Serving xmas dinner for 17 - tips please

[arinkydinky]

We always host Christmas dinner and have cooked for this number of people for a few years. Mix of 3 older children and the rest adults. We’re sorted with the prep and cooking - our issue is serving it all up. We’ve tried bowls on the kitchen island for everyone to help themselves and tried serving directly onto plates but it always means things go cold and people not eating at the same time.
Does anyone successfully serve a hot meal for this number to all eat at the same time. We have a double oven that will both be in use until serving. TIA XX

For this number, and in a normal family home, I think you need to dish up first, ie in the kitchen and bring plates through to the seated diners. Not as nice, but needs mist.

So you'd need teams - some disher-uppers who will bring the plates through, and someone to make sure everyone else is seated and not interfering. Maybe someone on drinks.

Three children carry food out. Veg and sauces down the middle of the table. Plates hot. Bring out magnificent roasted beast. All gasp. Host 1 carves onto a large platter, Host 2 puts meat, and any bits not on the table on plates that are ferried off by hungry young.
The person carving is key and must have a very sharp knife (extra points if they sharpen it dramatically) a very large chopping board that drains, and a bone bowl for grizzly bits. Learn how to carve your beast.

We do 'carvery style' with plenty of hot gravy for our 10. Parents dish up for the kids first. I don't particularly like it but we just don't have the room on the table for all the dishes as well as the rest of the paraphernalia.

I'd buy a 2nd hand hostess trolley from ebay/market place etc. MIL has one and its brilliant.

Plates get warmed and when each dish comes out of the oven, it goes inside the trolley to stay hot. Or I'd buy a few of these to go on the table https://www.robertdyas.co.uk/daewoo-electric-buffet-server-small-3-x-15l?cq_src=google_ads&cq_cmp=22796790170&cq_term=&cq_plac=&cq_net=x&cq_plt=gp&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22790938713&gbraid=0AAAAACf0mw1Pjg5LP6IBNJqKJLSXmoFbB&gclid=Cj0KCQiA0KrJBhCOARIsAGIy9wCHtRmmahqEO5hf8ptTchd-hsbPtZaUyk1BtTAiXz8BFcoPG2AsZDUaAlOhEALw_wcB

Having the meat carved in advance is absolutely key, I reckon. It's no good carving at the table, as it takes too long and the veg will go cold.

If your table is big enough, two or three smaller dishes for everything. This means that one platter of turkey only needs to serve six people instead of going all the way round your 17. Three smaller dishes for your potatoes etc.

Get everyone seated, place your hot plates in front of them, hot dishes onto the table, cook sits down and everyone then starts serving.

Hot plates and gravy in flasks will really help. If you want to allow self serving you can get heated mats to put under the veg etc

Some great ideas, already looked for a hostess trolley but really like the idea of smaller platters/dishes for 4 or 6. Suppose that’s what they do in restaurants. Thanks all x

You need an electric buffet warmer. We have one with 5 sections and it cost about £50.

I carve the meat first and put it back in the oven wrapped in foil and basted to make it super hot again

make sure drinks and condiments and serving spoons are already on the table

assemble team of helpers while other half of family are seated

put all side dishes into bowls with lids and take next door - everything is doubled up so each half of the table has their own bowl

3 people dish up Turkey, sausages and potatoes onto plates in the kitchen And deliver those to dining room

people seated start serving themselves the sides immediately

last thing that goes in is boiling hot gravy

I am always last to sit down and my meal is still hot enough, but the serving is quite manic and definitely the most stressful bit!

Yes I also find it the most stressful….last year we plated up each meal and then people where asking for a certain amount of this or that to add to the stress. So definitely thinking back to serving dishes this year. I’m going to try the ‘each table has a bowl of veg, trimmings and meat’ approach I think this year. Haven’t done it that way xx

I do it for up to 25. Use electric hot plate for warm dishes .. and my late mum's hostess trolley ..

and we have four or five plates of everything .. so people can serve selves.

Borrow a hostess trolley if you can.
Heat all serving dishes and plates before using - fill with water from the kettle

A roasted turkey will rest for easily an hour under foil and towels.

YY to doubling or tripling up on serving dishes for sides

I think for this number and at Xmas my attitude is. - the gravy’s hot so never mind if some other bits are warm.
But having done 23 for dinner for a few years (now thankfully much smaller) I divide the table into groups of 4. Save all the foil dishes you can in the run up and then on the day do four lots of everything - so four dishes of roast potatoes, 4 of Brussels, etc etc. Also get a few more salt and pepper shakers from charity shops. Have a dedicated area of work surface for these serving dishes (the foils) and put a desk lamp shining onto it, it helps a bit.
once you have the dishes on the table then cover with foil (not the roasties, they’ll go soft, use kitchen paper) and take a couple of minutes for yourself to go to the loo, get a breath of air etc. then whip the foil off and enjoy dinner.

Have you got an air fryer? I used that last year to keep stuffing balls and pigs in blankets warm. I also use my slow cooker to keep gravy hot.

I’ve got a couple of those warmer things with tealights in that have in Indian restaurants and use pyrex dishes on top of those. I still think it’s easier to do buffet/carvery style than try and put it all on the table.

Ideally, also have 3, large gravy boats.
My MIL is known to make 1, tiny jug of gravy so you'd be lucky if you got 3 drops!

Put your plates in the dish washer time so that they finish and are dry at exactly the point you want to serve. They will be beautifully hot and so keep the meal warm longer. You can buy a Bain Marie type hot plate for £30 from b and m, I find that pretty useful for when I was doing large sittings. Also multi level steamers are good as you can remove the lid and with somebody helping , you can serve each plate while the water is still hot so kept the food hot.

Chafing dish. You can get them in Costco.

But when people are asking you for a set number of this or that, you don't have to obey! You could just do first round, where you put x number of stuff on plates and you then sit down and enjoy your meal while it's hot, then 2nds where people just have at it.

This. Everyone gets the same meal initially and then can have seconds of their favourites. Obviously check first for crazy people that hate popular items like pigs in blankets or Yorkshire puddings but otherwise just plate up production line style and shove everything back in the oven.

We have a hostess tray...takes up minimal space when not in use

I absolutely LOVE my hostess trolley, and I use it every day to warm plates, keep things hot, etc. I agree carving in advance and smaller dishes are good ideas, but if you do come across a 2nd hand hostess trolley, snap it up! You won't regret it.

I have two hot plates, a heated gravy jug is on my wishlist.

12 is the most I've done, with all the serving dishes in the middle of the table with warm plates being passed around and everyone helping to serve. But for that number I think I'd have all the dishes on the kitchen counters so that people could help themselves.