Christmas dinner newbie

[Lorddenning1]

This year we are hosting Christmas dinner, we have moved into our new house and decided to host my OH mother and his sister and partner. We have 3 children and they have 1 daughter. I normally spend Christmas with my family but I have recently put up boundaries and distanced myself from my toxic sister, which means I will not be spending Christmas Day with my family, I don't mind this but me and my OH are now hosting Christmas and we have never hosted a meal before
We have a lovely new extension which is where our dining room is so we have the space but we have nothing, we don't even have matching plates. So I'm thinking we need a new dinner set, then there is table clothe and runners and decorations, and we haven't even started in the food yet
Can people help me with what we will need, my mother in law has had a tough time lately so I would love give her a brilliant day, in my mind I'm thinking food and then a game of trivial persuit, or something along these lines, can people share their secrets to a fab Christmas Day to a complete beginner.

First of all remember:
Those who matter don't mind...those who mind, don't matter.

You don't need matching plates or runners etc.

Get others to help/contribute. Eg they have to bring a course like dessert. Or bring a game to play etc.

Prep before hand. e.g. Peel and chop the veg the day before
Make gravy a few weeks in advance and freeze it etc.

Don't do it alone on the day!

You don’t need matching plates etc but if you can afford it and now have the space I think getting a set of 6 makes sense as you might do more entertaining in the future. That covers the adults and you could get Christmas plates for the children.

I don’t normally use a table cloth, because I like my table, but in the past have used plain white ones to make mismatched tables look more uniform. Table centre pieces aren’t essential but if you look on Pinterest you will find lots of ideas. Just make sure whatever you pick leaves enough space for all the food and doesn’t block peoples eye line - it’s nice to see other people when you talk to them rather than a tall elaborate table arrangement.

For food, you won’t go far wrong buying the current edition of BBC Good Food magazine. It will have all the recipes you need and a time plan. The recipes are consistently reliable. I love food and cooking but never do a starter on Christmas Day and we only serve one pudding - a traditional Christmas pud that gets set alight with brandy. That’s always been our tradition and it makes less work. Other people will have other food traditions, so work out what yours are, or you want them to be, and start from there.

But remember to have fun and get others to muck in. Lots can be done in advance, write a time plan and don’t drink too much fizz with breakfast.

After lunch you can play a game, watch TV, chat, watch the children play or snooze. Having a game handy is a good idea but don’t force it if no one seems bothered. I’m getting llama Obama I think as I’m hoping it’s very simple and won’t take too much brain power!

Don’t serve a million different things. My DMIL serves a starter, ham, turkey, goose, red cabbage, Yorkshire’s, pigs in blankets, roasties, parsnips, carrots, cauliflower cheese, sprouts, stuffing, bread sauce, cranberry sauce, mustard for the ham, two types of gravy….. and then needs a week to recover afterwards! Don’t do a starter, choose one type of meat and consider whether you really need red cabbage and cauliflower cheese!
Cheat as much as you need to! Aunt Bessie is your friend on this occasion, and use packet mix for bread sauce and stuffing.

A white sheet is a good place to start for a table cloth.

Don’t buy too much “stuff “. Otherwise you can spend a fortune and decide it’s not right.

Does everyone have a plate to eat from? A glass to drink from. You may or may not want serving plates, bowls, spoons and tongs. (Yeah, buy a couple of pairs of tongs). Bowls for dessert. Cups for tea.

Think about your storage space, too. And, as above, people who love you will be happy to be with you.

Peel and chop stuff
Use packet mix
Buy stuff as and when needed
Delegate tasks

Make a list of everything you will need to buy. Don't go overboard - lots of sensible advice here, and I agree, don't bother with a starter and buy your pudding(s) ready-made. But once you've decided what you are doing, think through everything needed. Salt, pepper, flour, oil and so on are easy to forget.

Also, get some nice festive paper napkins and don't forget the crackers to pull at the table! That's about as far as we go with table decorations. More important to have space on the table for serving bowls and plates. I like people to serve themselves on Christmas Day as it's less for me to do in the kitchen and there's more chance of everybody getting their food hot and at the same time. If you can, pre-heat the dinner plates and serving bowls as it helps with keeping food hot. Put them on mats to save the surface of your table, though!

Ask people to bring extra cutlery and plates, bowls, glasses etc if you need them.

