Is this too many people for Christmas?

32 people!
That's about 28 too many!

I would personally have them all over either Xmas eve for a party (mince pies, buffet picky food etc) or Boxing Day (jacket potatoes, cold ham and meats, buffet food etc)

I think people might be disappointed (nothing personal but everyone has their own weird personal expectations/traditions of Christmas Day and with that many people you can’t please everyone no matter how hard you try!) for example aunt Maureen who always has to have prawn cocktail as a starter for the past 50 years, vs Uncle Bob who feels it’s not Christmas unless he has 5 different types of meat for the main and is disappointed that you don’t have mashed potato because you did roasties instead etc etc.

That way it’s less important that everyone has a seat at a table, it’s more relaxed and no expectations of what their Christmas Day should look like.

Honestly, it's a lot. I had 10 adults for a full sit-down Christmas lunch last year and that was enough, even without any young children to worry about. I say that as someone who is not usually daunted by hosting Christmas, or biggish parties. Perhaps it felt worse because I'd also had 10 for Christmas Eve and 14 for Boxing Day. It was too much if I'm honest. I'm keeping it much smaller this year.

My American friend always does a Thanksgiving dinner for about 20-30 people including kids, and frankly, it's chaos. It ends up halfway between a hot roast dinner and a cold buffet, which doesn't work, in my opinion. And no-one can ever sit down comfortably.

I'd say have a Christmas Day with just your household, then do the big get-together on Boxing Day. Let everyone bring their leftovers of turkey, ham plus some more stuffing made up and ready to roast at your house. Eat the meat cold, the stuffing hot, and bung in some more chipolatas. If you have loads of oven space use the leftover potatoes and veg for bubble and squeak, or do baked jacket potatoes. Failing that, just boil and butter a huge pan of new potatoes. Some coleslaw, a simple salad, pickles etc. Some nice bread. Perfect, and SO much less stressful than trying to get a roast on the table on Christmas Day for so many people. The children will all be over-excited on CD as well, by BD they'll have calmed down a bit.

If you really want it to be on Christmas Day then don't try to do a full sit-down Christmas Roast, even with others helping and contributing, it's likely to be very hard work indeed.

Do a Christmassy buffet spread. Stuff like prawn cocktail, smoked salmon platter, charcuterie and cheese board, maybe a nice rice salad and a ham. Or a hot 'pot luck' with something like a big lasagne, or curries or a chilli that can be made in advance and frozen.

Then have your Christmas roast dinner quietly on Boxing Day, just the five of you.

We attend a family dinner like this. It’s honestly not my favorite because it is too chaotic and crowded for me, but most seem to enjoy it.

the key is folding tables and chairs. At one point most of the guests are sent off to one space to get out of the way. A few of the more able-bodied have been tasked with setting up the tables and chairs. They push back the furniture to make room.

Sounds like you already have lots of ideas of how to make it work.
Something I’d suggest to make it less chaotic is staggering arrival times based on what “jobs” people are doing to help. I know you said you’re planning to have everyone around at 2.30 but that would be really overwhelming I think because everyone would need greeting/instructions etc all at the same time. So I’d maybe have a core prep crew arriving maybe at 11ish to help with the set up, then stagger arrivals for others probably from 1ish every 15 minutes.
Have you thought about parking? Be really clear with people about that because if you’ve got say 8 cars all trying to park (and neighbours might have people round too) that might be stressful, and you want your guests to feel relaxed enough to get on with their jobs when they arrive! The more organised you can be with it the better, maybe even asking neighbours if they mind someone parking across their driveway if nobody is leaving their house that day etc, and then telling family, “Uncle Bob & Aunty Alice are parking across the driveway of Number 23, Grandma & Grandad are parking on our lawn” etc so everyone knows what’s happening.

Ok here goes:

I do 22 people and LOVE it.

I do cook absolutely everything apart from desserts wich are brought by my best friend and i do a soup, starter and the xmas dinner has turkey and ham.

I get tables and chairs from the people that are coming, so my mum gives me extra chairs and my friend has extra foldable tables, it stretches along the kitchen through to the hall, you want to be able to sit everyone at a table. I personally dont think couch seating etc is as important as people will sit at the table and between rooms as the day goes on an dinner is finished.

I have a hostess trolley, passed down to me and its a life saver but the fact that everyone is doing a dish is fab!!!

Set up your table on xmas eve or the 23rd, cutlery and everything all on the table - i know it sounds simple but one year i forgot to set the table and it was carnage.

Use disposable tablecloths, amazon or tesco have good decent plastic type ones that wont disintegrate with a splash of water and so when the tables cleared of dishes you can lift and bin everything else.

