Horses for courses. Just because I wouldn’t do it and just because a lot of others wouldn’t do it doesn’t make it wrong.

In contrast, with my very large German family, prior to attending each family segment is allocated a food dish to bring and everyone together creates a feast.

Every family needs to do what works best for them.

Yeah nah. I wouldn’t charge. We do ‘kids get pressies and everyone brings something to eat or drink’. It usually works out pretty even.

Not strange when she’s the one who invites and caters for Xmas lunch year after year. and makes the costs, while her guests consume.
However when I pay for my lunch, I also want to decide myself what I eat. So when she asks for contribution, she also might need to consider a menu with different options.

I think as long as everyone knows in advance it’s fine. Might not be what I’d choose to do but it’s her choice and it’s obviously worth paying for if people keep turning up.

I can’t imagine ever charging family or friends for attending your Christmas meal. It’s very uncharitable!

I would definitely not charge my quests for coming over to share Christmas.

Um. I’d be more inclined to ask people to contribute something.

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  • • BellaB replied
    • 01 Dec 2017 , 5:23 pm

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  To clarify… Like a dish.

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  • • 
    • • mom90758 replied
      • 02 Dec 2017 , 1:17 pm

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    But the child has allergies. That’s the main problem

Well, if it’s really ten years that she invites everybody at her house for Christmas, I can understand that the money could become an issue. I find quite strange though that the family members don’t give her a money contribution anyway. If arranging that everybody brings something is not a possibility because of the child’s food allergies, I would find it quite normal to give her money to buy food. Setting a certain amount for every person is a little weird in my idea. Organizing a Christmas lunch every year for the all family is really a lot of work. If she decided to make such a request, it’s probably because nobody ever gave her anything. And that’s weird too.

If she is hosting each and every year then I think charging (at least for the ingredients) is fair enough. If families take turns to host each year, then probably not okay to charge.

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  • • cherz replied
    • 02 Dec 2017 , 6:57 pm

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  Yep I agree with you on this one.