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Catering A Successful Christmas Dinner

Preparing Christmas dinner for a group of people can be time consuming. With everything that goes into the Christmas season, adding dinner to the list can be daunting. This year, consider having your Christmas dinner catered.

To many, catering Christmas dinner can seem like a frou-frou thing to do. You’d expect that at a high society Christmas dinner but not for a down home family gathering. Actually, more and more people are opting for this type of holiday meal.

Catering a Christmas dinner meal saves time. That is probably the number one reason to have the Christmas meal catered. Hours are spent in the kitchen fixing food and washing dishes. By the time the guests arrive to eat, you are too pooped out to participate.

The Christmas dinner is about fellowship. It is hard to carry on a conversation if you are asleep. With a catered dinner, the caterers do the majority of the work while, you are allowed to play host or hostess and interact with the family.

Catering a Christmas dinner includes food and service. Caterers come in and set up the food station and bring already prepared food. If you’d like, they will also serve the food to the guests and replenish food that is running low. Afterwards, they are responsible for clean up.

When dealing with a caterer for Christmas dinner, contact them well in advance of the occasion. Caterers book up fast with private parties and corporate affairs. Discuss a budget with them. While you want the convenience of not cooking you don’t want to go broke trying to do it. Choose a caterer with the most services included in the price of the meal.

Stick with a simple menu. Adding several side dishes and meats will jack up the price. Choose one or two meats and maybe three side dishes. Chicken is one of the cheapest meats to serve. Desserts can be brought by the Christmas dinner guests.

Remember that caterers will be watching the clock. They get paid for the amount of hours they are there. So, serve dinner first and then everyone can lounge and talk over dessert since you provided that yourself. The caterers can clean up, wrap up any extra food, and clear out in a matter of a couple of hours. The rest of the Christmas evening can be enjoyed by you and your family alone.

Some catered Christmas dinners just involve the food. In that case, the price will be cheaper and you can set up the eating area any way that you want. The food arrives a few hours before dinner and you didn’t have to lift a finger.

Catering a Christmas dinner is a great way to save time on cooking. The family gets a great meal for Christmas without the hassle and stress of preparing it.

Potluck Christmas Dinners

Christmas dinner is a tradition in many countries. Families and friends get together to share a meal and have some fun. This year, if you are hosting the Christmas dinner, try a new approach to the meal. Turn it into a potluck Christmas dinner.

Potluck is an old term dating back a few centuries. It is a meal brought to a gathering to be shared with others. This is exactly what you will be doing with a Christmas potluck dinner. In centuries past, potluck meals used whatever was available but here, we want a bit fancier fare for our dinner menu.

First, the guests can come together to decide what type of menu you are looking to serve. Don’t worry if schedules are too tight for a family meeting. Use email, text messaging, and good old Ma Bell to straighten out the Christmas dinner menu.

Setting a menu in advance avoids everyone bringing a dessert and no side dishes for the Christmas dinner meal. A true potluck would involve everyone bringing something of their choice, but for variety’s sake, make a list first. As each household chimes in on what they will bring, add it to a list and send it out. We want to avoid duplicates if we can.

The main course of turkey or ham or what have you can be cooked at the host home. It proves easier to have the turkey already on site as opposed to transporting him all around town. Another family member can purchase the turkey and come over to cook it at the host home for the Christmas dinner.

You’ll need a place to set up the Christmas dinner choices. Most potluck meals are served buffet style so everyone gets exactly what they want to eat. Depending on the number of Christmas dinner guests, you may need a table or two set up for the menu items.

Place cards next to each dish explaining what it is. Most will be self explanatory but the place cards do help for kids and non-traditional meals. Label the desserts as well.

The dining room table can be set as usual for a potluck Christmas dinner. After the blessing, everyone can form a line to get their food.  Ask the dish maker to bring their own utensils for serving so you don’t have to use all of yours. Afterwards, everyone takes their own dish home to wash.

A potluck Christmas dinner saves time and money. Each dinner guest is responsible for a portion of the meal so no one has to do all of the preparation.

Healthy Christmas Dinner Suggestions

The hardest time to stick to a diet is around the holidays. Everyone wants to sample the desserts and filling foods on the dinner table. This Christmas, choose healthier menu items for your Christmas dinner.

It is not uncommon for people to gain a few pound during Christmas. After a week of eating every scrumptious thing in sight, it’s a wonder anyone can move. This Christmas, you can help yourself and your family by slimming down traditional recipes.

Adapting Christmas recipes to healthier versions doesn’t mean that they have to taste bland. On the contrary, these dinner recipes can be full of flavor. It is fat we are trying to avoid.

Simple changes are the easiest and best to make. Some simple substitutions involve the most fattening ingredients. For example, use liquid oil and applesauce in place of liquid oil alone. Use margarine in place of butter and sugar substitutes instead of pure sugar.  Many recipes have suggestions for healthy substitutions.

We eat too much and our portion sizes are out of control. Making simple substitutions lowers the fat content of our Christmas dinner dishes even if we eat a bit too much. For home made recipes, substitutions will go on feel and experience.

When making gravy for the turkey, begin with a can or jar of fat free turkey gravy. Add the turkey drippings from the baking pan to the fat free gravy. Season the food to taste. For thicker gravy, add some chicken broth and a few instant potato flakes to the drippings before adding it to the fat free gravy.

Mashed potatoes are a favorite Christmas dinner side dish to complement turkey and gravy. When making the potatoes, substitute half of the potatoes with cauliflower. Mash both together well.

Serve a soup and salad before putting the main courses on the table. A low fat vegetable soup like tomato and a simple green salad fills part of the stomach and everyone will eat less later on. Make available an assortment of low fat salad dressings for the salad.

Even the Christmas dinner turkey can slim down. Instead of preparing an entire twenty pound turkey, opt for a turkey breast instead. To maintain tenderness and moistness, marinade the thawed turkey breast before cooking. Remove any skin before serving.

One place we often fill up on empty calories is beverages. Instead of soda, serve punch sweetened with sugar substitute like Splenda®. Ice tea can also be sweetened with sugar substitute and lemons. Flavored waters are another option.

Christmas dinner doesn’t have to be fattening to be delicious. With a few healthy tweaks, many won’t notice the difference. This year, expand your repertoire of healthy Christmas dinner choices instead of expanding the waistline.