Where to find best xmas pudding, best mince pies, best xmas crackers et al in London?

[Medea]

So it's my turn to host Christmas lunch, and I'll have relatives from afar staying here for 5 nights. (God help me.) I've done Christmas lunch before, but it was disasterous. . .help me get it right this time by at least telling me which supermarket/shop does:

1. the best christmas pudding
2. best mince pies
3. best christmas crackers
4. best stilton (or maybe it doesn't matter?)
5. and what it is that goes with christmas pudding? brandy butter? Who does good brandy butter?

Am trying to hold sanity together so don't plan on making any of the above from scratch. Thanks! x

Oh gawd, poor you. If your budget is medium (somewhere between Iceland and Selfridges) I would trust M&S.

I would stick to M&S for most of it. Neal's Yard for cheese. If you want the best crackers then you need Asprey , I'd just stick to medium priced supermarket/M&S

Waitrose mince pies came out top in the DaddyCool taste test.

Tescos brandy butter seems perfectly adequate to me - decant and supermarket version into a nice looking pot and no one will know where it came from.

Crackers - Get the ones that have clockwork toys in them for racing after the meal. I've got wind up sprouts I think this is a bit more fun than the normal plastc tat.

Well, if you had mentioned earlier i could have done extra when i did mine (pudding, pies and brandy butter) so you could have passed mine off as yours .

(trusting that my cooking is good enough of course )

Anyway, M & S gets my vote too.

Go to Borough Market if you really want the absolute best and don't mind paying a bit extra - Neal's Yard for Stilton, Aunt Alice's Christmas Pudding (the best in the world imo!) and Konditor & Cook mince pies. They all win awards all the time!