83, or $9.64 a person. The rest stays in the pantry: most of a bag of flour, a box of butter, sugar, oats.

Three Christmas mains, same five sides

The five sides are the same in all three: scalloped potatoes, roasted green beans, cranberry sauce, dinner rolls and apple crisp. In the dishes they come to $30.72 together. “At the register” buys whole packages from an empty kitchen; “in the dishes” counts only what the recipes use. Salt, pepper, dried spices and water are not counted.

The ham is the middle option on price and the easiest one to cook. The pot roast costs $6.82 more at the register than the ham dinner and feeds the same six; we priced a chuck tender roast at $8.99 a pound, the cheapest roast in our price pull; boneless chuck roast was $11.99. Chicken thighs save $17.10 against the ham.

The shopping list for the ham dinner

That is $88.20. The yellow onion line is a quarter pound because the scalloped potatoes use half an onion; at the store you will pick up one onion and pay for what it weighs.

Glazed spiral ham: $27.11 for six

Ham with Honey and Brown Sugar Glaze (4.7 stars, 227 ratings) pours a stovetop glaze of pineapple juice, brown sugar, honey and orange juice over a fully cooked sliced ham and bakes it for an hour. A 5-pound Smithfield spiral ham at $3.99 a pound is $19.95 of it. The whole glazed ham is $4.52 a person. For six people that is a little over 13 ounces each, bone included, so there is ham left for the week.

Two pricing notes. We did not count the 1/4 cup of whole cloves, which stud the outside of the ham; buy a jar if your cabinet has none. And the store’s price list showed no bottled pineapple juice, so we priced the juice from a 20-ounce can of pineapple chunks in juice.

• 1 (5 pound) fully cooked sliced ham
• 1/4 cup whole cloves (not counted in the price)
• 1 cup pineapple juice (we priced the juice from a 20 ounce can of pineapple chunks in juice)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup honey
• 2 oranges, juiced

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Put the ham in a roasting pan and dot it with the cloves.
3. Stir the pineapple juice, brown sugar, honey and orange juice together in a saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat until thick, about 10 minutes.
4. Pour the glaze over the ham.
5. Bake uncovered for 1 hour.

The recipe gives no temperature. The USDA’s ham guidance says to reheat a cooked ham packaged in a USDA-inspected plant to 140 degrees F, and leftover spiral-cut ham to 165 degrees F.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast: $30.97 for six

Slow Cooker Pot Roast has 2,580 ratings and a 4.6-star average. A chuck roast gets seared, topped with a packet of onion soup mix, and cooked on low for 8 to 10 hours with carrots, potatoes, onion and celery. It frees the oven entirely, which is the real argument for it on a holiday.

The recipe uses a 4-pound roast for eight servings. For six we priced three-quarters of it: 3 pounds of beef and three-quarters of everything else. One change for price: we priced chuck tender roast, a cheaper chuck cut, at $8.99 a pound, instead of boneless chuck roast at $11.99. The beef is $26.97 of the $30.97. The list below is the recipe as written.

• 4 pounds chuck roast (we priced chuck tender roast)
• salt and pepper to taste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 packet dry onion soup mix
• 1 cup water
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 stalk celery, chopped

1. Season the roast well with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the oil in a large skillet over high heat and sear the roast, about 4 minutes a side.
3. Put the roast in the slow cooker and sprinkle the soup mix over it.
4. Add the water and scatter the carrots, potatoes, onion and celery on top.
5. Cover and cook on Low for 8 to 10 hours.

The pot roast brings its own potatoes and carrots, so with this main the scalloped potatoes are optional. That is our note. Dropping them would take $5.81 off the dishes.

Easy Baked Chicken Thighs, three batches: $11.21 for six

Easy Baked Chicken Thighs (4.6 stars, 214 ratings) is the cheapest main and the fastest: thighs seasoned with garlic powder, dried onion and salt, baked 45 minutes. The recipe is for 4 thighs; three batches is 12, two a person. We figured about 5 ounces a bone-in thigh, 3.75 pounds at $2.99 a pound. Weigh your pack.

• 4 chicken thighs
• 4 teaspoons garlic powder
• 4 teaspoons onion flakes
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Lay the thighs in a baking dish and season both sides with the garlic powder, dried onion and salt.
3. Bake until no longer pink at the bone and the juices run clear, about 45 minutes. A thermometer near the bone should read 165 degrees F.

Scalloped Potatoes: $5.81

Scalloped Potatoes (4.7 stars, 694 ratings) is the old method with no cheese and no canned soup: layers of thin-sliced potato and onion, each dusted with flour and dotted with butter, with warm milk poured over. It serves six as written. Three pounds of russets are $3.87 of the dish.

