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 ?

by the time everyone has played "pass the roasters", "pass the carrots" "pass the sprouts" etc, your dinner is cold.

Multiple small bowls of each thing are the way round that. Get them all going and then what’s left stats in a couple and the rest of the bowls go on the worktop

It would take much longer for everyone to queue and serve themselves. Plus space is so tight the people st the back of the back table are in their seats until the meal is over 😂 (usually 22ish people round 2 tables so it’s a squash)

I love having everything on the table but not always enough room. Like a nice looking Christmas table/banquet!

Elbeagle

I have a weird thing where if there’s too much food on my plate I feel daunted and can’t eat anything.

I have exactly this!
Even if I'm quite hungry I stop really wanting the meal if someone else is heaping things on my plate, despite my protestations of "That's fine for me, thanks! I know I can come back for seconds " etc.

I think its down to worry that I'll leave the excess piles and the cook will feel sad that I didn't like it. If I can take what I want, I'll eat it all and probably have seconds thirds.

We used to but we found it quite wasteful as I always made way too much for fear of running out!

@ohprettybaby. Get a dish bowl of hot water and put your plates in there to warm. Ok, you'll have to quickly dry them but you'll have warm plates.

We eat all meals from serving dishes on the table, including the Xmas one, and there is never any problem about food being too cold. The food is hot and the serving dishes themselves are prewarmed.

It’s much less stressful for the cook, surely, to just put the food into the serving dishes than to faff around in the kitchen deciding who gets how much of what - it would get colder that way !

And by passing plates about, everyone is ready to eat at the same time p, rather than pre plates coming out at the cooks speed and people waiting for the last one to arrive and the early ones cooking. Teaches children about making the right choices for them and polite table manners as well, as a bonus.

We have the veg etc in covered serving dishes. I don't want anyone plating it for me. Whomever carves the turkey and either puts the slices on a platter or serves on individual plates and then that person helps themselves to the rest. It's not hard - veg will be warm still unless you're serving more than 12 or so.

Sort of. My dad does and he puts so much on there's barely room for placemats at each seat.
I would love to but I know dd would have her hands in everything
I think it's more xmassy.

Cannot stand people plating up my food or even just putting anything on my plate at table. It makes me feel physically sick and puts me off eating. I never plate up for any meal, even weeknight dinner. I always warm all dishes and everything is put in middle. Whilst I go out to get the gravy I tell everyone to start. After having a few mishaps of well meaning relatives/ friends putting food on my plate, and hubby not being attentive enough to stop it, I now bring in my own plate with the gravy and then serve myself.

@TrickyD only people who have never had the pleasure of a magnificent hostess trolley diss a hostess trolley

My mum has one.... I'm hoping I inherit it...

@StrawberrySquash I do order from M&S, still all needs cooking though, plus the consensus was I do better Roasties and fresh veg, so now we've just ordered a Norfolk Turkey (which was honestly delicious!), and some of their desserts (plus this year a ready to carve ham, I do like to cook my own, glaze with maple syrup and whole grain mustard...)...But I'm trying to keep things simple (two dd's under 2...making a spag bol is sometimes an all day mission!)...The 'who delivers?' was really just it would have been so handy last year, say if a restaurant did this to collect, I missed all of last Christmas! We did have a lovely Christmas day tho, just us and our girls, snuggled up on sofa with what turned out to be a beautiful meal, plated up btw, I really couldn't move around much, plus after 5 weeks of hospital food (sandwiches..) tasted out of this world!

If your family are used to having their meals plated up then plate it up. People are different. My parents would have been confused by the concept of helping themselves to food from the table. It's a money thing- if you are poor you cant risk people helping themselves, it has to be rationed by the cook. In wealthier households there was enough food to go round.

We serve all our meals on serving dishes. Have you even got casserole dishes you could use? I have never had to heat it up in the microwave. The gravy comes out last, after everything is on the table, so is very hot.

I come from a 'plate it up' family too, and have just continued to do what my parents do. Like other pps, there simply isn't enough room on the table for plates, drinks and the food in bowls in the middle.

If we have guests, and if it's a meal that allows, I do put food on the table for people to help themselves. Often, if the food is on the table, there is then no room for plates so we have to eat buffet style somewhere else (e.g. on our knees on the sofa). Not exactly ideal for Christmas dinner.

I never used to understand how people had 'leftovers' that could be used next day, as we never have any (except the odd bit on someones plate). It seems like cooking more and letting people help themselves is now the norm, so that explains it.

We never serve dinner like that , Just seems like so much more washing up .
We dish up in the kitchen and then take it through to the dining room .

I never used to understand how people had 'leftovers' that could be used next day

I plate up but usually make more food than I think we need so we can have leftovers the next day to save me cooking, even if it's just bubble and squeak.

I never used to understand how people had 'leftovers' that could be used next day

But even if you plate up, you don't have to literally put everything on the plates first time round. What if some people want seconds while others are already too full?

Discussing with DH about how the consensus is dishes on table is from more affluent circumstances and playing up where food is more likely to be rationed (light hearted). He said the complete opposite that he hates canteen style and much prefers how a restaurant does it ie plate it up. And he's much posher than me haha

Day to day dinner plates in the kitchen and we eat off our laps; often we have different things and/or eat at different times.

Christmas Day the meat (or veggie alternative) stuffing, roasties and gravy is plated; veg and extra gravy on the table. Extra roasties kept in the oven and extra turkey under wraps in kitchen. I heat serving dishes / plates by pouring hot water on them . Each individual plate goes back into oven until I have them all ready and veg plates are given an additional blast in microwave before putting on the table. We don't have candles / decorations on the table as there isn't room.

Any other occasion where we have guests I do a buffet put out on kitchen table.

We only use our dining table at Christmas as we have to move other furniture out of the room to pull the table out!!

serving disfes - and its just two of us.
Spent an amazing Christmas with a friend a few years ago - she had a full on 1970's hostess trolley, complete with all the original serving dishes.

Thanks for the inspiration here guys - I just dashed out to Aldi to get their plug in plate warmers. Got two sets - one will work for plates, the other for shallow bowls. Dinner will be warm at least this year!

We have hot plates on the table, which are metal trays heated with candles held on another tray underneath, then the food itself is served in warm dishes. Everything stays warm for the duration of the meal.

We always make sure everyone has their share of meat, pigs in blankets and stuffing, but put the veg and gravy on the table, as people tend to be fussier with which of these they want, and how much.

We give out a couple of roast potatoes each too to make sure everyone gets some, but then extras go on the table. Always works well, and we always have plenty left over :).

We have lots of neighbours/friends coming in and out at various times, no sit-down meal unfortunately, more like an afternoon/evening-long buffet.

So we use a few electric food warmers (Amazon do some good ones - pic attached).

Dinner gets served at the table around 5pm, but people plate up and eat in the living room. First round gets demolished but I cook in huge pots/casserole dishes and refill. Then there's plenty hot food left for stragglers... or seconds... thirds...

I do a cheeseboard too with baguette/nuts/olives, which helps cut down the quantity of cooked foods eaten. My single cheapo oven is already at max capacity on the day!

I simultaneously dread it and look forward to it.

Ours is on the side and we all go as a group. No queuing really,more for a free for all to what dishes are free at the time. I love it that way!