What's the most people you've had in one place at Xmas?

[guiltyofa]

There's going to be 18 of us at my parents' on Xmas Day. They invited everyone, expecting a few declines but everyone invited is going.

18 seems insane - what's the most amount of people you've had in one place on Xmas Day? Was it chaotic or great fun?

We're going to have six children, twelve adults and a dog 😂

I once got to MILs on the 22nd expecting to have 14 on Xmas day. By the morning of 23rd it had increased to 18. When I was at Tesco at 6am on the 24th I had a call to say it was now 22.

That was an exhausting Christmas!

(But mad, fun, and LOUD)

17, we normally have 12. My best friends partner of 20 years walked out on them just before Christmas, she was not in a good place and there was no way her children we not going to celebrate Christmas. We all rallied around and my sister in law went on to invite them to her house for Christmas day night. Their 2 older girls have since become very close. We did what we needed to, it was really no different to cooking for 12 other than the seating being a squeeze - would do it again without hesitation

I've got 19 this year. Feeling a bit daunted! 😬

Only five for Christmas day but 19 adults and 3 children for boxing day.

Sounds crazy and fun to me to have lots over for Xmas.
Can I ask tho, how on earth does anyone cook for say 18 people.
How do you manage practically, oven space, counter top space, fridge space.
Head space?!

16! My side and dh's side! SIL was a moody cow. So never again!

Growing up, a "table" of 24 was not unusual. This would be four sets of parents (siblings) plus all of their children and also the in-laws of the host. It didn't feel as wild as it sounds! The tables would run from the kitchen to the lounge, and there would be two of them back-to-back, so everyone had a seat and you would just pass the plates around. I remember being very conscious of what the food "allowance" was though. If you took more than 3-4 spuds you might get this face

Even until my early 20s I was on the "kids table" on the end though so I possibly was not privy to all the chaos in the kitchen.

Happy memories maybe not for our parents

Growing up, we used to spend Boxing day at my aunt and uncles house. At a gestimate there would have been about 30 people? But, they had a large house and many rooms we could all go to, so it never felt too much. Such good memories.
At our house, it was last year and we had 10, but it was a bit of a squeeze as we don't have lots of space. It was still nice though.

We had 18 growing up. I loved it. My mum perhaps less so

We’ve got 36 coming for a Christmas party before Christmas this year which is pretty daunting!

15 for the dinner and 28 for the evening buffet. All at our house. I need a week to recover each time

I did 57 one year & cooked a roast for them all too. Though it was a buffet of cold roast & a microwave on the table with it to heat it up as & when they were hungry p. I didn't have sit down space for everyone & wasn't even going to try with that many

Thesun-I’m not sure really! I remember a lot of veg being stored outside and a lot of chopping Christmas eve. We had a double over and i think the turkey was in v early in the morning and out in time to do the rest.

The highlight (sort of) of Christmas morning was dad taking the living room door out to make more space . I still ask him to do it now if I’m at home as It doesn’t seem like Christmas unless he’s taken the door off

Space wise-the elderly ones would stay in the living room, the kids would play around them or in bedrooms, mum and aunts in the kitchen, dad probably smoking in the garden .
We had a big table and drafted in garden chairs etc. I think we might have added the patio table once the kids grew!

Headspace-I honestly don’t know how my mum did it. I struggle with 8!

Something would always be forgotten and left in the kitchen

24 for lunch and another 6 in the evening , pretty standard in our family so I'm used to it now.

Sorry-posted too soon-the forgotten item also became a bit of a tradition and it would be a game to be the first one to spot what was missing!
I really loved our Christmases. In fact I must thank my mum for making them so great for us when I now realise what a mammoth task it must have been

Leedsmom, sounds like so much fun, very funny about your dad and the door traditional 😁 Your mum was indeed a star!

I catered for 26 one year.

Everyone was more than willing to chip in and my kitchen ran like a conveyor belt, I had a list on the cupboard with things in the order that needed to be done.
Once the person has finished their task, they shouted the next and someone else went in.
It turned into a drinking game with straws being pulled, people being tagged, people hiding & being carried to the kitchen. All sorts.
Took 5 hours to make the sodding dinner, but it was so much fun.

Same for tidying up too.

Board games are the best the more people you have as well.
Everyone stayed over that night so, once the kids were sleeping, the shots, jelly shots, cocktails.. came out and the drinking games and dancing started.
Absolutely fantastic. Was honestly one of the best Christmas days ever.

Doing it again this year (although by angel of a MIL us hosting) and I'm so excited!

My ex had a massive family. We only went once for Xmas Day and there were 30 people. I hated it. I have never had more than 3🤣

I'm in awe at some of these numbers! The most I've cooked for is six and even then I was stressing about oven space.

How do you cook enough roast potatoes?!

It does sound tremendously good fun though if everyone chips in.

Mil used to do it for twelve and I still can't work out how she did it. She had the tiniest kitchen ever.

I can't imagine knowing that many people to invite! Most I've been to is 7 and that felt busy.

I had 12 people in the house for a week last year. I grew up with big Christmasses and the key to cooking for that many is a) multiple courses - last year we had a soup course and a starter course, both preprepared b) millions of different veg with your bird, all chopped the day before and stored under water in a room with no heating if short of fridge space, we had 2 kinds of potatoes, boiled sprouts and peas, and mashed swede, red cabbage, roasted parsnips, carrots and onions last year c) two slow cookers (one for the soup, one for the pudding, means they don't need careful watching) d) lots of baking preprepared in Nov and frozen e) someone else cooking for the hordes on Christmas Eve (MILs job!) f) multiple pudding options g) lots of alcohol h) high organisation for the main course with multiple helpers to make sure everyone gets hot food i) warmed plates j) multiple ovens, I used all the ovens and all the rings on my range last year and the slow cookers k) most important, a list with all the timings worked out so you know at e.g. 1.45 I take the bird out to rest and put the chipolatas in to cook.

All these Christmas stories have made me feel really festive

@ very random but it wasn’t in a town in Yorkshire beginning with H was it? Sounds VERY familiar!

We are 19 every other year for Christmas. It’s brilliant fun, if a lot of peeling!

Sorry- that should have been @longtompot!

We had 18 one year when I was a child and my mum said never again.

We are going to my Aunt's the weekend before christmas and we will be 20. No dogs tho

I hosted 12 a few years ago, for my first ever Christmas dinner attempt! Hadn't even cooked a full roast before felt like a huge challenge at the time but I was very proud of how it went Any more than 12 and it would have finished me off. Honestly can't imagine cooking for 18