im doing christmas dinner this year for 10. m&s stick it in the oven or jamie oliver cook from scratch?

[tryingtofigureitout]

just as i said in the subject name: im doing dinner for 7 adults and 3 kids this year. ive done it twice before but just for the 5 of us and i cooked the whole turkey, made my own roast potatoes, gravy etc and it was delicious.
however, 5 more guests is a whole other ball game and i havent done it before.
my sil mentioned yesterday that its worth paying the extra to order everything from marks and spencer, ready prepared, as all you need to really do is stick in the oven, including the turkey crown.
i looked online last night and although the easiness of it is tempting im worried it wont be as nice - the roast potatoes looked a bit rubbish.

anyway, was just wondering what others do?

Sainsbo's have 2 for £5 on bacon wrapped sausages for the freezer atm.

I make my own stuffing, bbc good food sage,sausagemeat and onion and cook them then freeze. Then they just need defrost and warm through on the day. I make it into balls. I make mincepies up raw and freeze them in tins. When frozen i take them out and put into freezer bags. Then cook them from frozen back in the tin over xmas in batches. I also make jamies ultimate gravy and freeze that. Cook my turkey the night before. I freeze sausages wrapped in bacon ready to cook. Prep veg on xmas eve and yorkshire pud batter. On the day its all potatoes, veg and trimmings. Easy.

I would get a foil tray for cooking the turkey and roast potatoes in too - saves on washing up and they're dead cheap!

Goose is lovely but will not serve 10 - if I've been cooking for that many I've done the turkey the night before and the goose on the day. (reheat turkey by slicing it and covering with foil in the oven - if everybody likes gravy then heat it with the gravy over the top)
As everyone else has said - prep the veg the day before. Carrots / sprouts etc are fine left in poly bags in teh fridge. Potatoes need to be covered in water (so dh always does them on Christmas morning). Desserts can be made in advance. Keep starters simple so all you have to do is stick them on plates (we just have smoked salmon and prawns).
ALso - re cooking the turkey in advance - I have done it but it's much better cooked on the day. Buy a good free range one if you can afford it and brine it for about 24 hours. Cooking time for my 7kg turkey was under 2 hours last year!

You can never guarantee the weather so I would make sure you have some frozen back-ups in case your delivery doesn't arrive or you can't get to the shops.
Having tried ALL the ready-made gravies available to man I would advise making your own. They are all bland.
I'm going to do a big roast chicken towards the end of Nov and make huge amounts of gravy from the carcass/juices to freeze for Xmas day. The M&S rotisserie chicken has amazing juices which I keep for gravy.

Roast potatoes are usually the best bit IMO and the store bought ones are poor.
Sprouts and other veggies with added extras seem to be OK.

Do it from scratch - it'll be easier than you think. You just need a bigger turkey and extra veg. You can make your stuffing in advance then just warm up on the day - same goes for cranberry sauce. I never bother with a starter for Christmas dinner - especially if you are following it up with Christmas pud. Have some nibbles to go with Champagne before lunch then just sit down to the main event. Make sure your table looks totally poncetastic and I'm sure your guests will be blown away.

had a name change folks but i am the original OP of this thread and i just wanted to thank you all for your advice.

my position on it at the moment is just as i thought before my sil suggested m&s all the way - im going to do MOST of it from scratch and buy some good extras, doing as much prep as poss on christmas eve but doing the actual cooking on the day.

like i said i have done it before almost from scratch so ill just do that again on a bigger scale. someone said something about timings and working backwards - i did that last time too and will do that this year.

i may change my starter to something more simpler like a choice of soup or melon. bit boring but easy set up/clear up when ill really want to be concentrating on my gravy at that point and serving everything out whilst still pretty hot.

i cant wait. even if its not perfect, i know it will be pretty good and we'll have a good time being together and drinking the good stuff. also, it will be the 1st time my 3 kids will have had family over on that day (we normally alternate grandparents) and im looking forward to seeing them enjoying it in their home with their new toys. happy days.