How many people?
Any dietary issues? Allergies, vegetarians, vegans, pescatarians, "no spice", "no pasta or rice" or other fussiness, DCs (and will they eat everything or need "chicken goujons and oven chips"?)....etc
What spread of time? All eating together or spread out over a couple of hours?
And does it need to be a substantial meal, or more nibbles type of a spread?
If it's lots of people and not too many difficulties dietary-wise, but proper food needed, I'd suggest maybe a lasagna and a cottage pie type of dishes with some salads and crusty French stick to enjoy with it.
If people would eat rice (probably more flexible than pasta), you could have plain boiled rice, and then a choice of 2 sauces: a curry or chilli, and then a plainer sauce (maybe chicken and mushrooms in white wine and cream with tarragon sauce - lots of variations possible to that like using stock instead of wine, or different herbs etc). Again you could have some salad and French stick on the side.
Or a mild and a hotter curry, could do a veggie one as well, and some chutnies, tomato and onion "salsa" (just finely dice lots of tomatoes and some raw onion with a good grinding of pepper), naan breads or puppodums, etc.
Chilli you could put out both a meat and veggie option, with sides of salsa (mild and hotter), guacamole, sour cream or crème fraiche, crusty bread, green salad, tomatoes, cheese etc.
The good thing about most of those is that the sauces (and lasagna, cottage pie, smoked haddock and broccoli pie, chicken and mushrooms with mash or pastry top pie, beef and ale pie etc) can all be made ahead of time and just heated up again (sauces) or cooked (pies) on the day.
If it will be spread out over time, you could do smaller batches and have fresh supplies coming out periodically, and use smaller dishes for pies (each serving 4-6 rather than 8-12 say), or even individual dishes if you have some.
Lots of crisps and dips and a few other cold nibble bits (pate for the bread, the salads etc) and anyone who doesn't want the hot food is happy. Baked potatoes or mash made in advance and heated in the oven in serving dishes also works well for pies, especially if pastry topped.
And then things like mince pies, a fresh fruit salad, bowl of jelly, and a bowl of balls of ice-cream scooped out (to easily serve yourself at the buffet table), and maybe something chocolate like brownies or a yule log (or just bowl of chocolates) would make a nice dessert spread.