Christmas Dinner - how do you do it and how much do you spend on it?

[WhoCaresWins01]

There seem to be lots of threads about Christmas dinner, many complaining about the cost of hosting and guests who don't contribute, this has me wondering how much people spend on their Christmas meal. What is the norm in your family?
I live a 3-minute walk from my mum and dad and we tend to have our Christmas lunch at her house as there is more space! Mum and I cook together, last year we were my family (2 adults + dc 14 +dc 12) my mum and dad, aunt and uncle, brother and SIL, so 10 people.
No starters as nobody wants one so it's not worth bothering. We have a fresh turkey crown, make our own stuffing, cranberry sauce, gravy, roast potatoes and parsnips lots and lots of veg. Dessert is always homemade -Christmas pudding and brandy sauce plus something like a fancy chocolate cake or cheesecake and mince pies followed by a cheeseboard.
Everyone pitches in to clear up - no formal tea as everyone is too full, it's a free for all to snack on cold meat/pickles/cheese. Everyone is close so no need to stay over. A lovely relaxing day, no one stressed.
Cost is minimal really - the meat is obviously the most expensive but veg is cheap this time of year, desserts are the cost of ingredients and we buy some nice cheese. Mum and I share the food costs and other guests bring wine.
Our meal will not cost more than £4 per head excluding booze.

I'll lower the expectations straight away so no-one else need feel embarrassed about their lack of culinary skill. I'm a far from talented cook and I never cook roasts so deciding to cook from scratch for 10 on Christmas Day is a high risk strategy. I buy everything from Cook - they even give you a timing sheet. Is always lovely and very low stress. I do do my DS some Yorkshires (yes I know) because he loves them so much, but that's about it. I guess it costs about 15-20 a head including wine. I dont do starters. Pudding is Christmas pudding or go without. Cheese is varied and plentiful.

We are having home made pizzas this year. Cost...about £5 maybe? I don't understand the compulsion to eat the same food as everyone else just because it is Christmas and my family have voted for the Christmas meal since they were little. This is their choice this year.

Home made pizza is our Christmas Eve meal! Totally agree that Christmas dinner should be about enjoying a meal together rather than eating food you don't like because of tradition!

We all love a roast.

We're cooking for 8 adults and 2 dc on Christmas Day. We're having;
Canapes- smoked salmon blini and pulled pork puff pastry things (pulled pork is in the freezer already)- £7 ish?
Starters
smoked mackerel pate (smoked mackerel, creme fraiche, lemon)- £6, chicken liver pate - £3, nice bread for toast £3, butter (to serve and in the pate)-£2, cucumber -50p
So £20 for starters and canapés

Main
Ham-£20, chicken- £12, pigs in blankets-£7 ish, spuds and goose fat, carrots&swede, red cabbage, sprouts- £5?, Yorkshires(cheat ones)- £2.50.
So perhaps £50?

Dessert
Ginger, cream, meringue thing- £6 ish
Mince pies- couple of quid

Cheese board- £15-20 or so.
Maybe £100 for everything when bits of chocolate etc are added, plus bacon butties in the morning . There will be left overs though, and we are a family of absolute pigs! The booze will cost more.

We have homemade pizza on Christmas eve too!

We are going to PILS. There will be 12 in total, staying 2 nights as quite a way to travel. MIL cooks and does a fantastic roast. She will cover that. We are bringing 12 bottles of wine, a bottle of gin and some fancy cheese and crackers. Cost probably £100 ish.

We are having home made pizzas this year

I mean I know what you mean but I can't have just a pizza on Christmas day?! I don't like things like pizza and I barely ever have a roast so it makes sense to keep it a roast.

My DM is cooking for us this year, I'm pregnant so can't stand smells and i won't eat alot of it. I know they've just spent 50 quid on a turkey and 30 on pork joint which is ridiculous! That's for 6 adults and 2 children.

Weve opted not to do starters, I'll be making us cranberry sauce and a dish to help out. I estimate parents have gone well over budget. Excluding drink.

If it was just the 3 of us, we usually keep it minimal. My DM does huge portions, too much food. It never gets eaten.

We’ve got 20 people all together at ours again this year

£85 turkey from butchers
£25 ham from butchers
£12 40 pigs in blankets from butchers
Potatoes & jar goose fat £5?
Sprouts, broccoli, carrots, parsnips £4?

