Christmas dinner disaster

[parsnipandpotato]

Posting for traffic.. no shame

Christmas dinner.. we are rapidly running out of options..

We are a family of 5 and usual additions for Xmas day dinner is My sister, BIL, and DH's brother.

Christmas is usually, and has been for the past 7 years, held at my other brothers (large) house however this year he's decided to go to Scotland to his in laws.. how selfish!! (Lighthearted)

Issue is.. what do the rest of us do!

None of our houses are large enough to accommodate the whole group really.. certainly not for dinner.

What are people's experiences of eating out for Christmas dinner?
Personally I've never done it..

Does it still feel Christmassy ?
How expensive is is?
Do you have to book 6 months in advance ?
Is it ok to take a 9,7 and 2 year old?

Other option is we all cram into our 2 up 2 down and be cosy!

Looking for advice/previous experiences!

Thanks

Eating out is both expensive and the quality is piss poor so I am told - the massive increase in price is to cover wages not spent on the food.

Just speaking from experience from when I was a child and not as an adult: we ate out one Christmas and it wasn't great though it was at a chain style restaurant. Didn't feel Christmassy and the food wasn't homely. Was also a bit weird eating your Xmas dinner with other family's around.

Potentially if it was in a pub and had more family/pub lunch style portions it would have felt more cosy and festive. The place we went to was quite posh and I remember it had quite an impersonal feel.

Everyone cramming in is what Xmas is all about!! Get all the odd chairs and that table that's too small and fit everyone in somehow.

I've eaten out before. It's pricey but lovely not to have to cook and the cost is mostly because they have to pay staff extra to work Christmas day. Try a large pub or restaurant and no one will notice the kids amongst all the others.

Alternatively do a hot buffet?

It’s extortionate

But brilliant

Can you not ‘house sit’ at other brothers (large) house....

Over priced and a bit rubbish the few times we’ve done it
I wouldn’t do it again

Will your brother let you borrow his house while he's away?

You really can't fit eight in any of the houses/flats? Or is it more that you don't think you have the cooking facilities to do it?

Cram in! It’s only another three people. Is your brother fed up of hosting, by any chance?

Squashing in on all different sized emergency chairs is what Christmas is all about. We used to live in a two up two down and we hosted new years eve parties, birthday parties etc. Everyone just fits in somehow.

I don't fancy eating out for the reasons already mentioned.

Course you can manage 5 adults and 3 small kids in a small house! You just all need to budge up a bit.

If you go to a good family run hotel/pub and check the reviews you should get a good meal. Somewhere with atmosphere. They won't charge full price for the children and you may be able to get your littlies favs chic nuggets or what ever. Will be expensive but you should only have to pay full price for 2 adults.

I think you probably could all fit in a small house but only you know the space.

Its never same as home cooking, you have to share the room with other diners and deal with the general public. You can't sit in your pjamas whilst eating your sprouts. Someone has to drive to and from because taxi's cost a fortune. You can't play board games between the turkey and the cheeseboard. Oh and its expensive.

I'd rather sit on the living room carpet and eat from the coffee table than eat christmas dinner in a pub.

Could you do that thing where people cook things and somehow bring it over? Maybe bring some extra chairs?

I would see if you could borrow the large house for the day personally!

Another for squishing in! We once did 15 in a one bed flat... admittedly it had one big living room/kitchen/diner and we borrowed an extra table and chair but everyone still tells us how good a time they had

I broke my arm a couple of days before Christmas when I was with my ex. He couldn't boil an egg, let alone cook a roast, so a local hotel very kindly crammed in an extra table for two, despite being fully booked.

We had a terrific meal, the atmosphere was very jolly, people were chatting with people at other tables, the staff were lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed it. However, it was £85 a head just for the food! There were 7 (fabulous) courses, but most of them were tiny (an espresso cup of parsnip soup, with the world's smallest croutons). And this was 9 years ago, I dread to think how much that would be now.

Otoh, in Cornwall last week we stayed at a pub that was doing a very nice looking 4 course Christmas menu for £60 ph. We joked about going down in the motorhome for Christmas and having our Christmas dinner there, it was a smashing place.

But then we remembered how much we love Christmas leftovers.

Cram up we've had more in a small house and it's fine. With young kids and lots of gifts you can end up losing the floor in a sea of wrapping paper though.

Speaking as an ex waitress who has worked on Christmas Day if you do go out tip well. Don't assume all the staff are on time and a half or whatever as we were not. I think we had a day off in lieu but with the shift patterns we had we could request any day off and we'd get it anyway so it didn't matter much. We did get all the tips from Christmas Day between the staff who worked Christmas Day... We got just over £12 each. I think we did about 60 covers and there were less than 10 staff on, the tips were shit.

Squeeze everyone in, I have done it. No way would I pay a fortune with children of that age. We have dragged in patio table to add on to the end of ours and coved with tablecloths.

Stay at home, do as much prep in advance, share out providing starters, pudding, cheese wine etc so no one pays for it all.
I wouldn't want to take small children out on Christmas Day to be honest.
We used to make the table bigger by adding a picnic table at one end and all the kids sat on one side of the table on a bench made from the wallpapering board...happy days!

I bought a folding Buffett table for Xmas day. I had 10 people at the table, the tiniest Ikea oven they sell and we had a smashing time. Had to borrow chairs to fit everyone and the table was up in the living room, not much space between chairs and sofa. It was brilliant and what Xmas is all about. Family, love and acceptance.

Don't eat out. Total waste of money.

We're going for Christmas lunch at our local pub which is independently owned and the food is great, they do an amazing roast. We did this a couple of years ago and it was fantastic. It's £35 a head for three courses which isn't bad for the quality and quantity of food and the lovely festive atmosphere.
We're lucky to have such a good place to go to though and my DS is grown up but obviously kids go and are made welcome.