Making a friends Christmas dinner

Before everyone finishes for the winter break next week, a fun way to say goodbye to everyone and celebrate Christmas is to make a friends Christmas dinner. Me and my friend group started doing this since our first year in student accommodation and we would take over someone’s kitchen to do this little dinner party. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, a nice dinner party where everyone brings something is a lovely way to hang out and catch up before the break.

First, everyone needs to decide what they’re bringing or cooking. I’m usually on dessert as I prefer baking to cooking. Someone will do the chicken, the gravy and mash, the roast vegetables, Yorkshire pudding and stuffing, and any other snacks. Itdoesn’t need to be expensive, most people spend less than five pounds and you can bring your own drinks/booze.

It's cute to decorate the kitchen with your friends doing silly doodles and paper chains. We play silly games like twister (best to do before food) and then some drinking games later. Having a home cooked hot meal with your friends is such a nice way to end the first term of uni and say goodbye to everyone for a few weeks. These are some of my fondest memories at university and really make it feel like a home away from home.

If you’ve done Secret Santa in your friend group, this is a perfect time to exchange gifts and is another affordable way to do Christmas as you’re only buying one person a gift and you can set a price limit like 5 or 10 pounds. I usually do this with my flat mates, otherwise I end up buying gifts for over 10 people with family and friends combined, and a student budget doesn’t really allow for this. For other cheap DIY Christmas gift ideas, I recommend you check out my other blog where I listed some fun ideas here.

Have you ever done a friends Christmas dinner before and what did you bring?

Vee (Kingston rep)

Reply 1

ethenjames

This is such a fun idea! A friends’ Christmas dinner is perfect for low-cost, memorable celebrations before the break. Everyone bringing a dish, decorating, and playing games makes it feel cozy and lively. Secret Santa with a small budget is a genius touch definitely trying this with my friends!