Easy Christmas Party food: please share your top tips with Lidl #SchoolofChristmas: chance to win one of 5 £50 vouchers NOW CLOSED

[ZaneMumsnet]

Ahead of the festive season the Lidl team at #SchoolofChristmas would love to hear your top tips for tip top Christmas party food - what lessons have you learnt for hosting parties at Christmas that you can share with Lidl and MN?

VDd28

Please share your tips which can help make hosting a Christmas party (for kids or adults) a dream - whether an amazing recipe, short-cut, or your nod-and-a-wink trick to ensure you get to spend less time in the kitchen, and more time enjoying the party.

Everyone who posts their tip on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where 5 Mumsnetters will each win a £50 Lidl voucher.

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

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It's not very environmentally friendly, but disposable plates and cutlery save time.

Also asking guests to kindly bring a plate of nibbles helps.

As it's usually so cold late December we store several bottles of wine and beer outside if run out of fridge space.

Keep to the old fashioned pudding recipes which you can make from store cupboard items, but then add your own twist with a dash or sprinkle of whatever is handy, Treacle Tarts, Trifles, Baked Apples, Crumbles. All cheap but still delicious

Slices of baguette spread with garlic and herb soft cheese and topped with grated parmesan can be stashed in the freezer and baked from frozen 200ºc for 7 minutes for emergency canapés. I also freeze unbaked cheese straws for similar treatment and keep bags of chestnuts in for roasting on the fire in the chestnut pan I bought from LIDL far too long ago to bear thinking about!

Best dessert I ever did at a children's Christmas party was lots of fairy cakes (chocolate, vanilla and pink coloured ones) then bowls of icing, sprinkles, chocolate drops, raisins, sliced up bits of curly wurly (to make antlers) mini marshmallows and icing pens. I decorated a Father Christmas one,a snowman one and a reindeer one so the children could make their own or br creative and do their own. It was dead easy and kept the children entertained. Two years later and they still talk about it 😀

Buffet food always wins at Christmas. Everyone is so busy with wrapping and socialising and generally being excited so a buffet is perfect to grab ad go.

Brunch eggs go down well at any time of day! Line a muffin tin with parma ham in each indentation, then break an egg into each. Put a drop of cream and a sprinkle of cheddar on top of each, plus whatever other flavourings you want: Tabasco is good! Then bake in a medium oven until the eggs are set. Serve warm or cold - the colder they are, the firmer the eggs are. The parma ham makes its own container!

We host a large Christmas party for bell ringers which starts after practice. My only effort is to put a cloth, serviettes and flowers on the table, borrow a box or several of glasses, have the oven on and make a large vat of mulled wine, using packet spices. Everyone brings a plate of finger food, sweet or savoury, and puts it on the table. If anyone wants to warm up their sausage rolls or whatever, the oven is there. It all works brilliantly.

Keep things easy! I've learnt with three children that I no longer have time for everything to be homemade on the day so I either do it in advance and freeze or buy ready made - people have normally had enough to drink that it all tastes as it should anyway!

Simple fare and plenty of choice to cater for different tastes.

I think my fav XMAS food is those juicy wee cocktail sausages.

Or spicy roast pork belly canapés

I either make stuff I can make in advance and just get out of the fridge or something easy like a pot of soup or chilli which can just bubble away slower on the cooker, but can be made in advance or even better I get my parents to do it as they used to run a takeaway and are used to cooking for big groups

always try to prepare food before and keep in fridge, try to get your family to help and it turns out to be a nice time spent together as a family

When we go to Christmas parties I take a really good cheese board. It's dead easy and can be kept out of the fridge which makes you popular with the host. It's also delicious!

Eat out. Preferably at a relatives house so it's free

I always stick to a theme for each party, instead of having lots of different types of food. A winner is always chicken kebabs so I will make 3 different marinades one spicy, one mild and one a bit different say honey and mustard. I'll serve skewers a tray of each flavour, then flat breads, pittas, and bread rolls, different salads, cous cous, baked potatoes plus different sauces to taste. No matter my theme, I always do a cheese board on top. This covers anyone who doesn't like what you have chosen, plus any veggies, and, its Christmas!! A scrummy dessert, a few bowls of crisps and a garden full of booze/softdrinks and you're good to go! And all with only the same amount of fuss as making a family dinner.

I find a starter throws my christmas dinner preparation, because when I need to be busiest in the kitchen I have to sit down at the table to eat. I make a plate of rolled smoked salmon bites, some plain some filled with soft cheese that people can just munch as they want.

Lidl strudel is lovely and dairy free, so it's a fab dessert for us. I sprinkle icing sugar on it to make look like I've made it, although everyone knows my secret

All my liebkuchen and stollen are baked well ahead of time and frozen - we are a glutenfree/eggfree/milkfree household and glutenfree things go stale quickly so freezing is fantastic. I like everyone to be able to eat the same things and not feel different- also reduces the worry! Our best children's party ended up with a picnic on the floor as everyone invited turned up and we hadn't expected that - the children really enjoyed it. We had paper plates which reduced the washing up. Obviously sausages are a real hit with children, as are sandwiches cut into different shapes, we always tended not to have too many choices of biscuits or crisps etc. If having a pudding then e.g. setting jelly etc. in small paper cups (or unbreakable ramekin dishes) works well and avoids having to portion anything on the day.

I try and buy party food which all cooks at the same time and temperature so I can enjoy being the hostess rather than spending all my time in the kitchen.

I try to make as much in advance as possible, sausage rolls, cheese and onion rolls and mince pies are all suitable for open freezing on trays before being cooked and when frozen transfer them into a bag. Cook from frozen, place them on a baking tray and give them an egg wash then bake until delicious.

I also make a quick mint raita to go with Indian snacks from natural yoghurt with a teaspoon or two of mint sauce stirred through.

Make sure you have room in your fridge for items that need to be kept cool before you go shopping.

Write a list of finger food items and dishes easy to prepare and can easily be divided into smaller portions for guests.

Prepare early and Freeze what you can. That way you can just pop it in the oven and enjoy the party!

#SchoolofChristmas enlist help from family my Aunt makes a mean Sherry Trifle at Christmas . Wrap foil around oranges to use as a base for sausages or cheese and pineapple on sticks for the buffet table. Lidl do some great ready made party snacks we love their King Prawn Rings ready to serve with a little garnish they are good to go . Use lots of disposable plates and cups saves on the washing up too . we give each guest a personalised goodie bag when they leave as a festive touch

Chocolate fountain always goes down well, especially with kids

Follow the suggestions for Christmas party food in Nigella's cookery book 'Nigella Bites', and on Jamie Oliver's food blog. Lots of delicious ideas and they never fail to disappoint.

Yum. Takes notes.