Christmas for a crowd away from home - any tips?

Whew, so glad I have cancelled Christmas this year, we wil do ecxactly the same as we do any other day, except I will probably give myself the day off work.

Blu Tac for hanging decorations, after dinner games, cling film/tin foil. Sorry if these have been mentioned. Have a great time!

disposabile camera's left in every room for all to use will give you photographs of moments you didnt see

Sounds fantastic, if you do have young ones go to the pound shop and get some colouring book and crayons or pens and plenty of scrap paper and I expect you will have a few board games to take.

Hi Witzend thank you for reminding me to check up, we are renting an apartment in Cornwall for Christmas, nd at the price we are paying I am asuming everything will be provided, but one never knows, we shall see when we arrive, we cant take much as we are flying from Sweden, but there are lots of local shops, if they havent run out by the time we arrive!Happy Christmas Witzend

There is an air of simmering excitement and anticipation to this thread. Thanks Witzend. Christmas has started here.

Sellotape and wrapping paper for last minute forgotten wrappers !

Had Christmas in a rented flat in another city last year (long story).Seemed to take an embarassing amout of 'stuff'for 4 adults (the staff took the extraordinary number of bags and boxes up for us in a laundry trolley )but I knew it would be basic .Nice place but geared to business people not holiday makers .Would endorse the disposable foil trays and rubbish sacks We seemed to produce an embarassing amount of rubbish too!And sealable boxes for any leftovers .

Oh gosh, this almost made me have a panic attack at the very thought of all that on top of the usual planning for Christmas.

Have just thought of the stick blender - there will be one vegan among us who I am assured will largely see to his own food, but I might make a huge pot of curried parsnip soup, which is dead easy and lovely after a wintry walk, and can easily be vegan if I use the right stock cubes.
Lists are getting longer!

Yes, everyone will be mucking in, thanks, and I've already had offers of meals to bring/cook. And we'll be sorting out who's going to bring what, food and drink wise. Will def. be taking a cool box since will pick up the turkey early in the morning before the long drive down.
Just as well dh's car has a huge boot, since I think it's going to be laden anyway!
I have just bought an exceedingly corny Christmas tin of shortbread from Sainsbury's - I don't really like shortbread but after dh has scoffed it I'll use it for loads of my special very cheesy cheese straws to take down.
If you can't be corny at Christmas...

Sounds really great.

This thread almost makes me wish we were doing it.

I would be like you Witzend & take extras of cleaning materials, rubber gloves essential (I get Dermatitis so can't be without). Own knives definately, you know what you like & use. Check Supermarkets for Delivery, that would save you packing certain items + food & drink (save space in car), I live on edge of Dartmoor National Park & have Tesco Home Delivery.

Good suggestion to check with owners re tree & decorations. Tin opener essential as some tins require the use of one (& if that pesky ring pull comes off!!!!) & corkscrew/bottle opener is a must.

Have a wonderful time

A tree and decorations!! How lovely.
That is the kind of place that will always be fully booked.

Basic first aid kit! Painkillers (ibuprofen and paracetamol), some basic bandages in case of cuts and grazes. Possibly child medicine for the toddler - Calpol? Indigestion tablets and/or those fizzy tablets for The Morning After (not that I mean to insinuate your party will partake of overmuch booze!). If it's likely to be snowy you might want to take a couple of those elasticy crepe bandages in case of slips followed by sprains. At least you won't need to take anti-insect stuff in December!

We did this last Christmas and stayed at a lovely house in Norfolk which had enough of everything we could possibly need in the kitchen, crockery, cutlery, cleaning stuff etc. It was also decorated and had an enormous tree. But we found all this out before we went so just ask the owners. Also in our case we couldn't get a home delivery slot to coincide with when we arrived so the owners actually took delivery of our Christmas shop (for 12) and put everything away in the appropriate places. Wonderful.

Cling film and foil

We used to do this years ago - pre-email and pre-supermarket dekiveries so it took a bit of organising who was taking what, especially as there was nothing but a village shop for about 30 miles.

However, we went away last year en masse; I didn't organise it but the person who did compiled a very comprehensive list and emailed it to everyone, we all added anything we thought he had missed then he arranged for a delivery from a supermarket (they delivered even though we were out in the wilds). We split the cost and transferred our share into his bank account.
Any extras eg whisky (DH) we took ourselves.
It worked extremely well.

Ps a Christmas tree??? it's not Christmas without a tree, even a tiny one ...

Check the number of and size of pans provided. We recently rented a house for 6 people and there was only one saucepan and a frying pan

Oh, don't forget that Christmas Table Cloth and the crackers and hats! Or the brandy for the Christmas pud or the matches, got to have matches! Mince pies, corkscrew, tin opener.

One thing you can get the children doing is icing Christmas biscuits! Good fun and it keeps them busy for ages. Lots of good ideas, they will surprise you with their talent. Don't bake any biscuits yourself, take ginger bread ones with you. plus an icing kit and decorations. Have fun!

Oh, don't forget that Christmas Table Cloth and the crackers and hats! Or the brandy for the Christmas pud or the matches, got to have matches! Mince pies, corkscrew, tin opener,

Is everyone going to join in with the chores? Otherwise you will be cream crackered as they say. If you do not ask for help you will not get it. Take a few aprons and some dish washer tablets. Delegate peeling potatoes, preparing sprouts and carrots for example. We sometimes have 12 for Christmas dinner and it really is hard if you have to do everything yourself. One thing we always do is have a fun game or quiz after all the food is eaten, something like Trivial Pursuits. I hope the day goes well!

part baked bread ie. Rolls/baguettes. Useful if you want supper , pop in oven serve with cheeses etc. oh and paper plates, and plenty of black rubbish sacks. Sounds good fun , enjoy.

We did this last Christmas and being of the "take the kitchen sink" brigade I took everything I thought I would need (much to everyone's amusement). I agree with the foil roasting dishes, herbs too as they may not be there. Extra cleaning materials too as there never seem to be enough (we found two dishwasher tablets which certainly did not suffice!). If it has not already been mentioned, it might be worth taking a cool box (if it will run on mains electricity, even better) of some sort for extra storage. We really needed ours last year as it was very mild weather and the fridge was tiny. Hope this helps (of course you will now probably need a car the size of a furniture van).