Christmas Dinner: How to Compost Every Scrap From the Plate

Christmas dinner is the most generous food event of the year for most US households. Multiple courses, large portions, leftover-driven planning, dishes that often produce significant scraps in their preparation (turkey carcass, peeled vegetables, citrus rinds, herb stems). According to USDA estimates, US households produce 30-40% more food waste during the November-December holiday season than during typical weeks of the year — much of which goes straight to landfill.

The good news: with a small amount of upfront planning, almost every scrap from a traditional Christmas dinner can go to compost or municipal organics rather than the trash. The actions are simple — sort scraps by composting compatibility, set up a temporary holding system for the day, and process the volume after the meal.

This article walks through a typical Christmas dinner course-by-course, identifying what to compost, how, and where the gotchas are. The principles transfer to Thanksgiving, Easter, and any other large family meal.

The setup before the meal

Before the cooking starts, set up the composting infrastructure that the day will need:

A large compost holding container in the kitchen — a 2-3 gallon bucket or stainless steel canister with a tight lid. Larger than a normal day’s countertop bin because the volume from holiday cooking is much higher.

A second container, optional, for “freeze first” items — meat scraps, dairy items, bones. These shouldn’t sit at room temperature during a long cooking day. Store them in the freezer in a sealed container until disposal day.

Paper bags or compostable trash bags — for transferring full bins to the outdoor cart or pickup container. The pre-bagged transfer is cleaner than dumping loose scraps into the cart.

A clearly-labeled compost guide on the fridge or near the prep area — for guests or family members who don’t know your household’s composting rules. Lists what goes in (most food scraps) and what doesn’t (any non-food items, stickers from produce, plastic produce bags, etc.).

This pre-meal setup takes 15 minutes and dramatically reduces the chance of post-meal mess.

Course 1: Appetizers and snacks

Cheese board: Cheese rinds compost (with caveats — see meat/dairy section below). Crackers and bread crumbs compost. Grape stems compost. Olive pits compost (slowly). Charcuterie meat scraps go to the freezer-first container.

Vegetable platter: Carrot tops, celery leaves, radish trimmings, cucumber ends — all compost. The dipping sauce containers, if disposable plastic, do not. Switch to glass or ceramic dishes for sauces.

Stuffed mushrooms or similar: Any vegetable trimmings from prep compost. The breadcrumb stuffing compost. Cheese topping composts (slowly).

Crostini and bruschetta: Tomato scraps, basil stems, garlic skins, bread heels — all compost.

The appetizer phase usually generates a moderate volume of scraps. Sort as you go rather than accumulating in one bowl that requires re-sorting later.

Course 2: Soup or salad

Soup prep: Vegetable peelings (carrot, parsnip, onion, celery), herb stems, garlic skins — all compost. If using broth from scratch, the strained vegetable solids compost.

Salad prep: Lettuce cores, cucumber ends, radish tops, herb stems — compost. Citrus zest scraps compost. Citrus peels compost (slow but yes).

Croutons: Any leftover stale bread used to make croutons came from the compost-stream avoidance — the croutons that go uneaten at the end can return to compost.

Salad dressing: The container compostable if it’s a paper or glass bottle; not if plastic. The dressing leftover at the bottom compostable if vegetable-based. Cream-based dressings go in the freezer-first container.

Course 3: The main course

The main course is where the largest volume of scraps appears.

Turkey or roast preparation:
– Outer skin, fat, gristle: composts (slowly) but better in freezer-first if the day is long
– Turkey neck, organs (giblets), wing tips not used: same — freezer-first if not cooked into stock
– Carcass after carving: the turkey carcass is large and bony. Best handled in one of three ways:
– Boil down for stock, then compost the boiled bones (now soft enough to break in pile)
– Direct to municipal organics (most accept bones)
– Rough-cut to manageable pieces, freezer-store, then to compost on disposal day

Stuffing prep: Bread cubes, sage stems, onion skins, celery trimmings — all compost. Any stuffing leftovers themselves compost.

Cranberry sauce: Whole cranberries that go uneaten compost. Sauce residue at the bottom of the bowl can be scraped into compost.

Mashed potatoes: Peels (if you peel) compost. Leftover mashed potatoes compost (moisture and starch are valuable additions to a compost pile, balancing dry materials).

Vegetables (carrots, brussels sprouts, green beans, etc.):
– Trimmed ends and bottoms compost
– Outer leaves compost
– Cooked leftovers compost
– The serving bowl scrapings compost

Gravy: This is where households often struggle. Liquid gravy doesn’t pour easily into compost bins. Two approaches:
– Soak it up with a piece of leftover bread, then compost the bread (works perfectly)
– Pour it into a small container, freeze, then dispose on disposal day

Yorkshire pudding or popovers: Compost any leftovers and the cooking grease residue (small amount, won’t harm compost).

Carving board scraps: Everything that ends up on the carving board after the meat is removed — small fat pieces, drips, bone fragments — compostable, with same freezer-first guidance for fat-heavy items.

For the main course, the biggest payoff is the turkey carcass and the vegetable scraps. Even on Christmas dinner alone, a household composting these instead of trashing them is diverting 5-10 pounds of organic material from landfill.

Course 4: Dessert

Pie:
– Pie crust crumbs compost
– Fruit pie filling residue (apple, cherry, blueberry, pumpkin) composts
– Cream-based pie residue (custard, cheesecake) composts but goes in the freezer-first container
– Whipped cream residue: small amounts fine in compost; large amounts freezer-first

Christmas pudding / fruit cake: Both compost. Brandy soaked into them is fine for compost.

Cookies and shortbread: Compost. Crumbs compost. Decorative icing composts (small amounts).

Ice cream: Small residue amounts in bowls compost; the dish itself if compostable composts. Large amounts freezer-first.

Coffee and tea service:
– Coffee grounds compost (excellent compost addition — high in nitrogen)
– Coffee filters (paper) compost
– Tea bags compost if plain paper; compost the leaves but separate the bag if bag is synthetic mesh
– Loose tea leaves compost
– Sugar and creamer residue composts

The dessert course generates less volume than main course but more “sticky” residue that benefits from the freezer-first approach for the dairy and fat-heavy items.

The meat, dairy, and bone question

Standard composting guidance often says “no meat, dairy, or bones in backyard compost.” This is partially true and worth understanding:

Why the rule exists:
– Meat and dairy scraps attract pests (raccoons, rats, bears) to backyard piles
– Decomposition of meat in low-oxygen pile conditions can produce strong odors
– Bones break down very slowly in cool backyard conditions

When the rule doesn’t apply:
– Hot composting (pile reaching 130°F+) breaks down meat and bones safely
– Closed bin systems (Bokashi, hot composters) handle these inputs
– Municipal commercial composting facilities accept all of the above
– Buried-pit composting (digging a hole and burying scraps) bypasses the pest issue

Practical recommendation for Christmas dinner:
– If you have municipal organics pickup: send everything (meat, bones, dairy) to the municipal cart
– If you have Bokashi or hot composter: use it for meat/dairy/bone items
– If you have only an open backyard pile: avoid meat, dairy, and large bones; vegetable scraps and grain leftovers are fine

The freezer-first container is most useful for households that don’t have municipal organics — it lets you accumulate the meat and dairy items until you can dispose of them in a way that handles them properly.

Citrus, alliums, and the “compost-skeptic” items

A few items that some composting guides discourage:

Citrus peels (orange, lemon, lime): Compost slowly (3-6 months in active pile). Some worm bin composters avoid them because high acidity disturbs worms. For backyard piles or municipal organics, fine.

Onion and garlic skins: Compost. Some worm bins struggle with these for the same reason as citrus.

Spicy peppers: Compost fine.

Cooked oils and grease: Small amounts fine. Large amounts (a cup of bacon grease, for example) should be solidified in a container, frozen, and either composted in a hot system or disposed via household waste oil collection.

Herbs and spices: Compost.

