Disposable crockery for Christmas day?

[Onionringo]

Hi,

We're likely to have about 15 people for Christmas dinner this year. We don't have enough matching plates for all of them, and I quite fancy the idea of disposable plates. But I can't see your average paper plate holding a Christmas dinner together. Anybody ever used any better quality ones that worked well?

Just trying to cut corners where I can. Any other tips for dealing with large numbers for Christmas dinner welcome!

[bimbobaggins]

I would buy a few extra plates from the supermarket. I wouldn't use disposable plates for dinner bus an another poster has said they would be OK for dessert. I love setting up my Christmas dinner table all lovely and matching but I plate up my dinner in the kitchen so people don't notice if they don't match.

[dillyduck]

Ikea champagne flues are almost as cheap as decent plastic

[dillyduck]

We bought fab cheap plates for a party of 100 from ebay- amazed at the quality. Nisbetcatering I bought the athena hotel ware plate which were just over £1 each

Ikea also have really cheap plates

[ThanksForAllTheFish]

If I where you I would just buy four of these cheap white the dinner sets from Argos. £20 in total - job done.

Plus you would have a spare set to cover any breakages. They can be stored away for future use / big get togethers or even until children grow up and move away for uni and need some crockery to take with them.

[FlopIsMyParentingGuru]

I do understand about avoiding wastefulness but it's a bit of a small drop in the ocean in terms of general wastefulness at that time of year.

[BiddyPop]

I intend buying some foil trays this year, as I have to host a gathering in a holiday cottage over Christmas, where I have no idea of the cooking utensils until I arrive (late on 23rd) and will have a very full car (or even 2!) - we certainly already know we need the roofbox.

But I look on this as a rare moment of breakout for our family and sometimes you need to decide on what is practical or not. I cannot fit a load of my own trays in the car as well as everything else. DM and DMIL both will be using theirs the day before and grumble about lending them. And it will be stressful enough for me (for 101 other reasons) rather than trying to find solutions to this problem when I have a readymade one.

But we tend to be pretty eco-friendly as a family anyway so I don't feel guilty about this one occasion.

[ArcheryAnnie]

onionringo flimsy disposable glasses are horrible when you are drinking good stuff out of them. If you are already bunging spare plates in the loft, get a couple of boxes of these to join them: unbreakable plastic champagne flutes that look and feel like glass, dishwasher safe, etc etc. Then you can bring them out whenever there's a party. They are good for using outside, too.

www.amazon.co.uk/Champagne-Polycarbonate-unbreakable-reusable-Dishwasher/dp/B0055QS4L6?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

(There's lots of brands - this is just a random amazon brand.)

[furryleopard]

I used foil trays last year and they were great. Mainly because I could fit 2 per shelf in the oven rather than struggling to juggle everything to get them to fit with my varying size trays. Then after I just binned them. I only cook for 4 and a half but it was so much easier without loads of oven trays to wash as well.

[purpleladybird]

Foil trays are great but can be a bit flimsy so you need to be careful. I cook potatoes, parsnips, pigs in blankets and stuffing this way. Just make sure you have good oven cloves and slide your glove under the tray as you pull it out the oven so it doesn't fold in on itself.

For the turkey, you need a decent tray. I was going to buy a large foil Turkey roasting tray in £land a few years ago then realised a proper tray was the same price so I bought that. Planned to chuck it out but someone always ends up washing it up so it's still going strong.

[Maryann1975]

I was thinking similar upthread tbh, about the waste of using tin foil roasting trays. I was thinking I could buy some, then wash them out ready for next year so I wouldn't have to buy more. Then I realised that I might as well just use the normal ones and not waste my money on buying ones to only use once. I'm at risk of being completly unfestive I'm sure, but I hate how Christmas becomes so wasteful in so many ways.
I agree about the ikea plates though. We have bought some now that the DC use proper plates and we don't have enough of the other plates. When we have people round, no one ever comments about the unmatching plates, they might have noticed, but honestly, the plates are fine. Once they have dinner on, you can't tell what kind of plate it is anyway.

[ArcheryAnnie]

mouldycheesefan no they aren't recyclable - paper which has had food on it should not be ever put in with the recycling, as it can contaminate the whole batch of recycling.

(I have to say, I'm with Luna on this. If it's a choice between pointlessly shitting up the environment even more during an already-wasteful season, or teaching teenage DS that roasting trays need washing even in the holidays, well, I'm going to pass DS the marigolds.)

[mouldycheesefan]

Yes roast Potatoe just as good in foil tray but if you are not convinced do a pre Xmas trial.

[mouldycheesefan]

Paper plates are recyclable? They are made of paper.

[LunaLoveg00d]

And this is why landfill sites are full to overflowing.

How completely WASTEFUL. Ask people to bring extra plates, or buy more plain white ones. Nobody will give two hoots about matching plates or not matching plates as long as they have food. Disposable plates are wrong on so many environmental levels.

I'm not usually an ardent eco, save the planet type, but this is just so wrong.

[FlopIsMyParentingGuru]

Ok. I have a very picky three year old who notices differences in food so a change of day might til her over the edge. But still a promising start anyway, thank you!

[PurpleDaisies]

Yes flops-mine were delicious last year in a foil tray. I did splash out on some goose fat though.

[FlopIsMyParentingGuru]

Obviously succeedes should be "success"

[FlopIsMyParentingGuru]

Out of interest, I've always wondered about whether potatoes roast as well in a disposable foil tray. In our house roast potatoes are taken very seriously and so it's a high stakes swap!
Anyone had succeedes doing it this way?

[PurpleDaisies]

They are excellent yabu, check out home bargains/pound land etc for cheap ones.

[YabuDabbaDoo]

Can I just offer my deep thanks to this thread for turning me on to cooking in foil trays for Christmas Dinner?! I am looking forward to Christmas a tiny bit more than usual now!!!

[TotalConfucius]

I used to do Xmas dinner for 23 until time/distance reduced it to 6.
I think this is one of the few occasions when you can get away with mismatched plates, and Pyrex jug gravy boats! You can buy up some odd ones at a charity shop and just make up a pattern around the table. White-green-White-blue-white-flowery. Same with cutlery.
Crockery, cutlery and gravy boats were the only 'real' things - all the serving dishes were foil, the table cloths were plastic (with linen underneath). Glasses were rigid plastic.
For speed of service, I used to do 4 'serving stations' along the table each with a foil of potatoes, one each of the veg, and stuffing/pigs in blankets, and a jug of gravy. Waiting for the one big pot of roasties to make its way round leaves people with cold dinners.
My aim on Xmas day was to have plates, cutlery and gravy/custard jugs to wash up. One of the advantages of using the foil is that you can get everything into the foils, maybe even onto the table, cover it all in foil and then either wash up the pots (supervise your willing volunteers I mean) or take 5 mins to have a before sitting down (for more ).

[NightWanderer]

I would go with the cheap white Ikea plates. Then you can jazz up the table with decorations.

[BiddyPop]

We got a load of cheap Ikea plates a couple of years ago to reduce pressure on running the dishwasher everyday, and they are great!! I happily use them when entertaining as much as just ourselves.

[BiddyPop]

Actually, plain white plates with nice coloured napkins/candles/crackers/flowers or whatever in your chosen colour scheme would look lovely. And can be changed annually as the paper napkins/ candles/ crackers etc would need to be fresh every year anyway!