The best Christmas parties have one thing in common, and it isn't the food, although the food matters. It is a host who is actually at the party. Glass in hand, in the middle of the conversation, laughing at the story they've heard four times.
That is harder than it sounds in an Australian December. It's hot, the house is full, and there is always one more thing to take out of the oven. So here is a practical guide to Christmas party food that lets you enjoy your own party, whether it's drinks for twenty on a Friday night or a long lunch on the day itself.
Start with the kind of party it is
Before you plan a single dish, decide which of these you are hosting, because they need very different food.
Drinks and nibbles. People standing, talking, one hand free. Everything should be eaten in one or two bites, with no knife required. Plan on around eight to ten pieces per person for a two-hour evening, and more if it runs past dinnertime.
A long lunch or dinner. People sitting down. Here you want one proper main, three or four sides, and a dessert worth staying at the table for.
Open house. People arriving and leaving over several hours, the Boxing Day kind of gathering. This one is about food that can be brought out in waves, rather than all at once.
Most of the stress of hosting comes from cooking for one kind of party while hosting another.
Christmas party food ideas that suit the heat
An Australian Christmas happens in summer, which changes everything about what works.
Lean on seafood. Prawns, oysters, scallops, a side of baked fish. It is lighter, it suits the weather and it feels like an occasion. Seafood is also the most Australian thing you can put on a Christmas table.
Salads that are a meal, not a garnish. A salad with grains, roasted vegetables and a proper dressing earns its place next to the ham. Pearl couscous, wild rice, lentils and chickpeas all hold a dressing well and bring substance.
One warm thing, not five. Every hot dish competes for the same oven, at the same moment, on the hottest day of the year. Choose one warm main and build the rest around dishes served cold from the fridge.
Native flavours. Lemon myrtle, Davidson plum, finger lime. They taste of an Australian summer in a way that cinnamon and cloves never quite will, and your guests will ask about them. Our guide to Australian native ingredients is a good place to start.
Keep food cold until it is served. Bring cold dishes out in smaller platters and top them up from the fridge, rather than putting everything out at once. It looks fresher, it is safer in the heat, and nothing is left sitting.
How much food do you need?
The most common hosting worry, and the one that leads to cooking for three days.
For a sit-down lunch, a reasonable guide is one main protein, two or three sides, and one dessert, with each person having a serve of the main and a spoonful of most of the sides. People eat less of each thing when there is more choice, so a bigger spread doesn't mean a bigger quantity of every dish.
We have written a much fuller guide, with quantities worked out by guest count, in how much food you need for Christmas.
Make ahead, or have it made
The secret of every relaxed host is that almost nothing happens on the day. The food is done before anyone arrives, and the day itself is assembly and heating.
That means choosing dishes that can be made, or bought, ahead and kept in the freezer or fridge until they are needed. It means doing the shopping in November, not on the 23rd. And it means being honest with yourself about what you actually enjoy cooking, doing that part properly, and letting go of the rest.
If glazing the ham is your moment, keep it. If you love making the pavlova, make it. Nobody at the table will think less of the potatoes because you didn't peel them.
A Christmas party menu, finished at home
This is exactly why we made our Christmas range this year. Dishes made only for Christmas, handmade in small batches by our local home cooks, delivered freshly frozen weeks before the day. You choose them individually, so you build the menu around your party rather than around a set box.
For drinks, Davide's smoked mozzarella arancini are the ones that disappear first. Scallops come in the shell under a deep red butter of miso, kombu and native bunya nut, and lobster tails arrive split, with a lemon myrtle butter pooled in the meat, so there is no cracking or picking at the table.
For a long lunch, there's a Davidson plum glazed ham that you glaze and bake yourself, the good part left to you. Paolo's leg of lamb comes deboned and marinated in lemon, olive oil and herbs. Davide's barramundi bakes sealed in a paper parcel with chermoula, and someone at the table gets to open it. Beside them, Lou's duck fat roast potatoes with rosemary and semolina, and a pearl couscous salad. To finish, a sticky date and fig pudding with butterscotch sauce, or a pavlova cheesecake with mango and passionfruit.
Most of it needs only a night in the fridge and time in the oven. And because the lamb, the barramundi, the potatoes and the carrots all cook at the same temperature, they can share the oven, which on Christmas Day is the thing you run out of first.
See everything on our Christmas menu. Christmas orders deliver from Thursday 5 November, and the last deliveries are on 19 December. It all keeps in the freezer, so a November date is the easy choice, and it skips the small December surcharge.
And if you're the guest
The best host gift is food they don't have to cook. Not a candle, not another bottle for the pile by the door. A dessert they can bring out when everyone's had enough of the main, or a FoodSt gift card for the week after, when the house is quiet and nobody wants to see the inside of a kitchen.
The short version
Decide what kind of party it is. Plan for the heat. Choose one warm dish, not five. Do almost everything before anyone arrives. And make sure the host, especially if it's you, gets to be at the party.
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