Does anyone have a buffet style lunch rather than full Christmas dinner?

[Wenchelda]

The last few years I have had around 12 people to cater for on Christmas Day. I've always done a "proper" Christmas dinner, with one or 2 guests supplying the starters and puddings. We always have way too much food and it's very hectic trying to cook the meal in my tiny kitchen and make room to lay out all the puddings etc. Not to mention trying to seat that many people to eat. (Normal dining room seats 8 max so we have to improvise another table and move furniture to accommodate it) So this year I'm mulling over the idea of doing a Christmas food buffet, rather than an actual sit down meal. Has anyone done this? We will be going out with the in laws on Xmas eve for a full Christmas dinner, though this won't include all my Xmas day guests. I don't want my guests to feel like they are missing out but equally want things to be less stressful than they usually are!

[PonderingLikeAPond]

If I was having my christmas lunch made for me Id graciously accept whatever the host makes and whatever made their lives easier.

I suppose you could let them know in advance you are doing a buffet so they can add in a "traditional roast" somewhere over christmas if they are that bothered.

Is there a reason you always host? Cant you swap annually?

[Improvisingnow]

Never done it but think it is a great idea and think I might adopt it. My teenagers would definitely prefer this to a sit down meal and by the time we have dealt with the don't eat mashed/roast potatoes/sprouts/stuffing/bread sauce requirements, no-one is eating a full Christmas meal anyway.

[TheHighPriestessOfTinsel]

a couple of years ago DH had to work from 2-11pm on Christmas day.

I didn't want to spend all morning cooking, and then have him disappear in time for the washing up! So I did Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve, and then a Boxing Day style buffet on Christmas Day.

It worked really, really well - no having to disappear into the kitchen when presents are being opened, no stressing over timings and where to fit in other stuff, really easy to accommodate passing guests whatever time they called in, no frantically washing up in between courses. I'd be very tempted to do it again.

[NickyEds]

I'm considering it this year, purely because of space. We have a fairly big table in the kitchen (but no other dining room)that seats 6 comfortably and 8 just barely, but I need different chairs to get 8 of us around it. This year there will be 7 adults but my 2 dc will be there too- last year ds was in the high chair and dd wasn't weaned but this year we need to fit another chair for ds. It will fit but it's so cramped so I think it might just be easier to do a massive buffet and let people come and go as they please. I'm worried it will fee more like boxing day than Christmas day though.