I also do a table plan with wee place cards again just makes things a bit less chaotic so everyone takes their seat and there is no faffing bout when your serving.

You can NEVER have enough tea towels and loads or Christmas paper napkins on the table.

Have everyone arrive early so you can see what dishes you have and what needs to be heated up etc.

I hope you have a dishwasher, each course set it to the fastest possible wash to help with clear up.

We do clear and turn around the house when everyone leaves, yes we can be up till 3am doing it but walking down on boxing day to a house thats back to normal is an amazing feeling, then i just spend the rest of my day in jammies eating leftovers.

Honestly its me favorite day of the year, yes its busy but my kids love it and so does everyone else, as long as you have loads of food and drink and a place to sit everyone will be delighted.

Difficult but not impossible.

Get everyone to bring extra chairs beforehand and set them out in advance.
Workout where you will put the food out, sideboard, kitchen worktop. Everyone will help themselves.
Bamboo plates and cutlery, sealed cups for the kids to avoid spilling.
Feed kids first.
Everyone helps themselves to food and drinks.
Buffet style lunch/ dinner. Small Roast potatoes (one mouthful) sliced hot meat, salads, veg, pigs in blankets, everyone helps themselves and sits down wherever.
Plenty of bin bags, kitchen roll, tea towels.
Warm clothes for kids outside in the garden.
Assign tasks beforehand.
Everyone brings a dish. Allocate based on your past experience with their cooking, don't ask what people want to do it will take ages while they decide and you will end up
collating it and reassigning stuff. Just do it.

Good luck.

Honestly I also think it is just too many people.

Space, chairs and most importantly oven and hob space. You won't have enough space to cook the required amount properly.

The only option is a buffet and even then I would suggest unless you have a massive house it's going to be quite uncomfortable. Everyone is going to be so squashed. It sounds great in theory but then put it into practice and it's another matter.

Chair hire. Plates, cutlery, glasses etc.

Have you got room for a second table? We have a fold down catering table kept in the shed that seats 8 that gets pulled out for such occasions. I also buy up white plates when they are on offer.
It's utterly doable but you need to manage expectations and be really clear about what you are offering. If others live close, can someone cook some of the meat and bring it over for example?

The only way I would even remotely consider hosting this as any semblance of a sit down meal is:-

1- Hire a local hall that has access to kitchen facilities - as they will prob already have tables / chairs. I would want this to be within walking distance to my house so i can have a drink.

2 - I'd do the main organizing but insist each adult brings a cooked dish with them and insist the adults help decorate the room

3 - Everyone arrive with mainly cooked food - and the Kitchen use for teas / coffees / Simple things

4 - Everyone chips in with the clean up afterwards sweeping etc / takes the dirty pots home to sort

My local church hall can be hired, and it includes dozens of long tables / chairs / kitchen facilities etc. They do expect the hirer to leave it as it is given so a clean up would be needed

Its going to be lovely. I remember Christmas just like this, always doable, always nice, however you plan it, it will be fun and a great memory for the kids. Dont back down because it’s slightly crowded and people say its too much.

We used to do a similar amount of people for Christmas eve dinner in my parents. Its doable but people need to compromise and realise that it will be eating on knees etc. My parents hadn't a huge house but what we did was

We rearranged furniture to prioritise circulating space. So the Dining table was pushed into a corner and chairs were placed around the edge of the room. THis meant everyone had a seat but there was no hierarchy of who got to sit at a table. Also meant we moved sears and chatted to different people as the evening went on. My dad was always put in the chair beside the dining table as he needed to sit at a table.

Dinner was buffet style and laid out on the dining table.

Kids get served first so parents can set them up in another room. Again eating on floor/chairs

Paper plates for dessert.

As long as people are happy about squeezing in then it could be a lovely day. However if you have any ackward people or people who expect a proper sit down dinner then you either need to find a way to get more tables in or else abandon the idea.

It sounds like the real problem is seating for everyone to eat together. If your kitchen is large enough you could extend the table by using trestles and placing a board across them. As long as the extended "table" is stable, hidden by a tablecloth and decorated, it'll be fine. Chairs will need to be borrowed from family.

We've done this on many occasions when DH has become over-enthusiastic with his Christmas (and other) invitations. All that matters is that people enjoy the occasion and the hosts don't end up too frazzled.

(Edited for typo.)

I would have no problem but helped in my Fathers restaurant at a tender age and have worked as a volunteer in big soup kitchens. Christmas dinner is easy. It’s just timings and space.

Fridge space is your actual enemy and the size of your oven.

Get one to bring Christmas puddings and all the cream.

Get one to do a cheeseboard.

Get one to bring mince pies.

If you want a starter get someone to bring this along.

I like multiple stuffings, could get one to bring along stuffings.

