I go for one if planned cooked meal a day and breakfast and other meal are buffet style help yourself.
We have a big ham on the bone which is served at breakfast and buffet meal - people carve their own. I buy in lots of cheese, biscuits, i make some chutneys and salads.
I buy in sliced bread for toast, croissants and wraps. I buy in part bake long life rolls because I always overbuy but they can still be used and don't take up vital freezer space.
I put snack food (nuts, Pringles, Christmas cake, fruit etc) along with soft/ alcoholic drinks and glasses on a deep windowsill in the lounge.
I put it canisters of tea and coffee and mugs on the side by the hot water tap in the kitchen with a help yourself policy.
On the kitchen windowsill (its a cottage very deep sills) I put the toaster and baskets of bagged bread, croissants and wraps, bowls of fruit, dried fruit in jars, cereals, jam and marmalade. I also buy small cartons of pure fruit juice in every flavour I can get hold of ( saves fridge space, washing of glasses and spills) also if it doesn't all get used it keeps.
I clear several fridge shells to fit all the white wine and champagne in the fridge.
In the weeks running up to Christmas I make the pigs in blankets, stuffing balls in various flavours, over make Yorkshire puds when we have roasts and freeze them, boil extra potatoes when we have roasts and freeze them, I buy disposable tin trays so once the Christmas meal is cooked they can go in the recycling and the majority of the china dishes go in the dishwasher. We have 15 to stay most years and so the dishwasher needs to go on after each meal to keep us in cutlery.
I make salmon wraps for canapés ( bread no crusts flattened buttered smear of dill sauce and smoked salmon then rolled up). I put in the fridge Christmas eve and cut Christmas day into little pin wheels which we have late morning with Champagne when we open tree presents.
We tend to eat turkey mid afternoon which means I don't need to get up early to get it in the oven also I cook it and leave it to rest under foil and a towel for an hour or more so I have oven space to cook all the sausages/ potatoes / stuffings etc.
Christmas Eve or day before I prep and fridge all the Christmas meal veg and the Christmas Eve veg / salad.
I usually make a cheese cake and pavlova for puddings alongside the Xmas pud and cake. These can be made in advance.
My other special Christmas dish is a berry platter that we have with coffee after meals. Every berry fruit I can get my hands on on a three tiered platter with little fancy chocolates between each section of berries.
On Boxing Day I've started a new tradition of Asda curry for lunch. It freezes, it all goes in the oven for the same time, lots of interesting flavours and nibble bits go with it, it's a very sociable informal meal.
The biggest thing that helps me is realising i need to allow people to help but to make it easy for them too. Things like making it obvious where the kettle / tea / coffee / mugs/ wine/ glasses are even if you move them just for Christmas to be out of your kitchen work zone means you are less of slave to meeting everyone's needs.