Hosting Christmas

This year we are hosting Christmas Eve for my family and Christmas day for Mikes family + extended family.

Thankfully I have the week leading up to Christmas off work otherwise it would be alot of organising at the last minute.

Christmas had always been a stressful time of year as kids, it was always a rush to get to everyones house, and I really do mean everyone. As my parents are divorced and both remarried I had 3 families to visit in 1 day. Thankfully mum's family are in NZ so that was only every second year. My mum decided as we got older and each of us began dating, that to make things simple we would celebrate Christmas eve with a huge dinner, presents and plenty to drink. And it has remained that way ever since.

Mike's family is a little more complicated, no one is overly organised or discusses christmas until the last minute. It has already been 3 weeks since I asked his parents to find out what is going on and who will be attending. We are yet to hear a peep out of anyone about their plans.

So I am taking the overly organised stance.

My family have already been told that I require their requests prior to December 10 so that I have plenty of time to go to the markets and to get cooking. Our family tradition is that every person gets to chose a dish in advance and no matter what it is, it will be on the table waiting for you. Hence why I need to know well in advance.

Where possible I will either cook or just prepare some of the meals the night before to save on cooking on Christmas Eve.

As for Christmas Day, that is going to be a whole other situation. With no idea on numbers (his mum is adding and removing people every day) I have given them very strict instructions that their cut off is 30 November, because guarenteed no one will let me know till December 10 anyway.

Plus there is always the possibility that my family will end up coming over on christmas day anyway, which would actually be really nice to have my "own" people around for the day.

Hopefully by christmas our backyard area will be complete so that we can set up a large trestle table for everyone to sit at outside, and use the kitchen bench as one long buffet for everyone to pick and choose what they would like before sitting down.

Are you hosting Christmas day or Christmas Eve?

As for the Menu's for both days, I am thinking of keeping it pretty easy:

Roast Veggie on a bed of Cous Cous

Garden Salad

Crispy Pork

Roast Chickens

Potato Salad

Braised Red Cabbage

Glazed Ham

Loaded cheesy pasta

Grazing boards

This will probably change another 20 times but I think it makes for a good starting point so far.