Christmas day help. Panicking slightly

[Mumoffursandhumans]

HELP!
As the title says, im in need of help.
Im hosting for 15 so any help in that dept would be awesome. Timings? Shopping lists? Table favours (its normally a scratch card), how to make my house fit, or more importantly, my table fit? Is a pasting table a good idea?
BUT, my main thing is a christmas day outfit. Its normally just us four so new PJs is a go to, but I want to look (and feel) not only my best but the most comfortable and confident me possible. Im a 5'4 size 10-12 on a good day. Not a christmas day 🤣🤣
Please help

I love hosting a Christmas. Prep and peel all your veg day before, cover in water and keep somewhere cool overnight, I use my garage if fridge is full, just make sure in sealed containers. You could go as far as par boil potatoes and toss in chosen fat then chill - straight in oven for roasties on Xmas day. If you have yorkshires make them ahead and freeze them, will re heat in a few mins. Jamie Oliver’s make ahead gravy using chicken wings is fantastic, can make few weeks ahead and freeze.
we bought a food out table and some fold out chairs from Costco, they weren’t expensive but felt sturdier than pasting table.
outfit wise I would avoid jumper / jumper dress as it can get hot whilst in kitchen cooking. My go to is a loose fitting shift / mini dress with a festive twist or colour, maybe some sparkle and black tights to dress it down. I have a gorgeous Eleanor bowmer festive apron to wear whilst cooking looks festive and protects my outfit.

you could ask a couple of guests to bring desert to make things easier or just buy some ready to serve deserts from M&S / sainsburys.
Enjoy x

If you're cooking you're going to need an apron over your Christmas outfit! Make a list of what you need to do or buy.Book delivery as near to Christmas as possible. Check you have enough crockery etc. Paste table is fine, get tablecloth. Get a timing plan. Prepare all veg and set table Christmas eve. Scratch cards are fine. You can buy pre prepped veg.from Cook or M and S.

Meat thermometer
Apricot dress
Delia or Nigella
These chairs
You’ll be fine!

Cook the meat the day before. Do you have 15 table settings?

Make ahead what you can
Guve people certain jobs- so SIL and BIL are on the canapés and cocktails. DH does the dishwasher, DD does place cards and table setting and clearing.

When people offer help- say yes! Perhaps someone can bring a cheese board or arrange a couple of party games. Maybe someone else can do soft drinks/mocktails for the children.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2001/dec/09/foodanddrink.recipes1

I like to follow this Christmas plan from Delia. However I copy it into a spreadsheet and adjust the timings where needed. You have to commit to getting it in the oven early, but with little kids we're done with stocking in plenty of time!

I use my Alexa to set alarms for different things (sausages in/potatoes out sort of thing). Last couple of years I've used my air fryer alongside my oven. Ideal for doing pigs in blankets. I then usually do a Jane's patisserie pavlova wreath for pudding so I can do most of it the day before. Second a previous poster, but yes to a meat thermometer as removes the worry that you'll give everyone food poisoning!

We go to the deli the day before Christmas Eve and buy sliced cooked Turkey/gammon/roast beef.

If you've got freezer space you can prep your vegetables and potatoes way in advance. I peel and chop carrots and parsnips, blanch in boiling water for a couple of minutes and then drain and cool before freezing. They go into the oven to roast from frozen. I blanch sprouts similarly and then freeze. I finish cooking them in a frying pan with butter and pancetta. I par boil potatoes and then roast them for about half the normal cooking time (25-30 minutes). Cool and freeze and then put into fresh hot oil from frozen on Christmas Day. Stuffing and gravy can also be made ahead and frozen.

In terms of timings - decide what time you want to eat and work backwards from there. If you are having turkey then 2 crowns will cook faster than a giant whole turkey.

My top tips would be:

If you are going to be doing a lot of the cooking then you will be in a hot kitchen for hours. Bear that in mind when choosing your Christmas outfit - a big fluffy Christmas jumper is a no-no!