Prep all the veg the night before, keep in pans of salted water.

I have a regular oven and a 5 ring hob plus the biggest size air fryer you can get. Plus a rice cooker and a slow cooker, all can be utilised for a big dinner. What’s your setup like?

Plus there is keeping it warm borrowing a hostess trolley to keep stuff warm for instance it will make your life easy. Or those heated metal storage things, popular in the 1970’s to keep stuff warm. We had those in the restaurant.

The hardest dinner I do is big traditional meal based on my Fathers home country cuisine. It’s next level as multiple dishes.

Sounds like hell to me. It's all very well saying - oh, get everyone to help in the kitchen and bring a dish - where on earth do you put all the food before/during service? Even in a large kitchen, the work space will be filled with the first dishes of food (assuming you don't have to try and keep it warm as well), plus you are trying to keep space for carving/serving, more space for dishes and cutlery. Where are all these people who are supposed to help going to be? I have a larger than average kitchen but with full-on prep I wouldn't want more than 4/5 people in there, not to mention the kids who keep running in to show us something or the person who is trying to get ice and drinks from the fridge etc. How many ovens and fridges do you have, the fridges will be full of food before anyone even arrives.

Somebody mentioned air fryers and steamers, great idea but where are they going? There's only a certain amount of space, are they going to be on the floor in the hall with extension leads? Also making sure that young children have a space to relax and nap - again where? The entire downstairs is going to be rammed with people so you need someone who is willing to sit upstairs with little ones to get them off to sleep through the noise and excitement.

Where has the idea for this Christmas get-together come from? You say it's your first time, where has everyone gone in previous years? Has anyone in the family ever done this before?

If your having that many, including 10 kids, you may be better off hiring a village hall for the afternoon!!

How many plates and sets of cutlery do you have. What a out all the washing up afterwards?
If I es I bited it would sound d like the worst Christmas day off my life. Too many people will be talking over each other, kids will be getting hyped.
Honestly I'd rather stay at home and have a jam butty for my dinner than go to chaos.

Op you will be frazzled no matter how much people will say they will help out, the bulk of the work is going to be done by you.

Its a party not a dinner with that number. So it has to be a very flexible buffet arrangement. Try and organise a seat for everyone and ensure all the food can be eaten one handed whilst holding a plate

Seems a lot of work
If you really want that many coming then you could still cook a turkey if that’s what you are having and maybe a gammon joint then throw in some pigs in blankets and have with salad and jacket potatoes or a potato salad then a selection of desserts
You just need to work out seating

I think you could do Christmas dinner

I think it would be quite chaotic, but could be fun as a one off

I'd suggest (1) cook and carve turkey the night before, serve it cold on dishwasher hot plates with piping hot gravy, (2) buy roast potatoes, or do baked potatoes, (3) buy frozen pigs in blankets, (4) red cabbage can be cooked in advance and reheated in large pan, (5) boiled peas, (6) gravy granules. This would be quite simple food, but just about manageable for such a large crowd

You could eat in two sittings. Or on a rolling basis ie start serving food, first 10 people eat main course quite quickly at the table, when each person finishes eating, their plates and cutlery are washed and another person takes their place at the table

Pudding could be a bought Christmas cake and mince pies ie no plates or cutlery required

You'd need to delegate people to do washing up

And suggest wine glass charms, for identifying whose glass of wine is whose

You need one set of useful parents to come over at 10 am and be really useful.

Crack out the camping supplies. Beg, borrow or steal slow cookers. Ice boxes full of ice in the corner for drinks. Tongs, serving spoons.

Feed the children first and get them settled. Then sort the adults.

Toilet paper. You can’t have enough toilet paper.

Anyone else got visions of the Sainsburys "Mog's Christmas" ad with people hefting supplies up the drive and eating on the stairs?

For me this calls for a buffet, with the 10 older kids around the kitchen table and adults seated in the living room/playroom - as PPs have said get them to bring extra chairs. Obviously nobody gets to just sit there and be waited on, but it should work if nobody expects formality

When I have been to things like this there has been a buffet but more helpfully the host sent out in advance a list of who was making what. ie dessert, meat main, salad, cheese and snacks etc.... so there was a good spread of food and lots to choose from. If you plan ahead it's do-able - as others have said find an extra table and make sure you have plenty of plates, glasses etc. Coordinating a roast for that number would be a nightmare but a more relaxed buffet is fine and not nearly as much work for you.

Eek it is a bit much especially if you can only seat 10!

Can you do a Christmas buffet instead of a sit down meal?
Have the adults around the table and on the sofas and set up a "picnic area" on the floor for the children.

Paper plates, paper cups, bin bags to chuck rubbish straight in to