Is this too much food for 5 people on Xmas day?

[Hoiz]

Breakfast
Pret frozen croissants
Cinnamon rolls
Coffee
Bucks Fizz

Houer D'oeuvres
Pigs in blanket (American style)
Chorizo and Scallops
Salmon and Cod Roe Blinis
Garlic Prawns
Caeser Salad skewer

Main Meal
Stuffed Chicken Joint
Roast Potatoes
Mash
Dauphinoise Potatoes
Honey Carrots
Bacon and Broccoli
Parsnips
Brussel Sprouts
Cabbage
Pigs in blanket
Stuffing balls
Yorkshire pudding
Onion Gravy
Plain Gravy

Dessert
Sticky Toffee Pudding and Ice cream
Xmas Pudding
Yule Log
Cheese Platter
Mince Pies

Dinner
Leftovers

Drinks
Champagne
Wine
Bucks Fizz
Spicy Margharitas

Someone in the group is insisting on a starter but they have agreed to taking responsibility. TBC.

This will all be homemade (apart from pastries in morning and ice cream) so it’s a lot of work - 2 main people doing it. A third person will likely pitch in a fair amount.

Is it a normal amount of food? First year hosting but any less would not be what my family is used to. But I’m doing a lot more homemade stuff whereas in previous years some of the snack stuff and desserts would be M and S.

I think you're being too considerate. Everyone doesn't have to get their favourite things. I do think it is a lot of food. So what time is everything? You said lunch at 1.30? I can't have lunch that early if i have breakfast and starters. And after a huge lunch several sweets is a lot. So I'd space everything out. I feel like starters could be lunch and then the mains as dinner later.

I don’t know exactly what the stuffed chciekn is tbh. My sis gets an extra large chicken, debones it and stuffs it. It comes out tubular. An individual portion is essentially a thick round slice with this yummy spiced stuffing centre

hors d'oeuvres

If you buying ready made to put in oven it's all fine

If you planning to make it all yourself, - bonkers unless you are a chef and really really love to cook

Mum, is that you?

That seems like an awful lot. We host every year usually for 5-6.

We do:
-normal light breakfast of cereal or toast as everyone is focussed on the main event and the kids are too busy with presents to be too bothered about breakfast

• various snacks are available throughout the day- nuts, quality street, little savoury bites and maybe a plate of sausage rolls late morning

-around 2pm we will have our main meal which is usually:

Turkey
Ham
Sprouts with chestnuts and bacon
Roasties
Parsnips
Maybe carrots
Yorkshire puddings (controversial I know but we all love them)
Some boiled green veg to cut through the richness
Cranberry sauce
Gravy

Christmas pudding
Cream

Later in the day if people want food it will be smoked salmon sandwiches, cold turkey and pickles, cheese and biscuits, that sort of thing

Mince pies and Yule log if people want more sweet stuff

That is a LOT of food for five. We will do a second round with other rellies on Boxing Day and still have loads left over.

Is this a wind-up?

This might be sacrilege but I would get either ready-made mash or ready-made dauphinoise to ease the load a bit (not ready-made roast potatoes, they are too different from the real thing).

Even an extra large chicken isn't going to feed five people with any sensible amount of leftovers unless it's some kind of dinosaur hybrid. Not even on Mumsnet.

Of course we don’t eat like this regularly. It’s Christmaaaaas.

I just won't eat battery farmed chickens.
End of.

No way would I be offering so much choice. I'm cooking for 5 (not breakfast) and my menu is:

Mince pie and prosecco on arrival,

Stuffed mushrooms to start,

Main:
Turkey,
Sprouts in creamy sauce with bacon,
Carrot and swede mash,
Roast potatoes,
Sausagemeat stuffing balls,
Honey roast parsnips,
Cranberry sauce,
Turkey gravy

Peach and raspberry cobbler with cream for dessert,

Coffee and mints,

Red or white wine

We'll all be stuffed on that so just have nibbles (crisps/nuts/chocolates and cheese and biscuits in the evening and possibly sausage rolls.

with enough left to tide you all over to Easter.😂

It does sound like a fair amount of food, if not washing up.
Its a busy enough a day as it is and you need to make sure you get to enjoy family time as well.
but do as little or as much as you feel you're can cope with.