Don't do anything too poncy with the vegetables.

Make and freeze about 100 pigs in blankets in advance. They can be cooked from frozen on the day. You can never have too many PIBs.

Buy Aldi Christmas puddings. Don't bother with fancy ones with great lumps of fruit or weird flavours. Just do the traditional thing.

Nominate someone to be drinks monitor and serving all your guests. That includes them buying all the alcohol and soft drinks as well. They can also be nominated as Battery Purchaser, since they will be going to the shops anyway.

Nominate someone else (senior relative is ideal) to write down lists of who bought which present for the kids, so you have at least some idea of who they need to write thank-you letters to, and what for...

Nominate yet another person to be recycling monitor. There will be huge quantities of wrapping paper, bottles, cans, pulled crackers, empty boxes, you name it. The sheer quantity of rubbish generated on the big day is astounding.

The second you sit down with a plate of dessert in front of you is the moment your job ends. Make it abundantly clear to all present that your job is done, and the clearing of the table and the washing-up will take place and be done by others whilst you put your feet up for the rest of the day.

Pasting table is fine. Just make sure it fits where you want it to go, and that you have enough chairs and a fancy tablecloth.
Personally, I would buy everything in ready to cook trays from one of the supermarkets. Appreciate that that isn't to everyone's taste!
If you can, ask your guests to bring something that will help. Desserts, cheeseboard, pre dinner nibbles, booze.

Majority of my tips have already been mentioned. Long story short but the day after we moved into our house, we hosted 14 so I sympathise/understand!

-Do you have enough cutlery for 15?
-Do you have enough plates, dessert bowls, side plates for 15?
-Enough chairs?
-Prep as much as you can beforehand
-Yes, a pasting table would work with a festive tablecloth over the top.
-Check you have serving dishes, tongs, large spoons and enough other serving utensils
-Consider buying a 2nd hand hostess trolley from ebay/market place locally to keep things/food/plates warm
-After mains, ask someone to help stack the dishwasher and run a cycle. You then have less to stack later in the evening with dessert bowls etc.

Edited to say that when we added the equivalent of a pasting table, we stuck it on the end of our existing table to make a T shape and it worked well.

Also take into account for your timings that things cook much slower in an overcrowded pan, so cooking at scale is a bit different.

For 15, I’d consider serving mash and frozen Yorkshire puddings as ballast, or a soup and bread starter, and doing fewer, better roast potatoes so that everyone has a couple but they don’t take over the whole oven for an hour or more.

I appreciate there will be people who benefit from both a double range cooker and an aga along to tell me this is sacrilege.

Pasting table is quite flimsy. As pp have said do as much as possible in advance or buy prepped vegetables. Enjoy!!

Use chat gpt to help you with timings

A big electric steamer makes cooking vegetables so much easier. See if you can get hold of 2.

Further to my last post, depending on space, you could have a serving table so everyone helps them selves to the all or some of the food, I just stick a table cloth over a fold out table and pop a few buffet warmers and a hot plate on there, I got the buffet warmers quite cheap from The Range and have worked a treat for Christmases and other parties, if people already have them you could borrow them to save some money. Takes the stress out of keeping the food warm and can relax about timings a bit too.

Check dietary requirements!

With 15 it would be unusual to have none... veggie, vegan, coeliac, lactose/gluten intolerance, nut allergies... we had to add a no onions to that list. Was "fun", hard work - but no one got ill.

I cook the turkey crown in the morning, we eat around 3 and let it rest in a triple layer of foil for hours. This frees up the oven. Make Yorkshire puddings the day before and reheat them. I also make the gravy in the morning and keep it hot in the slow cooker. Just before I transfer it to the gravy jugs fill the jugs with boiling water to heat them, just don't forget to empty them out first.

Also we do presents after eating so the person cooking isn't missing out and can relax and enjoy it