Ordering Xmas food?

[Minibea]

What are people doing about ordering food for Christmas Day in light of current restrictions? If we’re allowed there’ll be 6 adults and 3yo DD and we’ll be at my house. I’ll be 7.5months pregnant at Xmas so was hoping to do the bulk of the shopping/ordering/prepping in advance but now I don’t know whether we’ll need a decent sized turkey or a average size chicken 😂

If there’s just me, DH and DD we’ll probably have roast duck which I guess I can buy now and freeze but what happens if there’s 7 of us? Can you get turkeys last minute? We usually order the meat from our local butcher then queue to collect it all on Xmas eve. Don’t want to order it and waste it but equally don’t want us all sharing a duck!

What is everyone else doing?

Just planning on our household so shopping based on that.

January will be awful if lots of indoor mixing goes on so we won’t add to that.

We’ve got a turkey joint in the freezer to feed 8. Either it will feed 8 - or it will feed 4 of us with lots of leftovers (DC have requested turkey tacos).

Buy a decent sized turkey and freeze the leftovers in 8-oz portions for curry.

That's what we do normally

We have ordered from waitrose the prepped food. It comes in protions big enough to feed us and inlaws if they are allowed to come. Technically, seems as we couldn't get smaller portions, we will have to buy the same amoung either way so either enough to share or lots of leftovers!

what abut getting a ham as well as the duck, both can be frozen and the ham is there if you need it

I had done a food order with Sainsbury's for the 23rd December but obviously reading the news leading up to announcement of 2nd lockdown I decided to cancel it and went into store and bought a frozen turkey and a packet of pigs in blankets to keep in the freezer. I was worried about if there was any problems with suppliers etc and also if we were on lockdown and coronavirus figures are worse in December I didn't want to be going into a very busy supermarket 2 days before Christmas.
I know Christmas is always really busy obviously but now we have Coronavirus to deal with I just don't want to. I fall into the bracket of people that would likely get very sick if I was to catch it so am trying to lesser my chances so to speak.

I planned do Christmas with my DSis, and our mum (who are in a bubble). We decided that we should buy separately and combine for Christmas if we can.
But it would be easier to have separate orders rather than one big order.

Buy/order meat etc and it can be frozen if not needed. Extra veg can just be used or made into soup etc and you can never have enough pigs in blankets anyway.

Could you try coordinate with your potential extra guests so that they get some stuff in too? That way they can bring it to yours if it's allowed and if they don't get to come over they are sorted too.

I'm clearing the freezer out at the moment and I'm putting together some menus that can have the main ingredients frozen - spare turkey crown, beef fillet, seafood etc. so I have several back up meals suitable for small gatherings.Then order fresh as usual for us.

I like your optimism OP but restrictions would need to be reduced several times over for the numbers you’re talking about to be permitted, the likelihood is very low. But agree with others a good option may be to coordinate with your other family so you are separately prepped

I think it’s very unlikely that we will be allowed more than 6 people and 2 households together for Christmas. We are planning Christmas alone (me and 2dc’s). We won’t be bothering with a Turkey, will just get a large chicken. Christmas dinner is just a fancy Sunday roast anyway? We have a take away Christmas Eve and Boxing Day the dc’s go to their dads so we don’t buy loads of food.

It'll just be the 4 of us this Christmas, no plans for more incase there are more restrictions but we're still buying a lot of meat. Turkey, beef, ham. We just freeze any leftovers.

If there are restrictions there will only be dh, ds and me. How many more will depend on the restrictions. I've ordered a M&S turkey breast that does 6-8 (more realistically 5). I'll also buy a ham. If we have more people I'll use the turkey and ham on Christmas day. If they aren't eased it will be turkey on the day with leftovers and I'll keep the ham for boxing day.

Right so I’ve ordered a stuffed turkey crown from M&S which should feed 6-8. If there’s only three of us there will be a nice amount of leftovers and if there’s the full family then we can maybe do the duck too, add pigs in blankets etc so there’s a bit of variety and plenty of food. I’m hoping by the cut-off time to edit the order we’ll know a bit more about what’s happening and if there’s just the three of us I may order sides ready made from M&S to keep it easy. If we can all be together then the prep of sides can be shared out between the three families! Thanks all 😊

I’ve ordered the duck to collect from Sainsbury’s on 23rd but also already have a whole salmon and a gammon in the freezer. Also have pigs in blankets in there too!
I managed to get my hands on tempura prawns last week food shopping and both dd’s love these so bought a couple of boxes along with a box of spring rolls and some frozen churros and macarons so if we cant collect the duck or get out for more then we have got food in for a filling (if albeit interesting) Christmas dinner

I’m getting stuff to freeze main Christmas shop will be Christmas Eve for luxury stuff.