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?!

Messy stuff like a gingerbread house competition is quick to clean up if everyone or even half of everyone helps. Think primary school teacher after art class. Build the clean up time into the competition - so maybe have a 30min timer for the competition. Then one team sort any rubbish/recylcling and put away any unused sweets. One team wipe up the table and put all dirty spoons/plates in the dishwasher. One team hoover or sweep the floor. Then you get the oldest or youngest family member (or whoever you like) to judge the houses.

Also if some of the teens are yours, put them in charge of an activity/game each

If you have a console and a good quick classic multi round game like mario carts or super smash bros then you could have a tournament. Put the 2 biggest gamers in charge.

The person who said contribution of £20 has clearly never hosted large numbers! I only have about 6-8 for almost a week but they contribute a heck of a lot more than that. I'm always the host and it costs a fortune so happily accept. In an ideal world I would love to treat everyone but just not possible sadly .

Count how many dining chairs you have, and beg, borrow or steal some from neighbours if necessary. Work out things like cutlery, dishes, plates, crackers, and all that jazz well in advance.

It is industrial catering on that scale, so nobody is going to expect haute cuisine. Mobilise everybody into spud bashing and peeling veg, and the job gets done far quicker. You will need about a gallon of gravy and a hundred pigs in blankets. 😂

Agree £20 is fairly low if you need an actual contribution. We spend around £120 a week on 2 adults, 1 toddler on a normal week on groceries. Say £40 each. At Christmas it’s more indulgent food, op probably providing more choose, alcoholic or soft drinks, plus extra non food items.

I think for someone willing to host me for Xmas, getting most food if guests flying in, and providing 3-5 days of stuff. Plus buying extra stuff like games/ blow up beds, I would hope most people offer more like £50+ per head. ( or they talk to op and pay for say food delivery of xyz beforehand)

Have cooked for 16 over Christmas and had 10 to stay

Batch cooked potatoes and then in the bottom of the oven in steel trays to keep warm.

I have one of these

www.tjhughes.co.uk/products/lewiss-buffet-server?variant=41488533029029&gclid=Cj0KCQjw-pyqBhDmARIsAKd9XINt7vu2Kr8x7BJVX4XdrlfdVvM6nLeqLUfhDaWMSQDWXcbRNDTgIwsaAigMEALw_wcB

Which helps with keeping all the vegetables warm.. I have platters that I serve veg on etc and it helps to keep topping up.

Special goodbye breakfast brioche loaf French toast, bacon, blueberry and maple syrup on a help yourself basis

Last year on top of our normal household of 5, we had 5 guests for 6 days and 4 extra guests for Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Total cost for the whole period for food and drink was around £1300 and we aren't a very boozy family.

The most expensive bit was when we decided to have a buffet of M&S party food. Big mistake. For those numbers the cost was absurd. This year we will buy a few party bits but focus more on sausages, baked potatoes, sandwiches and cheeses.

£20pp won't even touch the sides but it's better than nothing.

Buy a chest freezer Get bags of frozen croissants, pain au chocolat, crumpets, frozen berries etc. for buffet breakfast. Variety of cereals. French toast can be made in advance and frozen, then just needs to be reheated.

Christmas dinner - buy as much prepared as you can. Potatoes, if you can't par boil and freeze in advance, just get a veg prep team in the kitchen on Christmas Eve. Sit things in pots of cold water if you need to. Buy a pre-cooked ham for a Boxing Day buffet. Nigella does a fab macaroni cheese recipe that can be made in advance and frozen and feeds millions. Also, red cabbage can be made in advance and frozen.

Get the teens to make a festive rocky road on Christmas Eve for dessert.

Agree with pp that turkey can rest while you cook everything else. In our house it's turkey out, potatoes in, and all other timings flow from that.

Buy lots of cheese and snacks.

Itsu noodle pots are a step up from pot noodles for lunches/snacks for teens.

Most importantly - have a plan - who's doing what and when. Delegate as much as you can. Guests offering to help/pay etc.? Send them out for booze, snacks, ask them to take charge of breakfast etc. or do the washing up.

Games - articulate is good for a group.

Oh I know full well it costs far more than 20pounds a head to host Christmas over 3 days. About triple or quadruple that would be a good start.
But OP wasn’t sure she should ask at all.
Asking for a small contribution may well lead those families who aren’t in financial difficulties to add more to the pot. And also they are all paying to get to OPs house, so she’s planning on her family contributing a higher proportion of the food costs anyway.
If there are 5 families of three or four coming plus OP’s lot and the other five put 500pounds all up in the kitty, it will make a nice little dent in the food costs.