Vinegar-based condiments: Compost in small amounts.

For Christmas dinner, none of these should be excluded from the broader composting plan — they all have a path.

Disposable serving items

If your Christmas dinner uses any disposable serving items, the compostable category transforms what would be landfill waste into compost-stream material.

Plates and bowls: Bagasse plates compost in 60-90 days commercial, 6-18 months backyard. Major brands (World Centric, Eco-Products, Vegware) all stock these.

Cups: Compostable PLA cups for cold drinks, compostable hot cups for coffee. Both compost in commercial facilities.

Utensils: Compostable utensils (CPLA, birch wood, bamboo) compost.

Napkins: Cotton or paper napkins compost. Avoid napkins with synthetic plastic content.

Tablecloth: Cotton or paper tablecloths compost. Plastic-coated paper tablecloths (often used at parties) do not.

Serving trays: Compostable bagasse serving trays exist. For disposable formats, use these instead of foam or plastic.

For a Christmas dinner using compostable disposables, the entire end-of-meal cleanup becomes a single sort: everything compostable goes in the compost bin, nothing goes to landfill except possibly the recyclable glass and aluminum from drinks.

The day-after processing

After the meal:

Step 1: Consolidate all compost holding containers into a single transfer bag or bucket.

Step 2: Add the freezer-stored items (meat scraps, gravy, dairy residues) to the transfer bag (or keep frozen until municipal pickup day if your collection isn’t immediately).

Step 3: Transport to disposal pathway:
– Municipal organics cart: dump in
– Backyard pile: distribute throughout pile, cover with brown matter (leaves, straw)
– Drop-off site: bag and transport
– Subscription service: schedule pickup or hold in freezer until next pickup

Step 4: Wash the holding containers thoroughly with hot soapy water. Air dry before next use.

Step 5: Take note of any scraps that went to landfill instead of compost — these are the items to plan differently next year. Common gotchas: produce stickers (peel before composting fruits), tea bag staples (cut off), plastic produce bag scraps (avoid plastic produce bags in the first place).

Volume expectations

A typical 8-12 person Christmas dinner produces:
– 3-6 pounds of vegetable scraps and trimmings
– 3-8 pounds of bones, fat, and meat scraps from the main course
– 1-3 pounds of leftovers that don’t get eaten
– 2-4 pounds of dessert and beverage residue
– Total: 9-21 pounds of organic material that would otherwise go to landfill

Over the course of the holiday week (Christmas Eve, Christmas, leftovers through New Year’s), this can easily exceed 30 pounds of organic material per household. At a national scale, US households diverting holiday scraps from landfill would represent millions of tons of material annually.

For one family, the diversion isn’t planet-changing. As a habit that establishes for the year-round practice, it’s significant.

A reasonable summary

Composting every scrap from Christmas dinner is achievable for any household with a working compost pathway — municipal organics pickup, backyard pile, drop-off site, or subscription service. The key actions are setting up larger-than-normal holding containers before the meal starts, using freezer-storage for meat and dairy scraps that shouldn’t sit at room temperature during a long cooking day, and using compostable disposables if disposables are part of your service plan at all.

The volume is meaningful — 9-21 pounds of organic material per dinner, across millions of households nationally — and the alternative (landfill) wastes nutrients that could be returning to soil. With 15 minutes of pre-meal setup and a consistent sort-as-you-go practice during cooking and serving, the entire meal flows through compost rather than landfill.

For households new to composting, Christmas dinner is actually a great proof-of-concept event. The volume is high enough to be visible, the categories are diverse enough to learn the rules, and the result — a single large bin going to compost rather than half a dozen full trash bags going to landfill — is satisfying enough to motivate continued practice into the new year.

For B2B sourcing, see our compostable supplies catalog or compostable bags catalog.

Background on the underlying standards: ASTM D6400 defines the U.S. industrial-compost performance bar, EN 13432 harmonises the EU equivalent, and the FTC Green Guides govern how “compostable” can be marketed on packaging in the United States.