do you have christmas dinner displayed on the table help yourself style ?

[littlepaddypaws]

i wonder about this when i see this onads or in shows when all the food is on the table and dishes are handed round to god knows how many people. doesn't the food get cold ? do people rush to put it in the microwave ?
when i plate up a normal dinner, if it's cooling it has a quick blast inthe microwave, however roast is very full on.
so what do you do ? cold food or get in the queue and heat it up ?

MIL has a hostess trolley

@ohprettybaby
Have a washing up bowl on the side, put plates in it and pour over very hot water when you have finished the starters. Take them out once the mains dishes are on the table and hand them out. Emotybthe water out then once everyone's finished their mains their dirty plates can go back in it.
An alternative if you have a dishwasher is to put all the plates and as many serving dishes as you can into the dishwasher and put it on a quick wash. Time it so it will finish as you're having starters. Voila!

I dish up in the kitchen. Don't have the bowls or space for help yourself.

I tend to serve veg into large heated bowls but pre-carve the meat as no one wants it hacked apart.

I have the serving dishes really hot and all dishes go to the table and we help ourselves.

It's the way we had it growing up.
My mother always said it prevents waste and would have encouraged us to only take what we thought we would eat and take more, if needed.

I like this method. Packed plates are very off putting IMO.

If you are catering to a big crowd and oven space is at a premium.
Scalding a dish with hot water from a kettle is a quick way to warm dishes.

I also stack the serving dishes and microwave them.
However, I believe that's not good for the microwave, too often.

I'm going to plate up my Christmas lunch but that's because I'm only cooking for myself and it would be madness to create more washing up. If I were cooking for others then I would place in dishes on the table.

I always plate up. I know what everyone like and dislikes. Any extras go out on the table so people can take more. We are a fairly informal family and not averse to swapping things around off plates!

Yes we do most dinners when guests are here like that. I think it's actually quicker when peoplehrlp themselves. My in laws insist on plating everything in the kitchen - it takes them forever, the food is always lukewarm and no one gets any preference whether they actually want the overcooked broccoli or 2 types of pie on the plate and then they have the cheek to complain the kids are wasting food

I have chafing dishes (cheap tinfoil ones) which are the best thing ever especially if I have a crowd. The food stays warm in them for second helpings. I put them on the kitchen island and we eat in the dining room. I do put hot sauceboats of gravy on the table though.

My MIL had a hostess trolly - it was the business.

All on the table in warm dishes. Hot plates and plenty of hot gravy. Never been an issue with cold food here!!

I plate up and serve. Our house is tiny, there's no room for a table in the living room and limited counter space in the kitchen so no room for people to help themselves.

OTOH I only ever cook roasts for DH, DSD and my DPs and I'm pretty good at judging portions for them

All in middle of table.
Same as most meals all year. ie tonight we have lasagne, its just dh and I eating tonight, so whole lasagne and bowl of salad in middle of table, we will help ourselves to however much we fancy, and the rest hasn't been on anyone's plates so makes perfect leftovers for tomorrow.

If you put everyone one plates, then if its too much it surely all just gets wasted and goes in the bin as nobody wants leftovers off someones plate they have been eating off.

Plates get warmed before meals with larger number of guests by just poping in the now empty oven turned off for literally 2 minutes whilst we moved food to table.

I think plating from the table (of kitchen side if space needed) is good for allowing people portion control, knowing they can take a bit more if still hungry so no need to pile on in the first place. Especially good with children.

DPs mum does the help yourself. My mum does plated but they don't have a dining table and a galley kitchen so help yourself wouldn't work lol. I've yet to do a Christmas but roasts are plated as just me and DP.

For the vegetables like carrots, sprouts they're par-cooked earlier, go into their serving dishes with bacon bits, butter, whatever you want, they're covered with foil and go into the oven when the roasties are in, ready to go straight to the table, Cuts down washing up, one pan will do it all.
I too have used the bowl of hot water if there was a shortage of oven space to warm plates.

Meats carved on a side table and plated with stuffings and pigs in blankets onto hot plates. Yorkshire puddings usually plated for first serving.
Vegetables from oven onto the table in hot dishes. Sauces in hot jugs.
Everyone serves everyone else, person sitting near cauliflower cheese is passed plates of those who want it , same for red cabbage and anything else’s gloopy.
Potatoes, sprouts, sauces passed around. I usually do two dishes of each to speed up service.

If I'm catering for the masses I'll lay it all out, instead of trying to remember the orders of everyone.
If there's only a few I just plate it up.

My angel of a MIL is hosting this year and she lays it all out too. Mountains of food, would never go hungry at her house!

We do multiple warm bowls of everything on the tables (usually have two tables) then plate up meat onto warm plates

Once everyone has some more meat goes on a plate to pass round those who want more turkey or ham

We find it’s the meat that goes cold quickest once it’s sliced so this works best for dishing out

I watched an episode of 'Everybody loves Raymond' quite a while back where he had his Thanksgiving dinner delivered.....We looked for someone who did that in this country for Christmas last year (not out of lazyness, I just had my dd, came out of hospital on Christmas eve after 5 weeks in).....still, it would have been really handy tho!
Does anyone do that???

I was bought up with dinners put straight on the plates, I did the same with my family too. I cannot bear to think of all the extra washing up with putting food in bowls/serving plates!

If it is a large group, would you not just agree whether the system is clockwise or anticlockwise and then just pass everything accordingly?!

I plate up the meat, roasties and stuffing.
The veg, yorkies, parsnips, pigskin blankets and extra meat and roasties go in serving dishes along with the gravy.
My mum and mil always dished up everything. Mum would have a plate of extras but mil was the type to cook a set number of roasties, two pigs in blankets each a Yorkshire pudding each with a spoon full of veg. No extras.

We do a bit of both!!! A small meal is plated for everyone on hot plates,(we know what everyone likes) then extra veg, meat and gravy are placed in hot dishes on the table for everyone to help themselves .
We were 12 at the table last year.

We have a massive table so I put food on hot platters at one end then people take their plates- which are not too hot to carry - and grab what they want.

On a Sunday I don't even prewarm the serving dishes

Huge piles of food with gravy dripping off the edge? - double yuck. I absolutely can’t stand plates piled high it’s reminiscent of blokes dumping takeaway curry on their plates in a big sloppy mess. I think part of the enjoyment is the presentation as well as the taste. Preheated plates and serving dishes keep the food hot for longer. The last thing to get to the table should be gravy and if this is piping hot it keeps everything suitably hot.