Boxing Day:
make a pie with leftovers - turkey, sausage, stuffing, chopped up veg, bread sauce etc (i leave out red cabbage and cranberry sauce). Mix in a white sauce (you could buy jars ready made to save you making it) and top with shop bought puff pastry sheets

Alternatively if you don't have any leftovers but turkey, make coronation turkey to go with baked potatoes.

I know already mentioned but will repeat - milk is something we always went through, so many cuppas, cereal, sauces.

Have some storecupboard meals in mind eg tuna & sweetcorn pasta bake.

Definitely have at least one takeaway and meal out.

As you have fridge space, cheese, pate, pork pies, chutney make for an easy but lovely lunch/tea. Buy a load part baked baguettes. I can recommend Tesco multigrain with sourdough, and obviously crackers.

Crumpets and tea cakes can be used for breakfast or if anyone needs something between meals.

If it were me, I'd welcome the escape to a supermarket to top up after Christmas and sit and have a quiet cuppa in the supermarket cafe!

I do family trips with this sized group. You need a regular food slot booked and somewhere for people to write anything that's run out. We do each family is responsible (shopping and cooking) for one evening meal and breakfast and lunch are help yourself

Depending on your coal sheds out buildings, You could use hard sided coolers like you take for picnics / bbq for storing cheeses / pies extra milk. Friends could lend you their cool boxes to help? Just stick drinks out there. And a torch for the assigned Barman!

I usually do huge Christmases. My biggest tip is to rent an extra oven or two. They come from catering hire companies and are on wheels - just plug in and go - this makes the cooking on the day so much smoother. Ditto hire plates, cutlery and glasses which for an extra fee can be returned dirty!

I do Christmas for these kind of numbers - key is the food. If everyone is fed they are happy. Having run short of food two years in a row before I wised up my tip would be to buy all the food you think you need then buy about 1/4 again. When you are making that much toast or sandwiches loaves of bread disappear really fast!
Games like reindeer toss are good fun, cheap and multigenerational.

We've frequently done this - I come from a large family and we take it in turns to host.

The best thing we do is take the cooking in turns. So - Sister Elizabeth and DH - on Monday night you are cooking for 18 for the evening meal. Bring your stuff and crack on. Tuesday it's brother Mark and his wife. Etc.

It cuts down on what you're doing. DH doesn't mind whipping up breakfast for folks - or if they are later risers (teens) they can get their own. Lunch I just provide bread and fillings and people make their own sandwich as and when they are hungry.

It's too much otherwise to cook three times a day for this many folks.

googling reindeer toss

So what I have done today thanks to you experts is to add bin bags, loo roll, fairy liquid etc for sundries and also added in a few tins of quality street, biscuits selections, mince pies etc to this weeks order.

I have got a range cooker so hopefully this will work on the basis of making the Turkey(s?) first and then while it/they rest make the potatoes. I’ve ordered pigs in blankets and stuffing ready made.

I’m getting a coffee maker rather than using my pod coffee.

If you don't already have one, get someone to bring a games console for the TV room.

I think you mentioned some of the guests are older - make sure they bring their slippers (especially if you have hard floors not carpet) - nothing worse than chilly feet, especially if guests sat still then want the heating on while you’re sweating running around after them all.

And plan into your timetable to take a family photo - we cherish one family Christmas selfie which we didn’t know at the time was our last with DHs gran.

I agree that can happen.

I'm lucky enough to live in a city with a number of 'sweet centres', samosas can be pre booked and collected, my favorite centre also does all the usual Indian take away curries but cold, you just microwave them or put in the oven.

When my dad calls in on the way to my brother's he is always loaded up with samosas. My brother lives in Cornwall and sweet centres are not a thing there.

I’d make a list of things which need doing each day and put it up somewhere everyone can see it. Then invite people to pick a job and write their name next to it. Otherwise you’ll find that coordinating who does what is a huge task. Teenagers can put out bins, elderly parents can lay the table etc.

If people are asking to contribute I’d say thanks and just ask them to put into your bank what they feel so reasonable.

Could you delegate a few meals in full? If you have food deliveries booked could you share the login details and ask each family to order for example a breakfast, meaning that they decide on pastries, spreads, fruit, whatever and they are responsible for serving it too? It sounded better in my head though...

Kind of related but maybe have a think about how you will separate food destined for meals from food that is fair game for snacky teenagers.

I think it partly depends how happy you are with relinquishing control. You could task someone with ordering a cheeseboard to be delivered, say, as long as you trust their choices. Ditto wine, or cakes or whatever. But only if you're not going to be worrying over whether they've done it or not.

I have done this

It was a nightmare

No one chipped in, they were all fucking pissed on white wine

Bastards

Am I the only one thinking of all the winter bugs in a hot and packed house