How to book holiday catering early without knowing your final headcount

Everyone tells you to book holiday catering early, and everyone who has hosted Thanksgiving knows why that advice is hard to follow: in early fall you have no idea whether your sister’s family is coming, whether the office party is forty people or seventy, or whether Christmas Eve is at your house at all. So people wait for the headcount, and by the time they have it, the kitchen they wanted is full.

The short answer: book the date, not the final number. As soon as you know you are hosting, pick the delivery or pickup day and order the dozens for the low end of an honest headcount range; when the RSVPs come in, add a second order for the extra dozens. With Maggie’s, both orders go through our online store at $60 a dozen, and you pay online.

That is the whole method. What follows is how to do each part well: what a “range” should look like, what actually has to be decided early, what can wait, and how the money works when the number moves.

Why holiday weeks fill first

A scratch kitchen makes a fixed number of tamales in a day. The week before Thanksgiving and the two weeks before Christmas, every family in north Dallas wants their dozens delivered in the same three or four days, and every office wants its holiday lunch in the same two weeks. The orders placed early get the days they asked for. The ones placed late get what is left, and some years that is a Tuesday morning instead of Christmas Eve.

It is not a sales tactic. It is a steamer with a fixed number of racks. Our online store takes orders for a date ahead for exactly this reason, so the people who plan early can be sure, and I would rather have you on the calendar with a cautious number than off it with a precise one. The holiday tamales page covers the season, and my piece on when to order Christmas tamales goes into the timing week by week.

How to book holiday catering on a range

When you sit down to plan, you need four things, and only one of them is a number you might not have.

1. The date, and the time the food should be on the table. Christmas Eve at 6 PM. The office party on the Friday before Christmas at noon. This is what you are really securing.
2. The address. Your house in Allen, the office in Plano, your mother’s place in Murphy. If it might move between two houses, settle that before you order, or choose pickup at our Plano kitchen.
3. A headcount range. “Twenty to thirty.” “Somewhere between fifty and seventy.” Order for the bottom of it now; the top tells you how many dozens you may add later.
4. The kind of meal. Tamales as the main event, or tamales next to a turkey. This changes the count per person more than the headcount does.

From that, place the first order in our online store: the date, delivery or pickup, and the dozens for the bottom of your range, chicken in green salsa or pork in red salsa, paid online. Then you go back to not thinking about it until the RSVPs come in. Next day orders must be received and confirmed by us before noon the previous day. Only confirmed orders will be delivered as requested.

Turning a range into dozens and dollars

The math is simple enough to do at the table. Two tamales per person when tamales are the meal with sides, three when they are the main event for a hungry crowd, one to two when they sit beside a turkey or a ham. I round up to whole dozens, and every dozen is $60.

So a range of twenty to thirty is a range of $240 to $300 and a family that says “fifty, maybe seventy” is looking at $540 to $720. The gap between the top and bottom of an honest range is usually two or three dozen, which is the amount you may add with a second order. If tamales are a side to the turkey, cut the count roughly in half; my guide to how many tamales to order for Christmas dinner works through the versions.

What to decide early, and what can wait

Hosts try to settle everything at once because they think that is what the caterer needs. It is not. Here is the split as I see it from the kitchen.

Decide early

• The date, and delivery or pickup. This is the scarce thing. Everything else is elastic.
• Roughly how big. A family dinner and a company party of a hundred are different days in the kitchen. A range does this job.
• Main or side. Whether tamales are the meal changes the whole plan.
• The address and any access detail. A gate code at your parents’ neighborhood, the loading dock at the office.

Can wait until the RSVPs are in

• The exact headcount. Inside the range, this decides whether you add dozens.
• The pork-to-chicken split. Pork in red salsa or chicken breast in green tomatillo salsa; most families go half and half, then lean toward whichever the family loves. My article on choosing between red and green for a crowd helps if you are undecided.
• Your own sides. Rice and beans for a full meal, salsas and toppings from the store, or the homemade sides the family always brings.
• Serving spoons and plates. