I know it's ages away, but we are hosting Christmas this year and I have to start planning now.
In the past, we've mostly gone to one of my SiL's as she has lots of kids and had a large house at the time; but now she's moved into a smaller house and her kids have flown the nest. When we went there, we'd always take something(s) for entree, main, dessert and drinks - as would mostly everyone else (the odd person might turn up with a packet of biscuits, which they wouldn't touch in favour of chowing down on everything everyone else had brought) ... so it was a bit of a pot luck style.
A couple of years ago, we hosted everyone at ours and people didn't really bring a lot - even though we said we'd do the same thing as we'd often done in the past. We had heaps of food and drinks on hand 'just in case' (and to last us through the holidays), and we ended up using the lot on Christmas day. It was also really stressful as we found ourselves pretty much stuck in the kitchen or at the BBQ all the time as nobody helped with anything (it was bizarre).
This year, with us hosting, I am thinking of getting a grazing table company in. I've been quoted $2,500 for everything (including food, drinks, the table itself, a marquee, chairs, crockery, utensils, glasses, etc.). They not only come and set everything up, but they return later that night and take it all away (dirty dishes and all). The only thing we'll have to do is pass plates along, and fill our guests' glasses.
In more recent times when we've gone to my SiL's, we've easily spent $500 on all the stuff we've taken - and there's just two of us. At a guess, I'd say most of the other people have spent similar amounts - especially my other SiL who has kids. When we hosted a couple of years ago, we probably spent well over $800 for everything (I'm in NZ, where the cost of living is ridiculously high).
So, I'm thinking of going for the grazing table option, and charging a per head amount to attend. What do you guys think of this - would you be offended if someone asked you to do this? I floated the idea to my golfing buddies who all thought it was a great idea and said they'd happily pay it if they were invited (which one or two of them will be, as they're alone at Christmas). There will be about 30 people in total ... and of those, 10 are under the age of 21. $2,500 / 30 = $83.33, but it wouldn't be fair to charge the kids that - so maybe the adults $100 each, and the kids $50 each. But what do I do about people who don't drink alcohol or aren't working?
Then there's also the issue of using our pool - its chemicals cost a fortune, as does the water to fill it (we have to get a special water truck in each year to do that, which costs just over $2k) ... should I make the pool off-limits to all (which seems a bit mean), or just charge the adults $110 each and the kids $60 each to allow for that? Not all the kids will swim, and not all the adults will swim. But if there is an 'accident' in the pool (as there was by one of the kids one year when they were visiting [nobody would admit to it]), the whole thing will have to be emptied and re-filled at a later date. This *might* not happen, but if it does, then the extra money would help.
I appreciate this probably sounds a bit mean-spirited to some people (especially the bit about the pool), but we always end up feeling like we're subsidising everyone else at Christmas by the time we buy all the kids gifts and all the extra food, etc. (Adults don't get gifts, so we never benefit in that regard). We're not wealthy by any means, and spend the rest of the year being really careful with money. I'm trying to think of a way to make Christmas far less stressful than it has been in the past.
Linda got those celebrations last year and rubbed off the date. Keep them. 
