Holidays & Cultural
Christmas Dinner Catering in Medellín
Medellin Elite Catering cooks Christmas dinner for families across Medellín who would rather spend 24 December with their people than at the stove. We prepare Nochebuena feasts, Christmas Day lunches and evening roasts, then deliver them hot or serve them at your table.
Our Christmas clients include paisa families keeping their grandparents' recipes alive and expats who want a roast that tastes like home. Plenty of tables mix both, with a lechona sitting beside the turkey.
Christmas Eve is the busiest night of our year, and since 2019 we have refined how to time hot deliveries across the Aburrá Valley on a single evening. Every dish leaves our own production kitchen in labeled trays, held above 60 °C or chilled below 5 °C.
- Itemized quotes available
- Bilingual English and Spanish coordinators
Plan your event
Our Christmas Dinner Catering
We cater three meals in the Christmas season: Nochebuena on the night of 24 December, lunch on 25 December, and Christmas Day dinner for families who follow US or UK custom. Each one comes as a delivered meal in heated carriers or as a served dinner, with our cooks and servers working in your home.
Families of 8 to 30 make up most of our Christmas orders, in apartments in El Poblado, houses with gardens in Envigado and fincas on the edge of the valley. If you are hosting south of the city, see our page on catering in Envigado for delivery times.
Smaller tables of 2 to 12 can book a private chef instead, who cooks a multi-course Christmas menu in your own kitchen. That service follows our dinner party catering format, with a menu planned around your family's tastes.
Nochebuena or Christmas Day?
In Colombia, the main Christmas meal is Nochebuena, eaten late on 24 December after the last novena and often just after the midnight gifts. Guests from the United States and the United Kingdom usually expect the big meal on 25 December, at lunch or in the early evening.
| Colombian Nochebuena | US and UK Christmas Day | |
|---|---|---|
| Date and time | 24 December, 9:00 p.m. to after midnight | 25 December, 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. |
| Before the meal | Final novena, carols, natilla and buñuelos | Gifts in the morning, drinks and nibbles |
| Main dishes | Lechona, tamales, pernil | Roast turkey or glazed ham |
| Sides | Arepas, rice, potato salad | Stuffing, gravy, roast potatoes, vegetables |
| Dessert | Natilla, buñuelos, hojuelas | Pumpkin pie, mince pies, Christmas pudding |
| The day after | Recalentado: leftovers reheated for lunch on the 25th | Leftover sandwiches on Boxing Day |
Mixed families often do both, with a Colombian spread on the 24th and a roast on the 25th. We split those orders into two deliveries, each quoted on its own line.
Colombian Christmas Menu
A paisa Christmas table is built on pork, corn and fresh cheese, and our Colombian menu includes every dish a local family expects to see.
Lechona is the showpiece for larger tables: a whole pork shell stuffed with seasoned pork, yellow peas and rice, roasted for hours until the skin cracks like glass. It began as a Tolima dish and is now on Christmas tables across Antioquia; we roast it whole for 30 guests or more and sell it by the kilo for smaller families, at about 350 g per guest.
Tamales antioqueños arrive wrapped in plantain leaves, filled with pork, chicken, potato, carrot and peas inside a corn dough, and steamed for close to three hours. Pernil, a pork leg slow-roasted in panela and orange juice, suits families who prefer neat slices to the rustic style of lechona.
Desserts are the part nobody negotiates. Natilla is a firm custard of panela, milk, cinnamon and cornstarch cut into squares, buñuelos are round fritters of costeño cheese and cassava starch, and hojuelas are thin fried pastry under a snowfall of sugar, with manjar blanco and dulce de brevas (figs in syrup) for the sweetest tooth.
International Christmas Menu
Our international menu is a classic roast: turkey or ham with stuffing, gravy and the trimmings that British and American families expect on 25 December.
- Roast turkey, brined for 24 hours and roasted in a combi oven to 74 °C in the thigh
- Honey and mustard glazed ham, or both meats for tables of 15 or more
- Sage and onion stuffing, gravy from the roasting juices and cranberry sauce
- Roast potatoes, glazed carrots and green beans with toasted almonds
- Pigs in blankets made with local pork sausages and smoked bacon
- Mince pies, pumpkin pie or a steamed Christmas pudding with brandy butter
We allow about 650 g of raw turkey per guest, which leaves enough for seconds and a sandwich the next day. Turkeys are reserved early from Colombian farms, which is why roast orders close a few days before the Colombian menu, and guests who skip meat get a dish from our vegetarian catering range.
Hot Delivery or Full Service
Delivery suits families who want to host their own table, while full service suits anyone who would rather sit down with their guests from the first course to the last coffee. Both use the same recipes and the same kitchen.
| Hot delivery | Full service | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | Families hosting their own table | Groups of 15 guests or more |
| What arrives | Food in insulated Cambro carriers, labeled trays, reheating notes | Cooks, servers, chafing dishes, plates, flatware and glassware |
| Who serves | You and your family | Our team: 1 server per 10 to 12 guests plated, 1 per 20 to 25 at a buffet |
| Cleanup | Compostable containers | Full cleanup, leftovers packed for the recalentado |
| Order by | 18 December | 1 December |
Food in our carriers stays above 60 °C for roughly four hours, so a delivery between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. covers a dinner served before midnight. For later Nochebuena dinners we deliver reheat-ready oven trays with written times and temperatures, so the lechona crisps up again in your own oven; our catering delivery service explains the packing in more detail.
Served dinners follow our standard timing: the team arrives 2 to 3 hours before the meal and works a 5-hour service. On 24 December most families add one or two hours past midnight, which we agree in advance and show on the quote.
Christmas Ordering Deadlines
Order by 18 December for a delivered dinner on 24 or 25 December, by 15 December if you want roast turkey, and by 1 December for a served dinner at home. Those dates hold only while there is room, and on 24 December there is a hard limit.
The kitchen, the van routes and the team can only stretch so far on Christmas Eve, so each delivery window closes as soon as it fills, even before the deadline. New Year's Eve works the same way, with deliveries on 31 December ordered by 26 December.
A deposit secures your window and the balance is due 7 days before, which means a dinner on 24 December is settled by 17 December. Payment goes by bank transfer or a card payment link, which suits relatives paying from abroad.
Questions and answers
Christmas Dinner FAQs
When is the last day to order Christmas dinner?
The last day is 18 December for a delivered dinner on 24 or 25 December, or 15 December if the menu includes roast turkey. Served dinners at home close on 1 December. Any delivery window can close sooner once the kitchen is full, so orders placed in October and November are the safest.
Do you deliver on 24 December?
Yes, we deliver on 24 December in two-hour windows between 11:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Hot meals arrive in insulated carriers for dinners served within about four hours, and later dinners arrive in reheat-ready oven trays with written instructions. On 25 December, lunch deliveries run from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Can you cook Christmas dinner for vegetarian or gluten-free guests?
Yes, every Christmas menu has meat-free and gluten-free options, cooked in separate batches and labeled on the tray. Popular swaps are a mushroom and lentil Wellington instead of turkey, and tamales filled with vegetables and beans instead of pork.
Reserve your date
Reserve Your Christmas Dinner
Send your date, guest count and menu choice through the quote form, and we will reply within 24 hours with an itemized quote. Menu questions are welcome at info@medellincatering.com.
- Itemized quotes available
- Menus, staff, tableware, setup and cleanup in one quote
- Food-handler certified team and labeled allergens on every tray
- Monday to Saturday
- 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
- Sunday
- Closed (events still run)