To just do mulled wine and mince pies?!

[Acunningruse]

In a drunken moment of festive bonhomie we have Invited people over at 3pm today for open house. In passing I have mentioned mulled wine and mince pies. We also have Christmas cake, mini Yule logs and lebuchen (however you spell it) plus other drinks but now panicking people will expect something more substantial once it gets to 5pm?!

YANBU- go and buy an Iceland buffet
YABU - people will be happy with a mince pie

Get some cheese and biscuits and charcuterie. Or stick with the mulled wine and mince pies if you don't want them to hang around.

You will need to provide something more than that imo. Do some sausage rolls, crisps, pitta, dips

Cheese, biscuits, chutney, pork pie/sausage rolls, charcuterie, nuts and dried cranberries. Olives and figs. Grissini, cheese straws.

Or pop a Camembert into the oven and serve with the above!

Depends how long you want them to stay for. Mince pies and mulled wine is fine for a couple of hours gathering.

Party platter, cheese board and nibbles will like the stomach for the mulled wine. If you provide more food then people are less likely to get drunk quickly.

Tescos do big bags of spring rolls and samosas in their world food freezer section. I always have those at parties with chilli sauce & mint and yoghurt dips.

Stick to the plan. If you are left with a handful of guests and are enjoying their company, order pizza.

This is giving me stressful memories of my exhusband inviting everyone to ours for a New Year's party but he forgot to mention it to me. I only found out on the afternoon of the 31st December when I was still at work and a friend phoned to ask me if I wanted her to bring anything. By the time I got out of work shops were closing and it was a sad buffet I managed to put together.

I think it was one of the drunken incidents that led to the divorce.

Stick with what you have. Sounds fine to me.

@ShaunaTheSheep

Stick to the plan. If you are left with a handful of guests and are enjoying their company, order pizza.

This

Omg @ancientgran that’s awful!

@Acunningruse I agree with pp - if you don’t want them to stay too long then just offer what you’ve got. But if you’d like to facilitate a good long leisurely afternoon with friends it would be better to have some savoury offerings too.

3pm = afternoon tea. You can get away with just mince pies. When you don’t offer anything more substantial, people will go home and eat there.

If you want them to stay later than, say, 5/6pm, then you need to feed them.

Oh pizza is a great idea!! I concur.

I never get pizza these days...

@ShaunaTheSheep

Stick to the plan. If you are left with a handful of guests and are enjoying their company, order pizza.

Absolutely agree

Otherwise you’ll have the sad resentment of a drunken neighbour enjoying sweaty sausage rolls and getting progressively more pissed while you sit there internally seething and wishing he’d leave

Ahaha that image is awful. I’m so glad I’ve not got an Open House today!

In Denmark you have ‘go home soup’ - when the host serves that it’s the signal that it’s time to go home.

Ooooo, pizza!

As long as people are expecting mulled wine and mince pies, it’s fine to provide mulled wine and mince pies.

3pm is clearly not a meal time.
Mulled wine and mince pies is perfect, perhaps with some soft drinks and cheese puffs at the back of the cupboard for people who don't like the main offering. Do not be tempted to put on a buffet. It really isn't necessary and will turn your open house to a stay all day affair which was not what you offered or they accepted.

Well your guests will have already eaten lunch, and 5 is far too early for anyone to be thinking about dinner! So of course just mulled wine and mince pies is fine!

Sounds fine to me, that's what you have promised.

I would not expect a buffet with that invitation! Just mince pies in is fine, great idea to order pizza later if you want people to stay (or put some in your freezer depending on how big it is?!)

We had informal drinks and snacks last night - mulled wine and far too many other bits! Lots left over. People came at 6pm so you'd think they'd have been hungrier. We fed the kids properly but the adults really just wanted to drink and chat with the odd bite. Don't overdo it IMO. Have fun.

I'd probably get bread and cheese and fruit too, but definitely keep it simple and all stuff we can easily use up in the coming days.

What you've got sounds fine and lovely. Are children coming too? If so do you have something for them? If DH and I (in the pre children days) were invited to a 3pm Sunday gathering we probably wouldn't stay much past 5-6pm and would sort our own dinner out.

Have a lovely afternoon

If it’s a 3pm invite I wouldn’t expect to eat much more than a crisp or mince pie. I would expect a nice drink and some light jazzy Christmas music playing in the background.

It’s fine, it’s drinks.

I’d maybe get some savoury snacks like crisps, because I wouldn’t want to eat a Christmas mini log with a glass of wine..