Christmas Eve buffet

[CandyFloss35]

After reading a thread yesterday about Christmas Eve nibbles and what people are expecting I’ve started to second guess my food choices. On Christmas Eve there will be 8 people total at mine from 5pm, 5 of those are household members and 3 guests. For easy I decided a selection of help yourself items was the best way to go so I wasn’t tided to the kitchen all afternoon/evening. Please check over my list and tell me if it’s enough, what’s missing etc, thanks.

x2 extra large pizza counter pizzas
x2 quiches
ham joint
chicken drumsticks
chicken nuggets
pork pies
sausage rolls
coleslaw
potato salad
pasta salad
mixed salad
vine cherry tomatoes
veg sticks with dips
grapes
strawberries
french stick and butter
bread sticks
cheese twist crackers
crisps
peanuts

mince pies
cheese cake
chocolate brownie Christmas trees

I think that's far too much and too much trouble when you will probably prepping for the Christmas dinner.

For me, it would pizza OR quiche, chicken drumsticks OR chicken nuggets. etc. In our house, we love smoked salmon with black pepper and lemon juice on wheaten bread, and baked camembert with cranberry sauce or a chutney. M&S do a gorgeous camembert with chilli sauce. I'd also serve chips/Doritos/crudities and dips. Buy a ready-made salad and put a nice French dressing on it (M&S do a nice one). Would also have some supermarket party food - used to always have M&S but they're so expensive now, I wouldn't spend the money on them. Some of them are £7.50 each so even though they are 4 for 3, you're still talking £21.50 for a very small amount of food! Pate/cheese with crackers. Sausage rolls/cocktail sausages.

Definitely wouldn't do the ham, unless you are doing a super-large one to do for Christmas day dinner too, and will be cooking it Christmas Eve.

Sounds good to me

Sounds yummy! Nothing worse than there never being enough food. You will have left overs but that's fine for Christmas Day eve, Boxing Day etc.

It does seem like a lot of food but then I think I would prefer that to some of the other suggestions. I always over cater but things do get eaten. If the point is that this sits out and people generally mil around and pick at bits at their leisure I think it will
work well.

I don’t really understand the comment about not being up for a large Christmas dinner after this. What I eat on one day makes little difference to be appetite the day after. I am clearly a massive pig

Eh? Don’t most people eat every day? Then you go to sleep and wake up hungry and have breakfast, then another meal a new hours later, and another a few hours after that. Another sleep then you start again. You don’t fill up on a buffet and go into hibernation for the rest of winter.

Sounds fine to me. If I was doing a buffet I'd do similar but also some twiglets and bhajis/pakoras/samosas for something a bit spicy but that's personal preference. You can always have any leftovers on Xmas for an easy buffet tea🤷‍♀️

Gosh I didn't know buffets were a thing. I always make salmon in pastry parcels and a jelly.

Sounds amazing! I’m happy to come if youve got any spare!

Just the ham with bread and salad plus olives, crisps and hummus etc

That’s not a buffet, that’s a ham sandwich meal deal.

Christmas Eve is a prep day here so we tend to make a soup and have with crusty bread. Don’t normally entertain as too tired after all the peeling and chopping and gift wrapping.

@pelargoniums who wants to stuff themselves before Christmas Day?

Get rid of the strawberries and grapes with all the other salad items but the keep the rest. Sounds delicious I love a good selection!

Strawberries defo have no place at Christmas!

Sounds like my kind of buffet!

Looks perfect. You certainly don't need any more food, but the stuff you've bought sound lovely.

I'm jealous, can I come?

I think that does sound like a lot - but it also sounds lovely!

I would personally ditch the chicken drumsticks and the pasta salad, usually because I think they're usually the ones left hanging about afterwards.

I love buffets and we often do similar - I don't personally find Christmas lunch that exciting.Tasty yes - but where's the novelty in a roast? Pigs in blankets and stuffing are the only standouts for me🤣

Who said anything about stuffing oneself? You don’t have to pick at gruel to leave room for a meal that’s happening the next day. Food gets eaten then a few hours later you get hungry again, that’s how it works.

On Christmas Eve we usually have an Italian seafood dinner with starters and pudding; at breakfast on Christmas Day a homemade cinnamon chocolate bread wreath, then brunch with scrambled eggs and smoked salmon, then Christmas dinner mid-afternoon. Christmas evening and Boxing Day we segue into more of a “few gherkins and cheese and crackers on a plate” type meals, replete. But a decent spread on Christmas Eve hardly precludes one from eating Christmas dinner too. (Unless you’re my MIL, who once sat in a pub with a face like a slapped bum because her single bowl of chips was “too large”.)

Sounds excellent, especially keeping in all of the veg sticks/salad/fruit. And the cheesecake, of course!

Well i think this sounds perfect OP. If your lot are anything like mine they will be going back for seconds etc. Plus at least it saves you having to makemore food if not enough. Enjoy!🥂

I'm having:

Quiche lorraine.
Baked salmon.
Prawns.
Roast beef (if I can find one on special offer).
Potato salad.
Rice salad.
Honey and soy chipolatas or chipolatas with onions and cranberries.
Sliced bagette.
Nuts and crisps.
Baileys cheesecake.
Shortbread.

Christmas Eve for 8 people.

Most of it is homemade, so a bigger quiche and cheesecake than a shop bought one.

On standby:

Cheese and crackers.
Smoked salmon.
Cured meats.

I don't think it's too much op, as long as you have the opportunity to eat what's left. I like eating the leftovers from a party.

It's our only day to get together, so I don't mind having a bit of a blow out. Christmas Day is just the two of us, funeral on Wednesday and a quiet New Year.

Looks lovely! joining the queue here to go to yours on Xmas eve

@pelargoniums a nice ham, with a decent salad, bread etc is hardly gruel.
If I ate your Christmas Day menu I wouldn’t enjoy it. We have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast around 9 am then Christmas dinner at about 3pm. There are always cheeses later in but usually everyone is too full.

I'm doing a buffet for 10 adults for lunch Christmas eve.
This is my list.
Crusty bread
Cheeses
Sausage rolls
Veggie rolls
Cold ham
Veg Samosas
Coleslaw
Salad Bowl
Roasted peppers and chestnuts
Chutneys
Quiche

Key Lime pie
Choc cheesecake
Plum bread

I'd go for something like this.