Help! Best tips for hosting a LARGE Christmas with many overnight guests

[LuellaPilkington]

My turn to host Christmas this year- in total there will be 18/19 of us. All family who live quite far away so everyone will also stay for ca 3 nights. Some will stay for 5 and elderly parents a little longer. In total we are one set of elderly parents, 4 middle aged couples with teenage and pre teen kids plus one toddler.

I’d be grateful for ideas on what to buy in, tips to prepare and any potential things that are easy to forget when hosting so many. I’m planning on a traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings.

Where to begin?!

Can you get a few basic stand alone coat racks (ikea or second hand). Then put in some bedrooms ie old relatives so they have somewhere to hang coats and cardigans. And your hallway isn’t overrun with 40 coats and jumpers hung up.

Also maybe a few baskets in each bedroom for people to use to unpack basics, or simple clothes rail also.

splendour is a good game for teenagers or even old people. I think it’s 4-6 people
max, but you can pair up if you wanted. But it’s relatively fast and game rules easy. Good for small group to play anyway as not everyone wants to play games.

Get a full house clean booked for before and after, and a washing and ironing service for all the bedding and towels.

Order in as much pre prepared food as possible, Cook are great for this, as well as M&S and Waitrose.

Costco is fab for bulk buying. And agree with a pp - get people to bring/order things to the house if that's at all possible.

Tell people where they are sleeping so you don't have to discuss it when everyone arrives.

Agree with self serve meals and 'help yourself to tea' as much as possible.

Plate-warmer and buffet food warmer might come in handy when feeding that amount of people. And slow cooker (or two) meals may work well for some of the other nights.

Sounds fun op, I like having a full house (for a few days ).

I would consider paying the teenagers to serve teas and coffees and nibbles and to so some of the harder grunt work like peeling potatoes.

Or bribe them at least!

Let people know you have good running routes, where the local gym is that they can pay as you go etc. Lots of people keep exercising at Xmas and if they are showering at the gym or pool it's one less shower for your hot water tank to deal with.

My tip would be to put them all in a Premier Inn!

Cook your potatoes and veg the day before. The oven is then free for the meat. You can reheat the potatoes and veg in the oven whilst the meat rests under foil.

We used to host massive parties. I bought some cheap tea light food warmers and left the guests to serve themselves. All of our plates, cutlery, glasses etc came from ikea. I didn’t bother with specific wine glasses. We all drank from smallish glasses.

Have a set menu. Ensure parents bring extra food for fussy eating kids in case they don’t like your food (hopefully you will be able to offer something they like) and do accommodate dietary requirements etc. Stock up on easy food. You don’t have to go all out on buffets every day. Pizza / picky bits for lunch with bags of carrot sticks / lettuce and a cheese platter. Easy to make pasta salads with quiche. With the pasta salad, I’d do the protein in advance and chuck it in with the some easy veg - Sweetcorn plus other salad veg etc. And always offer bread.

You’ll need approx 4 sets of condiments for that number of people. Buy bottles of water for the table and set them out with bottles of squash or those concentrated squeezy things so the parents can make them up for the kids sat down. Buy lots of wine. One year when I did a December party, I bought cases of beaujolais nouveau cheaply. If your family likes a drink, consider making a bulk cocktail, which can be made up in advance.

Offer a simple breakfast, buffet style. Lunch some days will be yesterday’s leftovers. Things like boiled potatoes for lunch can be eaten cold along with left over turkey.

Ah just saw your update that people are flying in which case they eont be bringing extra glasses or plates!

OP on your question about preparing a large batch of roast potatoes- just peel, rinse the starch off, blot dry, oil and season them up and put them in the oven for an hour. Unless you are aiming for a Michelin star I’d not bother to par boil first for that quantity. You’ll probably be doing 4 oven trays worth. Do them in batches then put them all in an ovenproof serving dish (takes up less space) and pop back in the oven to warm up for 20 mins along with whatever is in the oven for the final shift.

start the potatoes off in a deep fat fryer -or an air fryer
it will seal them and you don’t get masses of steam cooling off the oven

Lidl goose fat frozen roast potatoes.
Stock up with lots of Part baked bread- lasts ages and so useful for brightening up lunches and soups.

Allow longer for food to cook as the amounts will be bigger.

Use slow cookers- for keeping things warm as well as cooking.

Cook ahead and freeze stuffing balls, pigs in blankets etc.
When the turkey comes out to rest, the frozen goodies go in in batches. Potatoes last so they stay crisp at serving.

