Don’t Forget Breakfast! Skye McAlpine Shares Her Top Tips—and Recipes—for Starting Christmas Day Right

For the last few years, food writer and cookbook author Skye McAlpine has lived in a state of perpetual Christmas. She has baked countless festive dishes, revisited old traditions, and created new ones. The result is her new cookbook, The Christmas Companion: Simple Recipes and Creative Ideas for a Magical Festive Season, which offers recipes, stories, and hosting advice for the holidays.

“When I started writing the book, the thing that I felt like I wanted to approach with it is this idea that I think a lot of people find Christmas very stressful. It’s a magical time of year, but it can also be quite an overwhelming time of year,” McAlpine tells Vogue, adding: “Christmas has a way of shining a light on what’s missing.”

With that in mind, McAlpine set out to write a book that gave readers “support and inspiration” and “simple ways of making Christmas feel special, and getting in the festive mood,” she says.

Born in London, McAlpine moved to Venice when she was six years old and now lives between the two cities. She draws inspiration from both English and Italian culinary traditions in the book, with recipes like her panettone grilled cheese, which is a favorite of hers.

When it comes to hosting for the holidays, McAlpine’s top advice is simple: Try to plan as much as you can in advance, so that you can relax on the day. Be realistic about the amount of time you have, and don’t try to do too much. “It’s often easier, and, I think, chicer, to do more of one thing—just one massive brie or one massive chunk of parmesan, for example—rather than trying to do lots of different little things,” she says.

And there is one hosting opportunity where this approach really shines: Christmas breakfast. “Breakfast is a fun one, because I think it’s often neglected,” McAlpine says. “But actually, it’s a really nice way to host—whether that’s on Christmas Day or through the holiday season. And you can get away with doing something really nicely and simply.”

Though buns and baked goods can be labor intensive, you can prepare them in advance and put them in the oven in the morning to create that enticing smell and freshly baked feel with a little less day-of chaos. Hot chocolate candy cane sticks can be made days or weeks beforehand, and left at each place setting for a fun touch. And dressing your table up—think yogurt bowls full of chocolate coins, a basket of pastries, and a centerpiece of fresh fruit—can go a long way toward making your space beautiful and inviting.

Read on for two of McAlpine’s Christmas breakfast recipes—for candy cane hot cocoa sticks and sticky marzipan breakfast buns—from The Christmas Companion.

Candy Cane Hot Cocoa Sticks

Photo: Skye McAlpine

There is a Willy Wonka-esque quality about these: especially at that moment when you swizzle the stick in a mug of warmed milk and, as if by magic, the liquid turns to hot cocoa, infused with heady peppermint and tasting unmistakably like Christmas. The fact that they are so simple to make that family members of all ages (and culinary skill sets) can easily (and happily) help is just the proverbial cherry on the cake.

The method I’ve given below calls for melting chocolate in a bain-marie: I prefer this as it’s fail safe. But, if you prefer, you can melt it in the microwave. Chop it finely, then microwave in 30-second blasts in a microwaveable bowl, taking the bowl out each time and giving the chocolate a good stir (just take care, as it can catch and burn in a moment).

Make these with any chocolate you like: bittersweet, semisweet, milk, praline, white, you name it. Or even use a combination of melted white and milk or bittersweet, then use a toothpick to twirl a pattern in each pool of chocolate before sticking the candy canes in. But while that might look fancier, I have a soft spot for the unadulterated peppermint patty-like quality of almost-bitter chocolate with a shot of intense peppermint, topped with shards of chewy candy cane shimmering like stained glass against its darkness.

Once assembled, these will keep happily in an airtight container somewhere cool (but not in the fridge) for up to one week.

Hands on time: 15 minutes

Hands off time: 10 minutes cooling, plus 2 hours setting

• 12 candy canes, each ideally about 4 inches tall
• 7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (or see recipe introduction), broken into pieces

1. Use a sharp knife to trim off the curved crooks of the candy canes, then finely chop the trimmings. Set a 12-hole silicone mini-muffin pan on a rigid baking sheet: this makes it much easier to move, without spilling, once you’ve filled the cups.
2. Bring a saucepan of water, roughly one-third full, to a gentle boil. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set over the pan, taking care the bowl doesn’t touch the bubbling water. Stir until melted, then take off the heat. Divide it between the holes of the mini-muffin pan. Sprinkle the chopped candy canes over, then chill for 10–12 minutes, until they start to harden. Take out of the fridge and stick a candy cane stick upright in each pool of chocolate. If they won’t stand up straight, chill the chocolate for a bit longer, then try again.
3. Once the candy cane sticks are standing upright like little soldiers, return to the fridge to set completely for 1–2 hours (or 30 minutes in the freezer, if you’re in a hurry).
4. To use, heat a mug of milk, then swizzle the stick in the warm liquid until the chocolate melts.

