It just wouldn’t be Christmas without all your normal dinners being squashed down into teeny tiny portions and whacked on a buffet table – that’s right, it’s time for this year’s M&S Christmas party food round-up.
The fancy supermarket giant always goes big on picky bits, with elaborate creations that seem to get more odd every year.
Last year there was the obsession with making everything into festive shapes (like clementine-shaped pate, the antipasti wreath, and the garlic doughball Christmas tree).
This year, I think M&S has been on the wine.
You’ll find fridges full of street food style party food, including several creations that have definitely been inspired by a 3am takeaway.
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That’s alongside all their usual fancy favourites, with truffle, tiger prawns, and melty cheese all over the place.
While all the supermarkets have loads of space dedicated to their party food selections, we all know M&S is king when it comes to completely excessive creations for the festive season.
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And the best bit? It’s all priced on a 4-for-3 offer, so yThe ultimate booze tour around the bars of the Manchester Christmas Marketsou can get a free extra when you buy three items.
Here’s our pick of the best M&S Christmas party food for 2023.
British favourites… but really small
We all know Aunty Sheila loves a quiche – just imagine how her eyes will light up at the sight of a teeny weeny quiche bite.
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M&S has got Christmas butternut, sage and and feta mini quiche bites, as well as cheese and bacon bitesize tarts.
Marks and Spencer is also championing the best British food of all time – pie – with a platter of mini pies, filled with chicken leek and bacon, or beef and ale.
And of course there are tiny chicken kyivs too, because who doesn’t want a mouthful of garlic butter and breadcrumbs before their Christmas dinner?
The takeaway-inspired, one-too-many-wines snacks
M&S Christmas range includes mini loaded fries and salt and pepper chicken spring rollsM&S also has southern fried chicken for Christmas, obviously
This section right here is definitive proof, if we ever needed it, that whoever is in charge of M&S’s party food is drunk.
This person has walked into work and slurred ‘I KNOW. Kebab. In pastry. And then salt and pepper chicken… Also in pastry. Yeeeah!’
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The result is the sort of party food you’ll actually want to be faced with after hitting it too hard in the pub over Christmas.
There are weeny portions of pulled beef-loaded fries, spring rolls filled with salt and pepper chicken and a dipping pot of Chinese-style curry sauce, Chicken shawarma parcels, and southern fried chicken.
You can also grab M&S’s best-ever prawn toast with a ponzu dipping sauce.
Tiny meats on tiny carbs
Mini steak sandwiches and ragu sourdough breadsMini M&S buttermilk chicken burgersPulled beef and potato rosti towers from M&S
Nothing soaks up one too many brandies like a too-big-mouthful of red meat and literally any form of carbohydrate.
So M&S’s Christmas party range has got that covered too, with all sorts of sandwich-inspired meals condensed into nibble-sized buffet snacks.
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Do you want pulled beef on top of a potato rosti? They’ve got it. A tiny buttermilk chicken burger? Yep, that’s here too.
What about a very fancy-sounding Italian style meaty Ragu bread with a creamy cheese sauce dolloped on top? Or a mini steak sandwich with caramelised onion and mustard?
The ‘ohh someone’s doing well’
Truffle arancini at M&SThe tiger prawn assortment at M&S
If you’re hosting any sort of gathering over Christmas, you’re probably frantically hoovering the carpets and rearranging your bookshelves to hide the Prince Harry autobiography in favour for something more high-brow.
But if you really want to impress your guests, the answer is surely truffles.
And for some reason when you make party food jet black, you look extra fancy. Enter the truffle arancini from M&S’s collection range, which are filled with mushrooms, vintage cheddar, and finished in a black breadcrumb.
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M&S’s three-for-four party food range also has a selection of tiger prawn bites, each one wrapped in a different handmade filling.
There are prawn baguette toasts, prawn and coconut bites, and prawn and potato lattice balls. Very posh.
Say cheeeeeeese
Cheesy pigs in blankets at M&SFondue bites
European winters seem to not exist without a huge vat of molten cheese fondue, but that’s not exactly conducive to a stand-up Christmas party buffet.
So, in true Marks & Spencer style, they’ve wrapped a rich blend of cheeses into a crispy coating to create fried fondue bites, which are all melty and delicious in the middle.
And if you just wish your pigs in blankets were a little less oink and a little more fromage, try the cheesy pigs in blankets, where a blend of three cheeses are shaped into sausages and then wrapped in bacon. Because why not?
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There’s always one
Snowmen bao at M&S. Credit: The Manc Group
I don’t know how it happened but these days you’ll find bao all over the damn place.
You can get brunch bao, takeaway bao, dessert bao, and Christmas bao.
For the second year in a row, M&S’s Christmas party range includes a special festive-shaped fluffy bun.
Last year it was reindeer, this year they’ve gone even fancier with snowmen, complete with little red and green beanie hats and orange carrot noses.
