What’s the maximum number of people you reckon you could cater Christmas lunch for?

[Sidebeforeself]

Comfortably I mean. Taking into account chairs, table space, oven room etc?

Eight for me

4-6, due to small area to sit at a table. With trays on laps up to 8.

On one side of the family, 8 because they expect elbow room, proper place settings, etc. On the other side, they’d happily squeeze up, even sit small ones on laps, 12 easily, maybe 16.

Christmas is a funny one because there’s an expectation of sitting to the table, but other events are easier to host because people will sit around on sofas, or stand around the island and it’s mainly just the oldest generation that need a chair at a table.

Quoting myself because I (embarrassingly, frankly!!) gave this thread too much thought last night while I was up (again!!) with the baby. I could, if needed, put our old, smaller table up to the end of our new, much bigger table, and that would make up to, possibly, 20. The stumbling block would be plates, no chance would I have that many. Chairs, fine if mismatched by the end, space, no worries, oven space, no stress, but those plates… that would be stress 😂

Not sure I will EVER do that though. Sounds terribly stressful. This year it’s 9 adults and 6 kids and that’s plenty, honestly!

We had 16 once. No idea how we got them all around the table, but we did.

We have loads of flatware, stemware and cutlery as we often host 20 or more in the summer. Thankfully, outside.

None - we don’t have a dining table so everyone would have to eat off their laps on the floor 😂

I’ve hosted 24 for Christmas before. It was a squash but not uncomfortably so. I have loads of crockery and cutlery so that wasn’t an issue. The main thing is the oven space but if you cook the meat first you can cook most other stuff while it rests.

Comfortably 36. We have two trestle tables that seat 18 and 40 folding dining chairs that are stored in the shed for Christmas and family events - MIL and her 3 sisters bought them a few years ago specifically because they got fed up with the the "can you bring 3 chairs Mary, and Peggy id you bring your 5 chairs then we'll have enough" discussions at every big family event. There's also a box of plates, bowls, side plates etc that were bought in Ikea for the same reason.

Our usual dining table seats 10 and you could squeeze an extra couple round it.

We have sat over 20 inside (18 this year) but can seat 50 outside…

crockery for 70+ before we run out of china and then high quality reusable plastic for another 50+ cutlery between kitchen cutlery and silver for probably 90+ glasses for 70+ though we are a bit short on champagne glasses 😀 we regularly host parties of 40-60 people… we enjoy entertaining!

Me too! That’s what I was asking really.

I’m limited by the table and number of chairs: 8 at a stretch. I probably have glasses, plates and cutlery for three times that!
In a previous life I catered for 40 single handed but that involved borrowing trestle tables and neighbours’ chairs. And a lot of paper plates.

14 semi comfortably. We’ve done 12 before and that was OK.

I’d say 16 -18. Combination of dining table, trestle tables, folding chairs. I do it quite often

Zero as I don't currently have a dining table .
We are s-l-o- w-l-y renovating and promised ourselves completely new furniture once completed . We are yet to finish so still haven't purchased one.

We have 16 dining chairs and 8 kitchen chairs plus a whole pile of ikea cheapo ones (around 16)

Crikey. There are some wealthy posters on here who must live in huge houses. Our dining table could seat 8 when extended, but it's a squeeze, and the end of the table would be in the living room.

When DGM used to cater for the extended family (15) at Christmas the smallest cousins were seated on cushions around the coffee table and given child-appropriate Christmas food on ordinary plates. No sprouts or parsnips and crackers straight away! That way we were free to go to and play with our presents when we’d had enough of eating.
We were still in sight but it avoided the “bored child grizzling at the table” scenario.

I couldn't manage any more than 12. The house (and oven, hob and other equipment) is not big enough to cater for any more than that.

@Sidebeforeself yes. We have a big Victorian dining table, that seats 16, plus two others. We put them in a U-shape. And we have a lot of dining chairs, but also some folding wooden ones for emergencies.

Twelve, well eleven plus me, with a Pot Noodle Multi-pack.

(I've only got ten chairs though, plus a pouffe.)

Based off table space and if I wasn’t allowed to borrow anything I could do 16. But my limit for cooking a full sit down christmas meal would be 10 people, as I couldn’t cope with the stress

Did 24 for my husband’s birthday dinner (more complicated cooking than Christmas dinner) but then had to go to bed early as I was so tired 😭

6 without moving furniture could do 12 if we pushed all the furniture out but then we’d need to move it back after the meal so not ideal!

8 if we want to be comfortable. Have done 12 many times. Lots of sitting on the floor before and after lunch and eating between 2 rooms with a kids 'picnic' and adult table. The kids being over 11..

Nope not at all. Just open plan and able to borrow stuff. Always on a strict budget. We have friends who help out so it's not so bad and after having done a couple of times we know what works and what doesn't so that removes stress.

We have a big kitchen but a small table as there are just the three of us. I don't see the point in taking up space with furniture we don't need. So theoretically we have room for a fair number of people, but we would have to repurpose the garden furniture or borrow tables and chairs. As for cooking for all those people, I'm never sure how anyone does it without the food being cold. Surely most of us have a normal sized oven