Christmas

The best picky bits and Christmas party food in M&S this year

Everyone, gather around the buffet, it's time!

Daisy Jackson - 21st December 2024

Can some scientist please explain why us Brits have such a compulsion to roll out the picky bits and party food (ESPECIALLY if it comes from M&S) as soon as there’s a vague sense of occasion?

Birthday party? Picky bits. BBQ season? Picky bits. Had a long day at work and can’t decide what to have for tea but definitely don’t want a Pot Noodle? Picky bits.

And when Christmas or New Year’s Eve rolls around, the urge to consume random little morsels of food intensifies.

Whether it’s British classics squashed down into tiny portions and jammed on a buffet table or fancy little appetisers you hand around a party, we just can’t get enough.

Which is why we’ve raided the shelves at M&S once again to bring you all the best picky bits and party food available for Christmas 2024.

As for prices, the more premium M&S Collection party food items are generally priced at £7.50, with the more standard range coming in at £5.50 each, and all available on a four-for-three offer.

And yes, you might end up spending an obscene amount of money on miniature food items that won’t do a single thing to quell an appetite, but my gosh, won’t you feel like a prim and proper princess when you slide those teeny weeny fish and chips in front of your guests.

Let’s begin.

Brits abroad

M&S might be the most staunchly British institution of modern times, but us Brits also love nothing more than to lift the culinary expertise of other countries onto our own plates.

And this year is no exception – M&S has whipped up a whole host of party food inspired by international favourites.

From little potato stacks that pay homage to everyone’s favourite tapas dish, patatas bravas, to tiny chicken shawarma kebabs to Middle Eastern Flatbreads, if you want a little spice on your Christmas buffet, they’ve got it.

Well aren’t you a fancy pants?!

‘Ooooh, someone’s doing well’ comes the chorus of praise as you hand around your mini prawn thermidor (these tiny gold trays even have a cheddar cheese crumb on top).

‘Wow, that must’ve been a good Christmas bonus’ they say as they accept a mini coquille St Jacques, complete with extra-small shell.

If upper middle class was a nibble, it would probably look like these guys.

Little Britain

Imagine all your classic British dishes, pub food, Sunday dinners, comfort meals cooked by your mum – you picturing them? Okay, now imagine them again but really, really small.

Now you’ve got a good idea of the items in our next M&S party food category.

There are mini Yorkshire puddings filled with slow-cooked beef, red wine and mushroom jus, and a garlic and herb crumb.

There are neat little cheddar and ham scones, miniature pies filled with beef and ale or chicken and leek, and even picky bit-sized scampi and chips portions, complete with newspaper wrapping. Cute!

The classics

These are not just buffet food items, these are M&S buffet food items, and that means they come with a bit of pizzazz.

Yes, there are pigs in blankets, but there are also halloumi pigs in blankets (which they weirdly haven’t made vegetarian) served with a hot honey drizzle.

We love a battered prawn on a party food selection and M&S has done a selection of tiger prawn nibbles – prawn baguette toasts, prawn and coconut bites, and prawn and potato lattice balls. The word prawn is starting to look weird.

There are also smoked salmon appetisers, where smoked salmon strips are rolled around a honey roast salmon mousse. Hope ya like very small fish!

Calm down M&S it’s getting weird now

I’d love to be a fly on the wall when the M&S party food is discussed, because I’m pretty sure no one around that boardroom table is telling them ‘No, Arabella, that’s a silly idea’. Arabella does what she wants.

This year, she’s heard all the ‘girl dinner’ trends and gone ‘WE SHOULD MAKE A CHRISTMAS DIP’ – the result is a turkey feast dip topped with shredded turkey and bacon, cranberry sauce, cranberries and a stuffing crumb. WHY, ARABELLA?!

They’ve also brought back the novelty-shaped bao, this year in two festive shapes – penguins and polar bears.

And of course you can still get miniature steak sandwiches and I don’t know why that makes me so uncomfortable, but it does.

A very yeehaw Christmas

Giddy up, cowboy, it’s time for the rootin’-tootin’ M&S party food show!

Everyone’s favourite fancy supermarket has gone stateside this year, drawing inspiration from the healthiest of nations… America.

There are Buffalo chicken croquettes, served with an extra Buffalo sauce dip, mini beef burgers (always the hardest thing to eat), and, weirdly, spring rolls inspired by a New York deli?

They’ve shoved salt beef and sauerkraut into a spring roll and then served it with a mustard and gherkin dip. You do you, M&S.

Now you’re just showing off

You’re presenting your charcuterie on a flat board? Peasant.

Real fancy people present their cured meat and cheese selection in the shape of a Christmas tree (obviously) and M&S have got a build-you-own kit available for £25.

An extra shout-out to the security-locked Serrano ham joint, which came with its own block and knife, for another statuesque meat buffet option.

Read more

• A completely objective ranking of every Quality Street sweet
• 10 Christmas foods that are toxic for pets and the warning signs to watch out for
• Man charged after stealing Christmas dinner ingredients in burglary spree

Featured image: The Manc Group