Cauliflower cheese (pre made M&S x2 £8)
Yorkshires x20 (minimal cost)
Gravy (minimal cost, using meat juices on the day)
Mil bring home made cranberry sauce & bread sauce (not sure on cost)

Mil makes a Christmas pudding & cake (not sure on cost)
I make a Yule log & white chocolate cheesecake as not everyone likes xmas pud ( £9 all I’m I reckon, mainly due to the expensive chocolate)

Cheese, chutneys crackers ( £30)

It’s the alcohol that really ramps it up as we do all like a drink so Champagne , cava, red, white and rose wine. Baileys. Whiskey, brandy, Gin, Lemonchello, Port, cider, vodka. (DH did the order and I don’t want to know what it cost tbh, although it will last all the xmas period I hope)

I've ordered mine from M&S and it was £80ish. That's for 5 adults and 3 children. I've paid the £30 deposit and my parents are paying the rest. Got a salmon starter, beef for main with the luxury veg selection, stuffing balls& pigs in blankets, gravy. Cheesecake for dessert and a melting cheese thing for the evening. I've made a christmas cake and will supply nibbles/cheese/pate etc for the evening. Everyone will bring a bottle of something. Works well for us, we all love a roast!

We are 5 adults 3 children and a baby. We’ll have Danish Christmas dinner of duck and pork on 24th, SIL is bringing that with her fron denmark so no idea on cost.
We’ll have a turkey Christmas dinner on 25th. We order the turkey cooked and hot with gravy from a 5 star hotel in the city and pick it up on the day, cost 210 Swiss francs. Expensive but saves all the hassle and keeps the oven free for sides which I will cook myself. Potatoes, veg, stuffing, cranberry sauce, probably another 50 Swiss francs. Will probably also get cheese and port along with Christmas pudding and custard. We have a communal wine cellar in our apartment block and our section is already reasonably well stocked so just beer and gin to buy. I love Christmas and the more people the better!

DM cooks Xmas dinner and likes to do it herself (even last year when she was mid-treatment for breast cancer) so I've no idea how much she spends but Bacon and eggs for breakfast, big roast with usually 2 different meats for lunch and then cheeses, pate, cold meats and desserts are served in the evening. Everyone brings soft drinks and whatever alcohol they prefer.

I used to do Xmas eve meal instead but last year we had a polish takeaway and this year we're having a pot luck buffet so I'll spend about £20 on our contribution (DS wants to bake a cake, I'm doing a pannacotta Yule loggy thing and DP is doing something with halloumi

Not really sure but I do find it all adds up. I have an order for 140 with M&S which includes a starter, free range turkey, pigs in blankets, red cabbage, a dessert and a vegan option.

My mam brings the ham cooked and I will probably spend around 50 on veg, potatoes, sauces, cream, ice cream and soft drinks.

I usually buy a few boxes of nice chocolates 30

and always have breads and cheese and pickles in for the evening 20

Breakfast will be something like croissants and nutella or crepes and nutella 10

So all in all it will cost nearly 300 for the day. There will be 8 or 9 for dinner and a few evening guests. None of us drink alcohol so I don't need to have money for that

We do most of it ourselves as we enjoy it, and we work together on it (DH, DD and I) - it is only us 3 for dinner.

We do a full turkey, but make full use of that bird (leftovers, frozen leftovers, stock from the carcass etc). And we generally buy a small sized one.

Regular veg and potatoes, bistro gravy etc.

We make our own stuffing - I make breadcrumbs from ends of loaves all the time and freeze them so I grab a bag of those, an onion, some herbs from the garden and a pack of sausage meat from the butcher for that. And some butter.

We generally have 1 or maybe 2 packs of M&S party food in the afternoon as a starter while we open presents and cook the turkey.

We have cheese after, which we start on 24th and enjoy over the entire holidays.

I do spend more on wine than usual, I get 2 bottles around €20 each, but many years we only open 1 of those and have the other on another occasion - but it’s nice to be able to open a 2nd if we want.

Overall, the dinner is probably about €160 in total (including the wine, cheese etc), but well within our reach and we have very little waste from it all and a lot of leftovers and other meals and snacks come from those included in that overall cost.