Sticky Marzipan Breakfast Buns

Photo: Skye McAlpine

It was my friend Cleo who first introduced me to the notion of warm, sweet buns on Christmas morning, and while a more labor-intensive choice, they are undoubtedly above and beyond worth it: they are truly scrumptious and always a hit with everyone. For the longest time, I tried making a version of these that didn’t involve any proofing or yeast, before accepting that it’s just not possible to get the ambrosial fluffy dough that you crave from a good sticky bun without a little help from some raising agent. The compromise, you’ll see, is the recipe below, in which you only need to proof the dough once and which uses instant yeast, infinitely less temperamental than its fresh counterpart. In fact, it’s not temperamental at all: you just want to make sure that the warmed milk and melted butter in which you dissolve the yeast aren’t so hot that they kill it. Test the liquid on the back of your wrist, much as you would a baby’s bottle, and it should feel warm but not uncomfortably hot. Another trick is to let the buns have plenty of time to rise before baking: they must double in size (at least) before you put them in the oven, even if that means giving them a little more time to proof before baking.

As much as I love the idea of warm sticky buns straight from the oven on Christmas morning, the notion of baking them from scratch that same day feels a little too much like hard work for me, so the instructions here assume you want to make and proof them the day before. Alternatively, if you would really like to get ahead, you can follow the recipe and bake the rolls for just 10 minutes, then let cool completely, cover tightly and freeze for up to three months. To serve, let the frozen rolls thaw in the fridge for a few hours or overnight (still in their pan), then bake in a 375˚F oven for fifteen to twenty minutes and glaze with the hot golden syrup (do not skip this step), as per the instructions below. Swap the marzipan out for chocolate chips for a nut-free alternative.

Hands on time: 30–35 minutes to make the dough, then 10 minutes to make the glaze after baking

Hands off time: Overnight (or at least 90 minutes) proofing, then 30 minutes baking

• 5 tablespoons (75g) salted butter, plus more for the pan
• 2¾ cups (340g) all-purpose flour, plus more to dust
• ¼ cup (50g) superfine sugar, plus 1 heaping tablespoon for the filling
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• ¾ cup (180g) whole milk
• ¼-ounce envelope instant yeast
• 1 egg
• ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon (110g) soft light brown sugar
• 3 heaping teaspoons ground cinnamon
• ½ cup (60g) Zante currants
• 3 tablespoons (40g) diced candied peel (preferably a mixture of orange and lemon)
• 2½ ounces (70g) marzipan, coarsely chopped
• 7 tablespoons Lyle’s golden Syrup

1. The day before you want to eat these, lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan. Combine the flour, superfine sugar and salt together in a large mixing bowl and set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, gently warm the milk with 2½ tablespoons of the butter over a medium heat until the butter is completely melted, then take the pan off the heat to cool a little. When the melted butter is warm to the touch (not hot), whisk in the dried yeast until dissolved. Pour the liquid into the bowl of flour mixture, crack in the egg and stir with a wooden spoon to bring the dough together.
3. Turn the dough out on to a counter top and knead for 5 minutes or so, until it feels soft and elastic. The dough will feel sticky and you can add a little flour to the surface to make things easier as you knead, but try to add as little as possible, as too much extra flour will cause the buns to be heavy and solid rather than light and fluffy. Once kneaded, set the ball of dough back into a clean mixing bowl, cover with a clean dish towel and set aside to rest for 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, gently melt the remaining 2½ tablespoons of butter over a gentle heat, then leave to cool. Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon, dried fruit and chopped marzipan in a small bowl and toss together. Roll the dough out into a large rectangle measuring about 14½× 8 inches.
5. Use a pastry brush to brush roughly two-thirds of the melted and cooled butter over the rectangle of dough, then sprinkle over the spiced filling, leaving a 1-inch bare margin around all the edges. Starting on a long side, roll the dough up tightly away from you, as you would a jelly roll, then brush all over with the last of the melted butter.
6. With a sharp knife, cut the long, filled roll into 10–12 smaller rolls and snugly arrange them cut sides up in the prepared pan. Cover with foil and set in the fridge to proof overnight. Or, if you want to bake them immediately, put them somewhere warm to proof for 90 minutes.
7. The next morning, the rolls should have visibly doubled in size. Bring them to room temperature while you heat the oven to 375˚F. Remove the foil, set the pan in the oven and bake for 25–30 minutes until puffed up and lightly golden. If the rolls are browning too fast, cover them once more with foil. If you’re uncertain as to whether they’re cooked through, you can insert a thermometer into the middle of the bake: when it reads 195–200˚F, they’re done.
8. During the last 5 minutes of cooking time, warm the golden syrup in a small saucepan over a gentle heat until hot and liquid, but not boiling. Take off the heat. When the rolls are done, take them out of the oven, and, while still in their baking pan, use a pastry brush to generously brush the hot syrup all over. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Adapted from The Christmas Companion: Simple Recipes and Creative Ideas for a Magical Festive Season. Used with the permission of the publisher, Bloomsbury. Text copyright © 2025 by Skye McAlpine, Photography copyright © 2025 by Skye McAlpine.)