Christmas party catering in 2026: the menus, the formats and when to book

Christmas party catering has a short season and a long lead time. The parties happen in five or six weeks, the dates are decided in September and October, and the menu is the part everybody remembers. Our Christmas 2026 menus are out now for offices, venues and homes across London, Buckinghamshire and the home counties, and here is what is on them and how to choose.

What is on the Christmas 2026 menus

Nine menus, one season. There are festive canapés, hot and cold canapé bowls, plated and sharing starters, three banquet centrepieces, plated desserts and five sharing sweet boards, then the casual formats: winter bowls, Yorkshire pudding wraps and festive hotdogs. The full set is in the Christmas 2026 brochure, with every dish on the Christmas tab of our menus page, and the formats are explained on our Christmas party catering page.

The dishes balance what people expect at Christmas with what we are known for. Bronzed turkey with sage and onion stuffing and pigs in blankets sits next to Korean pork belly bowls, a roast cod and chorizo cassoulet and a Black Forest chocolate mousse.

Standing party or seated dinner

A standing party runs on canapés and canapé bowls. Canapés keep the room moving for the first hour, and bowls such as roast turkey with all the trimmings or slow-cooked beef cheek with Yorkshire pudding give people something substantial without a table. Sweet canapés, from a Christmas pudding truffle to a mini mince pie with brandy anglaise, close it out.

A seated dinner is built around a sharing centrepiece. Pressed beef featherblade and short rib, bronzed turkey breast with confit leg, or roast cod and chorizo, each served with its own roast potatoes, vegetables and sauces and each with a plant-based centrepiece alongside. It is the format we recommend when the party is the main event of the year.

The casual formats that work for big teams

Not every Christmas party wants tablecloths. Winter bowls, Yorkshire pudding wraps and festive hotdogs suit warehouses, courtyards, studios and any office where people would rather stand with a drink. The Bronze Turkey wrap and the currywurst with triple cooked chips are the ones that get talked about the next day.

These formats scale well too. They are cooked and served fast, so a team of two hundred eats hot food within the party rather than queuing for it. Our office party catering page has more on how we run them, and if the numbers are big, so does our note on catering for large events.

When to book, and what we need from you

Corporate Christmas dates are confirmed from September and December fills first, so if you already know your date, send it now with a rough headcount and we will hold it while the menu is decided. There is no cut-off and no minimum number of guests. Plenty of teams hold their Christmas party in January, when there is more choice of dates.

From the venue we need power, water and parking, and we travel about 60 miles from Leighton Buzzard, so London and most of the home counties are covered (see areas we cover). Everything else, from the ovens to the crockery, arrives with us, the same way it does for the rest of our corporate catering. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, dairy free and nut free options are on every menu, and dietary requirements are planned in from the first conversation.

If you want to see everything in one place, download the Christmas 2026 brochure. If you would rather talk it through, send a Christmas enquiry or book a call with Sophie from the same page, and for a grazing-led party our note on grazing tables and food stations covers how those run.

Frequently asked questions