Christmas Dinner Planner
Plan your Christmas dinner for 2 to 20 guests. Get a shopping list with quantities, a cooking timeline working backwards from serving time and dietary adaptations.
Dietary Requirements
How Much Turkey, Potato and Sprout per Person?
The shopping list this tool generates uses tested ratios for 2 to 20 guests: 400g of turkey on the bone per person (or 250g boneless), 400g of roasting potatoes per person, 200g of parsnips, 250g of Brussels sprouts (yes, even though half the table claims not to eat them), 200g of carrots, plus 50g of butter per person for everything that needs basting and roasting. For 8 people that is roughly a 3.2kg turkey, 3.2kg of potatoes and 1.6kg of carrots and parsnips combined.
If you have meat-eaters, vegetarians and vegans on the same table, the tool splits the count and adds vegetarian Wellington or vegan main alternatives at the right quantity. The default vegetarian option is mushroom Wellington (one per veggie guest), and the vegan equivalent is a vegan Wellington or roasted-vegetable main. Gluten-free guests get a separate flag for GF bread for the stuffing and sauces. Build your guest list at the top, including dietary needs, and the shopping list updates automatically.
Working the Cooking Timeline Backwards from Serving Time
Most home cooks pick a serving time and then panic-work backwards from there about an hour too late. This tool does the working backwards properly: enter your serving time (default 1pm) and it gives you a 14-step timeline with exact clock times, starting roughly 4.5 hours before you want to eat. For a 1pm serving, that means turkey out of the freezer overnight (or ideally 2 days ahead for a thaw on a 4kg bird), oven preheated by 9.30am, turkey in by 10.30am, parboil the roasties at noon, finish gravy at 12.45pm, dinner served at 1pm.
Two timing mistakes catch out most first-time hosts. First, turkey resting time. A turkey needs 20 to 30 minutes to rest after coming out of the oven, covered with foil and a tea towel. The juices redistribute, the meat carves cleanly, and the gravy you make from the resting tin juices is dramatically better. Second, the par-boiling step for roast potatoes. Skipping the 8-minute parboil before roasting is the single biggest reason home roasties end up dense rather than crispy. The timeline builds both in by default.
Print It, Pin It, and Avoid the 11am Panic
The free download is a JPG of the full plan (timeline plus shopping list) which most people print to A4 and pin to the inside of a kitchen cupboard door. The premium PDF (£1.99 one-off) prints at 300 DPI in a cleaner format with no watermark, sized for an A4 portrait fridge magnet or a properly-formatted shopping list to take to the supermarket. If you are doing the shop on Christmas Eve, the shopping list works as-is. Aim to do the meat shop by 22 December at the latest, the supermarket fresh-veg shop on 24 December morning, and have a final glass of something the night before to read through the timeline once.
If you also need a Secret Santa for the family, [Secret Santa Generator](/secret-santa-generator) sorts the matches without spoilers. For the gift budgeting side, the [Christmas Gift Budget Tracker](/christmas-gift-budget-tracker) keeps the spend honest and warns you with traffic-light colours before you go over per-person.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much turkey do I need for 8 people?
About 3.2kg on the bone, or 2kg boneless. The standard ratio is 400g per adult on the bone, which gives you a full plate plus enough leftovers for sandwiches the next day. If your guest list includes children under 10, allow 250g per child instead. A 3.2kg bird needs roughly 3 hours 15 minutes to roast at 180C, plus 30 minutes resting time.
What time should I start cooking Christmas dinner?
For a 1pm serving and 8 guests, start around 8.30am with the oven preheating and vegetables getting peeled. The turkey goes in at about 9.45am to 10am, vegetables around 11.45am, gravy and sauces from 12.30pm. The exact times depend on your turkey size and serving time. The cooking timeline this tool generates works backwards from your specified serving time and adjusts automatically.
How do I plan Christmas dinner for vegetarians and vegans?
Add a vegetarian or vegan main course count separately from your meat-eating guests. The most reliable choices are mushroom or chestnut Wellington (most supermarkets sell oven-ready ones from mid-November), a nut roast, or a stuffed butternut squash. Make sure the gravy is vegetarian or vegan (not made with turkey juices), and double-check that the stuffing, bread sauce and pigs-in-blankets are clearly separated on serving. The tool flags this in the shopping list for you.
Can I prep Christmas dinner the day before?
Most of it, yes. Peel and parboil the potatoes the day before and store them in cold water in the fridge. Make stuffing, cranberry sauce and bread sauce on Christmas Eve. Trim sprouts and chop carrots and parsnips the night before. The turkey itself should not be cooked ahead, but you can defrost, season and stuff it the night before so it goes straight into the oven on the day. This roughly halves your Christmas morning workload.
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