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I was thinking about this today and realized I never use my cookie press any other time of the year. I use an old hand-crank Nordicware press that makes great Spritz cookies in different shapes. Easy to use but I guess I just don't bother at other times. That, and I could probably eat the whole batch.
I also make Zebra cake which is a no-bake that my grandkids love. You just slather chocolate wafer cookies with whipped cream and line them all up in a row in a long cylinder shape. Cover with whipped cream and a little shaved chocolate over the top. Refrigerate for a few hours and when you cut into it it's yummy. And zebra-like.
I do a boiled fudge recipe that I don't dare make except at Christmas since I eat most of it. I think Christmas gives you a pass.
When it comes to main dishes, prime rib, turkey, ham, etc. I eat those at other times of the year. So what do you make only at Christmas?
In my home, there are many traditional dishes that are eaten only during Christmas - those I don't cook during a year. Christmas Eve dinner is the most important celebration of the year. Christmas Eve practices are guided by custom rather than by faith, and conservative families and modern or atheist families alike celebrate with traditional cuisine.
Like a carp - a tradition that is at least 700 hundred years old. There are numerous local, ancient and interesting recipes, including carp in grey sauce, carp Jewish style, carp with dried mushrooms and cream, or stuffed with parsley. Although very hard to buy in Houston, I already know ahead of time where to get it.
There are few traditional dishes made with braised sauerkraut.
Kutia is another traditional dish, an ancient dessert with origins in Eastern European made exclusively for the Christmas Eve dinner, (but we enjoy it the next few days of course). It's a pretty elaborate and time consuming dish that its a mixture of cooked, unprocessed wheat grains, cooked and finely ground poppy seeds, honey, dried or candied fruits soaked in a small amount of port or red wine, and various nuts - usually almonds, sunflower grains or walnuts.
For Christmas Day I roast a goose. It's pretty expensive bird here, so I am cooking it only for the Christmas holidays.
People have been eating goose all over Europe for thousands of years. They're free range by definition, spending the majority of their lives grazing on grass in the open fields, and taste so, so good!! Green goose is pretty lean. Goose meat is much richer than turkey meat, and also much more flavorful: not a gamy flavor, but a substantial one. Once you have tasted a well-roasted goose, the contrast between its rich dark flavor and the bland flavor of turkey will surprise you.
I will stuff it with tart fruits like quince, apple and cranberry, as well as savory sausage meats and bacon. It will be served with potato dumplings and red cabbage. Yum!!
I will also bake piernik - a traditional gingerbread cake. Baking gingerbread in Poland is a tradition several hundred years old. Gingerbread from Toruń - the city of Nicolas Copernicus - was already known in the 17th century. Ancient Polish cuisine was full of exotic spices, including ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. The traditional Old Polish Piernik which is still prepared in many homes requires a lot of time and attention. I will bake it next week, in advance to let it mature for a better taste. It is then cut along and eaten with layers of traditional plum preserves. It remains fresh for a long time.
Another traditional dish is a dried fruit compote. We love dried and smoked fruits, and use them especially in Christmas dishes. Compote is a traditional and popular beverage served at the end of Christmas Eve. It is made from cooked dried and smoked fruits, typically plums, apples, pears, raisins and apricots. Its most appreciated purpose is to speed-up digestion. However, I do cook it several times during a year, especially for Easter, Thanksgiving and for no-occasion.
wow, there are several starting with cookies: I do very little baking through the year but at Christmas I do rice krispie bars with choc, peanut butter and coconut on top, plus sometimes fudge and always bourbon or rum balls. We have tomales on Christmas eve, sometimes home made, sometimes home made but from a gal my granddaughter knows: and Prime rib is our Christmas day meat, which we never buy during the year.
Hungarian poppy-seed kolache. My mother made one every year at Christmas time, and when she passed, I continued the tradition, especially for my Hungarian father. Now that he is gone, I make it for the few family members I have left.
Oyster stew for Christmas Eve is my once per year item. It's delicious, but it only seems right on that one evening.
Yech, we grew up with the tradition of having to eat oyster stew on Christmas Eve and as kids we hated it. Not something that children should be forced to eat! Neither my siblings or I still continue the tradition.
You must have a German heritage, that's where I think my family got it from.
For me, I make pralines and date candy for Christmas, which is the tradition that came down from my Louisiana Creole/Cajun French maternal line.
It's interesting how many of our Christmas food traditions come from our ethnic heritages, isn't it!
fudge
divinity
stuffed figs with walnuts
gingerbread house
hot apple cider
pecan pie
pumpkin pancakes only around Thanksgiving and Christmas
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However, I do cook it several times during a year, especially for Easter, Thanksgiving and for no-occasion. 
