Christmas Morning Breakfast: What You Need to Host

Lodge has made cast iron in South Pittsburg, Tennessee, since 1896, and this is its double-burner reversible plate. One side is a flat griddle for pancakes, French toast and eggs; the other is ridged for bacon, sausages or a steak another night. At 16.75 by 9.5 inches it spans two burners, which is what turns a one-pan breakfast into a production line.

It comes pre-seasoned, is PFAS-free, and works on gas, electric, induction, in the oven or over a campfire. Cast iron takes a while to heat evenly across two burners, so give it ten minutes on medium before the first pancake. Once hot, it holds its heat through batch after batch.

It is heavy, and the flat side has no rim, so butter and batter can run off the edge if the stove is not level. Skip it if your burners are far apart or oddly sized; check the spacing before you buy.

The catch. No rim on the griddle side, and it heats unevenly if the two burners do not match.

A glass French press makes good coffee and loses its heat in twenty minutes, which is before anyone has finished opening stockings. Bodum's Columbia is the same press in double-walled stainless steel, so it brews and then serves, standing on the table like a coffee pot.

It holds 51 ounces. Bodum counts that as twelve 4 ounce cups; in real mugs, that is five or six. The plunger has a three-part stainless mesh filter, and the whole press goes in the dishwasher. Bodum's safety lid keeps it from sloshing when it is carried.

For a houseful of coffee drinkers, brew a second press ten minutes after the first rather than buying a bigger machine. Skip it if your household drinks drip coffee from a timer and likes it that way.

The catch. A mesh filter lets through fine sediment, so the last half inch of every cup is best left in the mug.

Juice poured into a water tumbler goes half drunk and warm. A 5.5 ounce glass is the old breakfast size for a reason: a proper pour of orange juice, finished before it matters, and small enough to sit beside a coffee cup and a plate without crowding.

These are plain clear glass, 3.5 inches tall, with a weighted base that keeps them upright when a child's elbow goes by. They are lead-free and dishwasher safe. Eight is the right count for a holiday table, and they go back to ordinary weekday use afterward.

They are plain, which is the point. Anyone who wants cut or colored glass on the Christmas table should look elsewhere, and will pay three or four times as much.

The catch. Too small for anything but juice or milk; they are not a second set of tumblers.

On Christmas morning, a board does more than a platter. The coffee cake is sliced on it, the bacon is laid across one end, the fruit is cut at the other, and the whole thing goes to the table at once. Le Creuset's 16 inch acacia board is thick enough to work on and handsome enough to serve from.

The wood is FSC certified acacia, and Le Creuset notes that grain and color vary from board to board. It is sold as a heavy-duty cutting and carving board, which means it will also take the ham at dinner.

Wood needs a little care. Le Creuset says to keep it out of the dishwasher, avoid long soaking and bleach, and wipe it now and then with vegetable oil. Anyone who wants to throw serveware in the dishwasher should use a ceramic platter instead.

The catch. Acidic or strongly colored food can stain the surface, as Le Creuset itself warns.

All-Clad's square waffle maker bakes four deep-pocket waffles at a time, which feeds a table of eight in two rounds. It has six browning levels and audible alerts, one to say the plates are ready for batter and one to say the waffles are done.

The feature that justifies the price is the plates. They are nonstick, they lift out, and they go in the dishwasher. Anyone who has picked cooked batter out of fixed waffle plates on December 26 knows what that is worth. The machine stores upright, which saves cupboard depth.

It is a lot of money for a waffle maker, and a lot of machine for a small household. Buy it if waffles are a weekend habit, not a Christmas tradition.

The catch. Large and expensive; it is overkill for a house that makes waffles once a year.