The time has come… Manchester’s iconic Christmas Markets mug designs for 2024 have been revealed.
It really won’t be long now before those famous little wooden huts are lining Manchester‘s streets once again, and thousands of people will be flocking to our city centre to fill up on fantastic festive treats and to soak up all the Christmas atmosphere.
Now in their 26th year, Manchester Christmas Markets are known and loved for delighting local residents and visiting shoppers alike.
Almost just as well-known as the Markets themselves, though, are the keepsake mugs that visitors’ drinks are served in each year, with adorable new designs traditionally being unveiled in the weeks leading up to grand opening day – and 2024 is no different, as Manchester City Council has now shared sneak peak pictures at the mugs you’ll soon be able to hold in your hands in just over a week’s time.
Following on from the success of last year’s Nutcracker-themed mugs, which sold out in record time, 2024’s edition of the highly-collectible mugs have been designed in-house by the Council’s design studio and take on a classic Nordic style.
This year’s mugs feature a brand-new family of festive characters – Father Christmas, Mother Christmas, and all of their elves.
The collectible souvenir mugs will be available at each of the city centre Market locations from opening day next Friday 8 November, but only while stocks last, so anyone wanting to get their hands on one is advised to visit sooner rather than later.
Manchester’s iconic Christmas Markets mug designs have been revealed for 2024 / Credit: Manchester City Council
As always, the mugs can either be bought outright or ‘rented’ when you purchase a hot drink at one of the stalls.
You’ll be asked to pay a deposit of £3.50 for a mug when you purchase a hot drink, and then you can either choose to return it to the stall afterwards to get your deposit back, or keep the mug and take it home as a souvenir of your visit to the Markets.
Manchester Christmas Markets return for 2024 on Friday 8 November, and will run right through until Sunday 22 December.
Stalls in selected locations will remain open until the new year.
Featured Image – Manchester City Council
Christmas
10 of the best and fanciest advent calendars on sale in Selfridges
Daisy Jackson
The rise in luxury advent calendars in the last few years has been remarkable – and nowhere does them better than Selfridges.
Gone are the days where we were happy with cheap chocolate behind a foil door.
Nowadays one of the greatest thrills of the festive season is opening a tiny present every day, whether it’s a makeup product, a flavour of tea, a pair of socks or whatever else has been stuffed into an advent calendar.
Selfridges own beauty advent calendar, which is stuffed with more than £1000 worth of products, has already sold out for this year.
But the department store has plenty more options for you to choose from.
Read on to find 10 of the fanciest, most luxurious, most exciting advent calendars on sale this winter.
Mince pies
A mince pie advent calendar in Selfridges. Credit: The Manc Group
It just wouldn’t be Christmas without mince pies, and if you love to start stuffing your face with them as soon as the calendar hits December, then this calendar is the one for you.
The Selfridges exclusive advent calendar has loads of different flavoured mince pies hiding behind every door, including classic, citrus, almond and chocolate.
Then there’s a mini Meg Rivers Christmas cake waiting behind door number 25.
One for the big kids (or the actual kids) now – an advent calendar full of Lego. How cute!
There are a few different themes to choose from, including Harry Potter, Star Wars, and Spider Man, with a different minifigure to open every single day.
MAC’s Selfridges exclusive advent calendar has loads of hit products in it. Credit: The Manc Group
Cult make-up brand MAC has picked Selfridges as an exclusive stockist for its Gift of Gold 2024 advent calendar.
Products inside this giant festive box include some of their most celebrated products, including the Fix+ Original setting spray, matte and sheer-shine lipsticks in a range of shades, lip gloss, skincare, eye shadows and brow products.
It’s £180 but you get an unbelievable £445-worth of stuff for that. Grab yours HERE.
Diptyque
Diptyque has a 2024 advent calendar. Credit: The Manc Group
Another very fancy advent calendar is this one from Diptyque, with 25 days of scents to discover. Scentsational, you might say.
Candles make up the bulk of this advent calendar, including their seasonal specials like pine tree, berries and wood fire.
But you’ll also get refillable solid perfumes, eau de parfums, soaps, body lotions and even a set of decorations.
Selfridges’ own malt ball advent calendar. Credit: The Manc Group
Sometimes you just can’t beat a classic chocolate-filled advent calendar, and Selfridges has their own that should hit the spot.
This pretty green polka-dot box is filled with different flavours of malt chocolate balls, including blonde, salted caramel, orange, and cookies and cream.
The most wholesome advent calendar on the whole list is this one – the Little People Big Dreams calendar, where each day unlocks a new mini book.
Inside each envelope, children will find stories about inspirational people from across the world, from groundbreaking musician Elton John and eco hero Steve Irwin, to freedom-fighter Martin Luther King and visionary artist Frida Kahlo.