Cold starter- salmon, rocket, melon or tomatoes/mozzarella/basil, pate and Melba toast or something.

Plan the meals and start cooking and freezing now- lasagne etc.

Get things out the day before to defrost. Large volumes take an age both to defrost and to cook from frozen!

Use the back doorstep as a fridge extension. Good for drinks, but also arrange some big plastic boxes for cheese, salad etc.

Meal suggestion- cook a big ham for serving cold after Christmas. Do frozen pea and ham stock soup with part baked bread for Christmas Eve. So fast and easy, light in readiness for Christmas.

Go for convenience on Christmas Day, as you want to join in more.

Set up a drink station and nominate a family member to do it, keep randoms out of the kitchen.

No advice, but had to post because I can't believe someone has suggest putting the teenagers in a tent in the garden. That will be perishing in December and, no, hot water bottles won't make it cosy.

I'd only do that if I wanted to kill a few off - I suppose it would make the hosting easier.

If you have the freezer space then you can prepare and freeze part cooked.
Some Mary Berry instructions here. You don't have to use goose fat

https://www.maryberry.co.uk/recipes/christmas/roast-potatoes

I only learned about resting the turkey a few years ago, and Gordon Ramsey says it can test for as long as it cooks. Which is loads of time to get everything else cooked. I just make sure that the roasties are the last thing because everything else can be kept warm. Do you have oven trays (the kind that slide onto the rails) ? It might be worth ordering an extra one as they maximise the cooking space. A couple of trayfuls of roasties should do it.

heating
Your house is going to be hotter with so many people in it. What you don’t want is people throwing the doors open to cool down and with the current cost of heating. Ours is easily adjusted on an app now, but if yours is the kind where you need to turn down each radiator manually, add a reminder to the phone to do that. In the evenings, I pull the curtains and leave the bedroom doors open to let the heat drift up. That might be trickier with guests where you’re trying to respect their privacy, so you might want to put heating on upstairs to take the chill off.

food
I’ve learned to shamelessly simplify everything when I host - the work load expands and it’s harder to do the quick tidy ups and hoover when there’s so many people around. So simplify other areas. Lots of self service breakfasts, sandwich buffet for lunch (by which I mean pull the condiments and cold meats out of the fridge and let people make their own sandwiches), or heat up some cartons of soup and bread rolls if timings are unpredictable.

Years ago I felt that cooking everything from scratch was important and hospitable but it just makes it more difficult to accomodate people wanting a hot drink out of turn, the starving teen who needs a snack, or the toddler. When people don’t feel like they’re getting in your way or causing stress, they feel welcome and relaxed.

Expect to run the dishwasher more often and stock up on tabs accordingly . I find leaving it open encourages most people to put their dishes in. And as a general rule the clearer you make your expectations the easier it is on everyone.

The suggestion that everyone bring bedding and towels is very sensible. But get caught up on your own laundry before the guests come and keep on top by doing a load every day.

We’ve had Christmases like this.

Bedding all went to the laundrette after so they sorted it out.

Get as much ready prepared stuff as possible eg snacks, cereals, etc

Have loads of paper plates, plastic cups so that you don’t need to use dishwasher for copious drinks & snacking.

Lots of prepared stuff for Christmas dinner (M&S have good roast potatoes) with adults being assigned a job of preparing something.

One of those food warmer/serving things.

The only difference was a 5min walk to the high street so someone would get croissants or bagels etc first thing & the park is 3 min so get a walk in/playground for kids/play outdoor games.

Indoor games - can play in teams eg families &/or have separate games for kids. Lots of streaming services (didn’t have these as a dc so lots of dvds!)

'it's our turn to host'

I'm just amazed that there's multiple people in your family able to host 18+ comfortably!

Do you live in the Home Alone house??

We did have an additional large fridge & separate freezer just for xmas but may not be practical for you, helps though!

And everyone pitched in, taking turns to make tea etc, get tons of teabags & find all your teapots!

Can you get a few basic stand alone coat racks (ikea or second hand). Then put in some bedrooms ie old relatives so they have somewhere to hang coats and cardigans. And your hallway isn’t overrun with 40 coats and jumpers hung up.

good idea

& defo get the cleaners in if possible

@WiffleBallBat

I'm just amazed that there's multiple people in your family able to host 18+ comfortably!

In our example every family had a bedroom so adults in the bed/beds & dc on fold outs/mattresses. We’d move in with parents & sometimes all the kids would “camp” in the lounge, it was so much fun!

https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/mulig-clothes-rack-white-60179434/

These clothes rails are super basic, but a bargain at £9 if you buy a few. Can use elsewhere in house or take apart and store for future gatherings after.

