Festive but extremely quick and easy Christmas lunch ideas

[LazyCrazyAndStupid]

Have at the last minute invited some friends for Christmas day for lunch. I'm a lousy cook and also have two very young children so very little time to prepare anything. I'd still like to dish up something tasty and special. Any ideas? I'm a vegetarian so have got no idea how to cook meat but wouldn't mind offering meat dishes for our friends.

I'm also happy (in fact very, very happy) to use ready made food or any short cuts if anyone can recommend anything but nothing insanely expensive, please.

Haha no. It's the prepared puff pastry that I can't "make". It always becomes soggy though I'm loving the idea that maybe it has always been the oven's fault!!

Though on second thoughts I'd value a working oven more at the moment than my ego.

I wouldn’t be stressing trying to do a roast dinner if you find it that challenging honestly, you want to enjoy your Christmas Day too!

I’d go for a buffet type affair - do your roast veg (maybe with some pasta and feta?), roast some baby potatoes with garlic and Rosemary, a couple of salads (buy pre prepared with a nice dressing), part bake baguettes, selection of the different party food type offerings from whatever supermarket you use, couple of ready made pizzas for the kids if all else fails. Cheese, crackers, pickles. You could do it all veggie or add in some smoked salmon, prawns, maybe cooked sliced meats from deli counter or some pate.

That way you’re not worrying about timings so much or what goes with what, people can serve themselves and choose what combinations they’d like.

Dot around some bowls of quality street or other chocolate, offer a choice of (bought) desserts and mince pies once the savoury stuff has gone down.

Really thank you so much for your help everyone. Lots of great ideas here and I'll probably steal one of the full meal suggestions!!

Most supermarkets have their own brands, they are all very similar really, if you just stick to anything with the supermarket brand on. Aldi’s is the specially selected, but honestly, there is so much around at the moment almost any will do.

Just follow the classic meat and 2 veg rule and you can’t go wrong. Although I always think it’s strange when it says 2 veg as for me it’s meat, potatoes and 2 veg.

Pick your main ingredient (meat or veg option) roast potatoes and any 2 other veg. Serve gravy and a a few other sauces and condiments and everyone will be happy.

Buy a ready made desert, roulade, cheese cake… anything really. Again there are loads of ready made Christmas deserts around. The Baileys Christmas log in ASDA looked pretty appetising today.

Hope it goes well.

If the oven’s suspect, have you thought of a BBQ? Be different.
Men always love to cook on them.

We’ve invited the whole family round for pizzas in the Ooni + salads + baked potatoes after CD. (For the CD meal we’ve ditched the turkey and gammon for fillet steak. Hopefully this will be the same next year.)

Haha no I hate BBQs and I love the microwave!!!

What's ooni? I think, we'll definitely keep pizza in the freezer just in case. Everyone will probably stay for dinner as well as they are coming from slightly further away.

Do you have a combi microwave? Is that a way round the oven problem?

Kids coming too? This sounds better and better! By table bling I just mean a bit of glitter or some pinecones, maybe an elf resting by a candle.

Ooni

Do you guys have any other ideas to make it more festive apart from the food (and presents)? I'll get Christmas crackers, the house is moderately christmassy decorated and we've got board games but is there anything else people do? Especially with kids?

I looked it up. Stone baked pizza in 60s. I'm very impressed!!

My kids would love that. In fact I could ask the older one to decorate the table.

I would just do this. People can eat what they please.

Don't try to cook meat or poultry.

Mac & cheese could be nice but I'd rather have charcuterie, olives, pickles, bread, cheese, crudités. Just make sure there's a lot.

Pizza, salad and tons of fizz (coke for the kids) wouldn't be as bad as you think and more fail-safe. With fancy pudding. And olives/antipasti tyoe food. Maybe prawn cocktail.

Also a jacket potato bar with lots of toppings could be fun and easy, and warm on a cold day.

Just be ultra creative and generous with the toppings and keep the potatoes coming. Crudite or salad or a slow cooker french onion soup on the side, plus champagne. And sautéed mushrooms. Yum.

Find a Christmas playlist on YouTube and have it playing at low level. There are instrumental jazz versions on YouTube among many others.

Have hot chocolate.

Hot chocolate sounds brilliant!!!

My answer to everything is beef stew. Borrow a slow cooker and look up one of Delia or Mary Berry's recipes. If you buy the right meat (should be specified in the recipe) and cook it low and slow, you can't go wrong. You can even cook it a few days in advance as the flavour will improve and you can just reheat it when you need it. Serve with some nice mash, or potato gratin, and some nice roasted veg.

How old are the kids? Colouring table clothes or placements are great.

You sound lovely and so do your guests! Honestly, I think I'd definitely go with the buffet idea. The bit that stresses me out most is getting everything ready at the same time, so a mostly cold buffet is ideal. It also means you're not panicking about things being undercooked. Aldi have some absolutely lovely stuff, and tesco's party food is really nice too. Oh, and a cheeseboard always goes down well, with minimum effort.

It sounds like you'll have a lovely day. With decoration, I'd probably go for candles and a bit of greenery on the table. Fairy lights always make everything a bit more magical too, I think 🥰

My kids are 3 & 5 and the others are teenagers so probably too old for colouring placemats.

If you think people are staying for dinner too, it would not be amiss to

A) just have an all day festive grazing buffet

B) have pizza

C) ask people to bring their "specialty dish" or some cheese or something

I would ask the other guests for suggestions as they best know what their kids and they will eat. Even if you offer to buy the meat yourself, surely the meat eaters would be happy to help with cooking timings if they know you don't eat meat?

Crab omelette (or quiches/mini quiches);

Green salad with fancy greens, mandarin orange segments, pomegranate seeds; slivered almonds, goat cheese or crumbled feta, lemon juice, s&p, and evoo for dressing;

roasted potatoes with dollop sour cream and chopped dill;
sparkling wirh