Casual Christmas gathering

[HettyMeg]

Looking for your best tips for hosting a very, very casual festive gathering (not on Christmas day) with extended family please? I am hosting because it is easiest location for everyone, not because I have the biggest house - it's in fact small so space at a premium. Mostly adults but going to put on games for the kids so it gives a focus to the day.

How many adults? How many children?

10 adults and four kids age 3 to 10.

We had some friends round yesterday. I just did pizzas for the kids and for the adults bought ready to roast chicken (de boned and marinated, you could do yourself though) , Roast baby potatoes Coleslaw, salads, crusty bread, crisps, dips, et cetera, and a huge apple crumble for pudding. Served it all buffet style x

Presumably @HettyMeg you’re going to want to make stuff that people can eat away from a table? Sounds like you don’t have room for everyone to sit down!

Some nice ideas here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/collections/christmas_buffet_ideas

Hot dogs are brilliant for situations like this - such minimal work involved, can be eaten without a knife and fork, popular with everyone and can suit all dietary requirements if you use a range of different sausages (I did: spicy chorizo, venison, pork sage and onion, and vegetarian). For condiments, I found some fancy beetroot ketchup, Bloody Mary ketchup, regular ketchup for the dc, mustard and brown sauce.

Thanks for the ideas. It definitely needs to be some kind of buffet due to lack of table space but I find even a lot of buffet food quite hard to eat off a plate balanced on your knee, so hot dogs without cutlery a great shout and something I hadn't considered. Typically in my family we serve the food all together and the kids get a bit of everything but I think in my smaller house I'd be better serving up pizza for the kids first then doing something different for the adults.

I always do lots of buffet food such as 3 for £8 stuff, crisps, cheese board, baguettes and a gammon.
I see the Wii up for the DC, the adults choose music on Alexa and that’s about it.
It’s always a lot of fun.

You could do a pot of chilli and a pot of curry and serve it up with a big bowl of rice to the adults in paper bowls with disposable fork/spoons. Ready to serve and adults can serve themselves and then stand around eating or grab a seat. Plus no washing up needed.