One thing I'd probably look at though is the veg..
Bacon and Broccoli
Parsnips
Brussel Sprouts
Cabbage.

Bit to much of that type and not to lower the tone of your post but you could still be trumping out Auld lang syne on New years eve..

This will all be homemade (apart from pastries in morning and ice cream) so it’s a lot of work - 2 main people doing it. A third person will likely pitch in a fair amount.

are you prepping this food beforehand on the 23rd and 24th? or are you leaving it all until the 25th?

Yes its a lot of food and I would imagine a fair amount will not be touched.

Id be preparing everything on the two previous days, the vegetables prepped, yorkshire batter made, the puddings made and ready for oven or in fridge etc

I think only my dad and brother will probably have breakfast. The croissants and cinnamon buns will prob be taken by my siblings as treats for a few days

surely you just cook the pastries from frozen as and when you want them?

Far too much . It's overwhelming for just five people .

I mean, too much is better than too little. Hosting when you've miscalculated and there's not enough is something you only do once! It's as embarrassing as anything 😬

If you eat at 1 I don’t know why you need anything between breakfast and dinner and I’ve no idea why anyone needs 3 different potato choices when you have loads of veg .

Honestly OP your menu just reads as gluttonous to me. I wouldn’t do that much food for twice as many people. I think you’ve got much too hung up on everyone getting their favourite things. I watched my grandparents and then my parents cook Christmas dinner that way, with a million different dishes and options and fancy extras and swore I wouldn’t do it. They were stressed, stuck in the kitchen all day (and yes, people helped), and they wouldn’t play or join in with board games because they were either still cooking, clearing up or knackered. And then we were stuck with leftovers no one wanted or that went in the bin.

I do a selection of mini pastries for breakfast and lunch is soup, bread, cheese, pate and salad. I cook a roast dinner with one meat, one kind of potato, one kind of gravy, three veg, pigs in blankets, stuffing and some cranberry sauce. One dessert. Everyone has a lovely meal even if it’s not got their absolute favourite thing in it, and I get to have a nice day too, rather than my kids watch me martyring myself to everyone’s preferred kind of potato.

All that food would put me in hospital. It sounds tasty but far too much food.

As a former chef I'd advise that's a huge amount of effort and will likely end up with a fair bit of waste.

Have you ever cooked a roast dinner before OP?

Because most Christmas dinners are just that, with a few extra trimmings like bread sauce, stuffing and cranberry sauce.

I meat
1 sort of spuds
3 veg
gravy

Are you very young?

Far too much. You'll never eat all that and most will be wasted. 3 types of hors d'oeuvres is enough (we don't have any), one type of potato, no need for sprouts and cabbage, one dessert plus mince pies is more than enough and one gravy.

We don't eat breakfast or hors d'oeuves or starters and we're all completely stuffed by the evening.

Well I think it sounds perfect.

The thing is, when there's different tastes and likes a menu can look huge when a mix of things are wrote down.

If I were to write down what I'm serving for 7 people here, it would look ridiculous, but we're not eating everything, everyone will have what they like and sure that's what Christmas is about, not forcing food down that you don't like.

I always have 3 types of potatoes because we all like different ones, there's no way I'm forcing roast potatoes down my neck when I only like garlic ones, there's no way my kids will force Brussel sprouts or parsnips or mushy peas down their neck because I like them, they prefer broccoli and carrots or garden peas and one only eats corn. So yep, our veg menu is massive but I only cook enough for the meal and next day.

The thing is, people don't have to eat everything served up, if they feel full during the day then they can skip things. Whatever you have left over you can use the next day or make up a lunch box for guests to take home, they won't have anything made at home as you're hosting. Or you might be surprised and it'll all be eaten.

There's nothing worse than running out of food, plus nothing worse than sitting down and a pile of mash put on your plate when you hate it. Happened to me at inlaws one year, dry mash potatoes, hard roast and green beans, my 3 veg I really struggle to eat, it took me forever to eat the dinner.