• 3 pounds potatoes, thinly sliced
• 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
• 9 tablespoons all-purpose flour, divided
• 6 tablespoons butter, diced and divided
• salt and ground black pepper to taste
• 3 cups whole milk, or as needed

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F and grease a 9x13-inch baking dish.
2. Lay about a third of the potato slices in the dish and top with about a third of the onion. Sprinkle with 3 tablespoons of flour, dot with 2 tablespoons of butter, and season with salt and pepper. Repeat twice more.
3. Warm the milk in a saucepan over medium-low heat and pour in enough to come level with the top layer of potatoes.
4. Bake until the potatoes are tender and the sauce bubbles under a browned crust, 45 to 60 minutes. Put a baking sheet under the dish to catch drips.

Roasted Green Beans: $9.41

Roasted Green Beans (4.8 stars, 274 ratings) is fresh beans, olive oil, salt and pepper roasted on a sheet pan. It serves four from 2 pounds, so for six we priced 1 1/2 times the recipe: 3 pounds of fresh beans at $2.99 a pound. The list below is the recipe as written.

For what it is, this side costs the most. Fresh green beans were $2.99 a pound, so the beans are $8.97 of the $9.41. A frozen or canned bean side would be cheaper, but it would be a different recipe.

• 2 pounds fresh green beans, trimmed
• 1 tablespoon olive oil, or as needed
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. Rinse the beans, pat them dry, and spread them on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with the oil, season with salt and pepper, toss with your hands, and spread them in one layer.
3. Roast until crisp-tender, a little shriveled and browned in spots, 15 to 25 minutes.

Cranberry Sauce: $4.17

Cranberry Sauce, 4.8 stars from 3,165 ratings, makes enough for ten from a 12-ounce bag of fresh cranberries, so six people have some left for ham sandwiches. No changes.

• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup orange juice
• 12 ounces cranberries

1. Heat the sugar and orange juice in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and it begins to simmer.
2. Add the cranberries and cook uncovered, stirring now and then, until most of them pop and the sauce starts to thicken, 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Pour it into a bowl and let it cool. It thickens more as it cools. Serve at room temperature or cold.

Double Quick Dinner Rolls: $1.67

Double Quick Dinner Rolls (4.5 stars, 211 ratings) are spooned into a muffin tin, no kneading, and make 12, two for each guest. One change: we priced a 4-ounce pouch of Idahoan buttery instant mashed potatoes for the recipe’s dry potato flakes, since plain flakes were not in our price pull.

• 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
• 1/4 cup dry potato flakes (we priced Idahoan buttery instant mashed potatoes)
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3/4 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in a large bowl. Add the potato flakes, sugar, salt, egg, oil, onion powder and 1 cup of the flour and beat until smooth. Stir in the rest of the flour until smooth, scraping the bowl.
2. Cover and let it rise in a warm spot until doubled, 20 to 30 minutes.
3. Heat the oven to 400 degrees F and grease 12 muffin cups.
4. Stir the dough down and spoon it into the cups, half full. Let it rise to the tops of the cups, about 20 minutes.
5. Bake 15 minutes and serve right away.

Easy Apple Crisp with Oat Topping: $9.66

Easy Apple Crisp with Oat Topping has 1,128 ratings and a 4.8-star average. It serves four from six apples in a 9-inch square dish, so for six we priced 1 1/2 times the recipe, nine apples. The list below is the recipe as written.

One change for price: the recipe just says apples. Loose Granny Smith apples were $2.99 a pound. Gala apples in a 3-pound bag were $4.99, about $1.66 a pound, so we priced those, two bags. The apples are still $6.55 of the $9.66, but the bags cut $5.22 off the loose price.

• 6 apples - peeled, cored, and sliced (we priced Gala apples from 3 pound bags)
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup old-fashioned oats
• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cold butter

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Toss the apples with the white sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon and pour them into a 9-inch square baking dish.
3. Mix the brown sugar, oats, flour and the other 1 teaspoon of cinnamon in another bowl.
4. Cut in the cold butter with two knives or a pastry blender until it looks like coarse crumbs.
5. Spread it over the apples and pat it down gently.
6. Bake until browned on top and bubbling at the sides, about 40 minutes.

The potluck version: host the ham, split the sides

With six adults coming, the cheapest Christmas for the host is one where the host does not buy everything. Using the in-the-dish costs above:

The host carries about half the food cost, and nobody else spends more than about $10 in ingredients. The dish prices are counted at the share used, so a guest starting from an empty pantry will pay more at the register for their one dish.

Keep going

For another side that stretches any holiday table, the $5 side dish is built for it. If you are pricing November too, Thanksgiving dinner for eight on a budget uses the same ham recipe and three cheaper menus.

Which dish on your family’s Christmas table would cause a fight if it went missing?

Recipes: Allrecipes, linked in each section, followed as written except the changes we name. We priced every recipe; we did not test-cook this menu. Prices: regular shelf prices at Harris Teeter Hudson Corners, 2145 Old Spartanburg Rd, Greer, SC 29650, pulled October 22, 2026 through the Kroger Products API, two months before Christmas. Sale prices left out. Salt, pepper, dried spices, water and vinegar are not counted. Your store and December prices will vary.

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