M&S Christmas food order 2015....

[Isitchristmasyet4]

I know its early but....
I really want to do my M&S order..It isn't available online yet so i went on the online chat to ask when it would be available and was told probably early Nov (!!!!) Thats so late for me! (Im crazy I know)
Hopefully its earlier than that...Maybe they were having a bit of fun at my expense for asking such a question haha!!
Anyways, what will you all be reordering this year? what was yummy and what not so much?
I remember the desserts going down well but not so much the buffet platters (sausage rolls etc) :)

[VillageFete]

That's ridiculous! I'm sure the order book came out around 6th Oct last year?

We are eating out again this year, but doing a buffet for some family on Christmas night, so i'd like a nice centre piece dessert and some picky bits/party food. I hope they have lots of lovely new stuff this year.

[Isitchristmasyet4]

I know i thought so too! I want to get in early and get a nice pick up slot...
Oh that sounds fun, I'm excited to see what they have this year.. hopefully some new stuff:)

[ALemonyPea]

Joining the waiting room. I love planning what food we're going to have. I like to get the book, go sit in the cafe and sit browsing through it while having hot chocolate and cake.

[Justyou]

I ve never done this before .... Am I missing out - is it amazing and do you get your full Christmas dinner shop ?

[Isitchristmasyet4]

AlemonyPea.. That sounds amazing!!! :)

[Isitchristmasyet4]

Its really good Justyou You order everything you want (the selection is fab) pay a deposit (10% i think??) and then pick a time and day in december to pick it up..usually 23rd for me :)

[Isitchristmasyet4]

www.marksandspencer.com/s/christmas/christmas-food

Here is some of the stuff from last year to get an idea...

[Justyou]

Ooh thank you !!

[ALemonyPea]

I love doing it. I love the collection day where my local M&S has a special pick up area and you get served sweet mince pies and Buck's Fizz while you wait.

Makes me sound all posh, but I'm not really.

[Savagebeauty]

Ooh I get discount this year!!

[Buttercupsandaisies]

Was thinking of doing this for Boxing Day as its my turn - if I collected 23rd would the food keep or would I need to arrange for Xmas eve pick up? I know last year people collecting orders had to queue for ages (around the block!) just to collect and don't fancy doing that on Xmas eve as it looked at least 1.5 hour queue!

Anyone any recommendations for two hot type dishes? I'm ok choosing sides and salads etc!

[ouryve]

The book normally comes out around my birthday, in early October.

We always order the duck rillettes. Delicious slathered on brown bread with cranberry relish!

[MTWTFSS]

In store I was told beginning of October.

[Treats]

Justyou - it was reading the M&S Christmas food thread on here last year that made the penny finally drop for me. I realised that, much as I love cooking, I didn't want to cook Christmas dinner.

Last year it was just six of us, two of whom were children and couldn't care less what they ate and two of who were PiLs and I couldn't care less what they ate I realised that no good could come of being up to midnight peeling potatoes, running in and out of the kitchen instead of spending Christmas morning playing with the children, and spending all afternoon clearing up.

So I ordered the Saver menu, peeled the lids off, put them in the oven and put my feet up with a glass of champagne.

I still did lots of cooking, just the fancy baking stuff that's more fun. And we saved some of the sides and lots of the leftovers to have later in the week to cut out even more cooking.

I highly recommend it. Looking forward to seeing this year's brochure.

[CJCreggsmyhero]

I spend many happy evenings looking at the M&S Christmas food brochure and I luffs the hamper brochure as well.

I second the M&S peel dinner appro

[BiddyPop]

I have no idea where I found it, but someone on MN gave a link to a blog in July where the writer had been to the M&S Christmas Food expo for this coming Christmas.......[Homer Simpson drool face]

I tend to not buy M&S dinner, it's only 3 of us and I tend to do most of the prep work on Christmas Eve (peel spuds, peel and chop veggies etc). And DH quite likes to cook the turkey in a relaxed fashion on the day.

But we do buy a good few party nibbles as we have a couple of different days with people in to visit, and they are SOOOO handy for that.

I don't go into the M&S local to me the few days before Christmas, it's a bit awkward. But the city centre one near my office is where I get a lot of fruit and some lunches for work, and that gets bananas. The sandwich section, which is LARGE (7 fridges along a wall and another 4 fridge island) gets converted to order collections for the last few days (tough if you WANT a sambo!).

As I always have to go into work on Christmas Eve if it's a weekday, we end up in there afterwards to get the last few nibbles and also DD's birthday cake (Boxing Day) - strangely, it's usually fine that day, but 23rd is a lot worse.

[Carmex]

www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/food-drink-news/ms-reveals-christmas-food-must-haves-9556506

Here's some of what they will be selling this xmas. It looks AMAZING.

The drinks....

Mince Pie Martini
Chocolate Yule Log Cream
Sherry Trifle.

[VeryPunny]

We did this last year as DS was only 3 weeks old. Like PPs, I love cooking but I wanted to enjoy Christmas, not be in tears alternating between the kitchen and feeding DS. It was fab and I will do it again like a shot. Food was excellent.

[HairsprayQueen]

Can't wait for this!

We got one of the set menu deals last year and it was all so nice and good value but just way too much food so I'm going to have to get the individual bits this year I think. Depending on prices I guess, it'd be silly to pay lots more for less food!

[Treats]

HairsprayQueen - if it was the same Saver menu that we got, I agree it was way too much food - and there were six of us. We put the cauliflower cheese, the red cabbage and half the pigs in blankets in the freezer and had them later in the week. Even less cooking to do on the day and a few of the other days taken care of as well.

[ipswichwitch]

Link to the blog a pp mentioned here

We've done it the last 2 years and it's great. Our M&S organises the queue for each collection slot in the same order that the bags are behind the counter which means staff don't have to go climbing over 100 bags to get to yours, and speeds the whole process up. It all tastes lovely and means I can be playing with the DC necking prosecco rather than spending most of Christmas Day in the kitchen burning the yorkshires.

[lunar1]

If they do that five gold rings cake again don't buy it, unless it's a door stop or paper weight!

[HairsprayQueen]

Some of the stuff on that blog make it sound like they've just thought of every Christmas thing they could imagine and smooshed them all together! Fizzy Prosecco crisps sound a bit April foolsy even!

[mareseatoatsanddoeseatoats]

lunar1 - was it not good? the kids wanted that last yr but by the time i got around to ordering it was sold out. Usually they choose the profiteroles on choc mousse thing.