If you are doing a turkey, allow plenty of time for it to rest once it's cooked through. You just put it in a warm place covered with a bit of foil and it will stay hot for ages. It improves the flavour as the juices seep back down into the meat and it comes out moister, also easier to carve. Meanwhile you can have the oven up high to do roast potatoes and anything else quicker cooking that needs a high temperature. Also plenty of time then to cook the short-cooking veg on the hob and make/finish off gravy.

Check out the supermarkets for sets of crockery if you are on a budget - I bought one for dd and it was £10 for 4 plates, 4 side plates and 4 bowls, buy multiple sets, or if you just need plates you can buy singles

Don't bother with fancying-up the vegetables, just serve them as normal, which is one thing less to worry about. You can buy ready-done pigs in blankets and stuffing balls, and things like that, which saves time.

The easiest thing is to do all the veg prep on Christmas Eve, and put it all in the fridge ready.

I am a total planner so if i were in your position I would do a trial run at the end of November. Invite some friends you love and do the menu you think you will be doing. Then change and adapt according to what did not work/ what took up too much time etc.

and yes as others have said- buy some things ready prepared. M&S do good prawn cocktails. Waitrose does amazing puddings. Make is as easy as possible (and don't do what i do the first year- get smashed on champagne then decide on a whim to make a sorbet from scratch mid-afternoon). ;)

My advice would be to plan ahead, make a list and try to stick to it.

Don't worry about mixed plates, that can sometimes look really good! Especially against a simple white table cloth.

Depending on your cooking experience, try and stick to what you know, and don't try to make things too fancy. Sometimes all these different flavors on one plate can be confusing.

Peel and chop the day before.

I often have a lot of guests over, so I bought a Hostess Food Warmer off a local selling site and it is a god send!

Put someone in charge of keeping the guests entertained, you can't do everything! If someone offers to help, accept it!

And this is a lovely family occasion, not a TV show or magazine cover. Nothing is ever perfect!

Good luck x

So exciting!
I got most of Christmas dinner from Sainsbury's 'food to order' : stuffed turkey, roasties, red cabbage, sprouts with lardons, pigs in blankets, cauliflower cheese (which I won't use at that dinner but it comes with), gravy, a starter, etc etc.
Use a tablecloth OR runner OR placemats - three runners going across the table serve as placemats and a place to put hot dishes.
Getting a set of dinnerware and cutlery is a must have anyway so not really an extra expense. Glasses you can get inexpensively from any supermarket.
Get some crackers and maybe a couple candle holders to decorate the table - you don't need anything else.
Lots of magazines help with the timings - Good Housekeeping has a day planner and also lists their picks for top food items and have tested recipes.
Get a decent amount of booze in, don't go too heavy in the canapés or starter (or skip them) as you want your turkey to be the star of the show.
Get a ready made dessert - again check out Good Housekeeping which has best Christmas pudding, mince pies, Yule log etc.
If you have lunch around 2 and expect people to stay long enough to get peckish later get some cheeses in with crackers and maybe some sausages and crunchy bread - people can snack on that with some leftovers too.
Whatever, don't stress! You want to enjoy the day with family not be pulling your hair out in the kitchen. You could ask guests to bring certain elements, but I prefer to do it myself or have them do something like dessert - memories of a friend saying she'd do a nice salad for a dinner party only to show up with a bag of lettuce.

Thank you everyone for your helpful advice, we are going to nip to the range at the weekend and stock upon a few things, but I like the idea of less is more and it's the fact of spending time with people who you love that counts, I was brought up with a crisp table clothes and lots of nice decorations, matching sets of tableware etc but really it's nice but I don't own these things, maybe it's time I had these grown up things, im thinking turkey, sister in law wants to bring lamb, mother in law wants to bring desserts, so really it's just the main bits, like roast potatoes, mash, carrots parsnips, sprouts, pigs in blankets and I was thinking of buying the ready made gravy. I could buy cheeses and crackers and nibbles for later if anyone gets peckish later. Regarding the table, we are going to need to borrow a chair and then get some Xmas crackers, maybe a few candles and I like the idea of putting the food on the table to help yourself, Christmas music and then that's it, maybe some silly games later with the kids, gosh im such a grown up now.

Try the batch lady make ahead Christmas lunch recipes