Typical roast type thing.

I think for most though, the cost of hosting if usually all the bits before and after the main meal also. Such as an evening buffet if main meal at lunch, extra drinks and alcohol, making mince pies, sausage rolls etc..

We will host boxing day, main meal buffet so nothing too fancy but nice chesses etc cost a fair bit. Will buy some mulled wine (which I won't drink as pregnant), will make a few deserts so they have a choice. I doubt much change from £80

£75pp. Five course restaurant meal. Stupid money but no other choice this year.

Turkey crown £16. Veggies I always have. Its just a roast. Nothing spectacular, used to doing a roast each week so no stress. No starters, something like roulade for pudding. Cheese/pate/crisps etc for laters.

6 of us eating.

Boxing Day meal is chips and turkey.

No starters.
Turkey crown (£30), joint of ham (£10), pigs in blankets(£7), carrots (£1), parsnips. (£1) (roasted and mashed), roast spuds (£1.50), gravy (£4), stuffing (inc in turkey).
Plus homemade cranberry sauce and apple sauce (£5 total).
And pudding (£12)
And cheeses (£6)

Approx £80. 3 adults 2 kids and we live on leftovers until it's gone (about 4-5 days).

The only thing I buy that I don't normally buy is a goose.
Once we've had our Xmas lunch from it, I divide it up into meal size portions and freeze them for meals in the future.
Roast potatoes and veg are already in the freezer as I use them often anyway.

We don't have a starter or a pudding and we already have wine in the cupboard.
Feeding 2. The only expense is the goose at £20 but will do us 4 meals each as well as Xmas lunch.

MIL is bringing a chicken and Christmas pudding.

The veg, potatoes, fish for DH and BIL plus gammon for my parents on Boxing Day is all coming prepared from Waitrose, I'm not cooking from scratch. The Waitrose shop for 12 adults and 5 kids portions across the 2 days is about £125 if I remember correctly.

I still need to get a pudding of some description as I don't like Christmas pudding!

Christmas dinner at home - five of us.
Turkey garnish pack £40 local butcher
Roasties carrots brussels buys shellfish from local fishmonger £15
'I am allergic to shellfish so usually have a dippy camembert or pate £8
M&S Christmas pudding £8
Very boozy trifle homemade £20 for ingredients
Stickty toffee pudding and tablet ice cream for any younger guests.£6
Then coffee/tea shortbread mince pies tablet -homemade if I have the time supermarket if not - costs more to actually make from scratch.
Prosecco Wine beers and ciders-
Repeat on boxing day another roast usually beef .
Could be done cheaper I guess but there is no waste.

My Mum guilts us all into seeing her for Christmas lunch, and then every year announces she wants us all to go to a pub for lunch. Whilst it's lovely not to cook, it's £50 each for me and DH, and £15 each for the 2 DDs, so £130 not including drinks. That's usually a weeks worth of groceries for us. And DD1 (who has autism) probably won't each much of it either. DB and his girlfriend this year have broken ranks and refused to go this year saying it's too expensive, and I think next year I might put my foot down too. I reckon I could do us all an amazing feast for a quarter of what going to the pub for Christmas lunch costs.

We are at my mums this year...not sure how many people there will be, between 6-8 (2 family friends who are single will be invited), I think we are having a guinea fowl and a big chicken as no one likes turkey.

I've bought my parents a big hamper of Italian foods as my present/contribution and my DBro lots of fancy beers to try. Am 8 months pregnant so excused from cooking!

We cater 12 adults and have:

Turkey from butcher - £90
Ham from butcher - £30
Sausage meat for stuffing, bacon for turkey and pigs in blankets - £25
Parsnips, cabbage, peas, carrots, cauli cheese, chestnuts and sprouts - approx £15
Bread sauce, cranberry sauce and gravy - negligible
M&S pud - £15
Christmas pud - £10
Various cheese and crackers - £30
Assorted mince pies - £10 approx

That’s £225 on the main Christmas meal.

Breakfast on Christmas Day:

Smoked salmon - £15
Eggs - £5 approx
Pastries - £10 for assorted
Champagne - £60 for 3 bottles

So £90 for breakfast

Then we get through numerous bottles of wine/champagne/spirits and a shit load of other treats.

Makes me when I write it down