Game - Beat That is a great one for all the family to join in with. It’s currently reduced on Amazon.

Don’t forget cheap extra door/floor mats that can be washed for all the inevitable wet / muddy shoes. We have extra cotton rag rugs for this that get replaced throughout the visit and all washed after everyone is gone so no extra laundry while guests are there in case they need to wash the odd item. Rest of the year they are used for laying in grass for sunbathing etc

Make teens do repetitive hard work cooking tasks like peeling potatoes or whipping cream by making it a competition. 2 teams, 2kg of spuds each, first time to finish wins. Or 2 teams, two bowls of cream/egg whites to whip.
Don’t over think it, just ambush the teens in their den and tell them they’re doing it. They will do it quicker if it’s a game, but they know they’re just helping really.
Or get them to do the tea and coffee orders (maybe in pairs?) like waiters in a cafe. Little note pad+ pen. Aprons if you have them - it’ll encourage them to put on the role. Tell them it’s work expensive and consider bribing them. - eg. Offer them nice hot chocolate + marshmallows but they have to do the tea+coffee round first.
Actually aprons might work for encouraging adults to help too -if someone says ´can I do anything?’ And you say yes, here’s an apron, could you wash all the mugs - they will stick around until the end of the washing up and won’t delegate the task to their own teenager :)
If you don’t already have eleventy million tea towels you might want some more. Buy them now so they have time to get softer and absorbant.

If you have a bbq make one meal (easier at lunch light wise) bbq’d meat (could just be sausages) + easy sides (mashed potato + peas, or bread and bbq vegetable skewers). If it’s a bbq someone else (probably a man who doesn’t do the majority of cooking at home) will happily volunteer to man it.

We usually have 11 between Christmas and new year. Prep as much as you can . Simple lasagne garlic bread and salad on first night so that is already made (freeze) then you are doing big Christmas dinner , roasties can par boil then store in fridge , so can do in couple of batches , I think you can even roast them and freeze them to just heat up which would be ideal but I've not done it. Buy nice turkey gravy , can add juices to it but takes pressure off (and can't skimp on gravy or roasties)
Cook a ham , massive cheeseboard get coleslaw condiments chutneys masses of bread and crackers then don't plan to cook again . When the leftovers are gone get a takeaway or book pub meal for last night before they go
If any of kids are fussy, if they can't bring food then get someone to run them to shops on day 1 and get what they eat.
Bring own towels is ideal (maybe not the oldies)

Hire a tea urn and the first person who gets up in the morning is tasked with filling it up and switching it on. All hot drinks are made there so set up instant coffee, tea bags and sugar.

See if a friend can lend you a caravan. You and your immediate family can sleep in there away from the chaos.

Ask everyone to bring pillows, bedding and towels.

This sounds great - not unlike my ideal Christmas TBH!
couple of game ideas (from our experience of hosting big Xmas)
gingerbread house competition- grab a load from ikea or wherever on offer. Ask Aunty Shirley to judge and uncle derek to set the category, and for the teens to bring their own sweets for decorating. Timed competition of up to 2 hours. We’ve been doing it a few years and the things people do are totally incredible- we’ve had moving parts, and a launch movie and all sorts.
they they serve as snacks if you like

massive game of “heads up” - you can get it as an app so nil prep time

movie day (get beanbags) - pick a franchise and do the whole marathon. Home popped popcorn is v cheap snack. Teens to tidy afterward

outsource the Xmas Eve entertainment entirely - to one of the couples coming that you consider to be competent - let them go nuts with whatever theme they want. Responsible for everything. Suggest they get to lidl for an extremely easy selection of Christmas market type stuff. In our family Xmas Eve also means stories, so can be nice for people to read out Xmas stories on this night

toddler is the rogue element here tbh - how old is toddler? Get super cheap artificial tree and plastic baubles. Let them decorate it, encourage them to take in and off and do multiple times.
there’s the classic sticky back plastic tree activity, etc. Have a look at happy toddler play time - or better yet encourage toddlers parents and/or an enthusiastic teen to have a look. If the toddler parents can make use of giant family gathering to get their child watches for a bit they might be able to claw time back to help
you or wrap gifts or whatever it is

finally on actual Xmas day itself with this number of people gifts can get really really overwhelming- you might like to put in a limit or a condition to stop it being too much. Main concern also is for the toddler here. If everyone is buying them a gift they might find it all too much. Chat with their parents about what they want

have a great time!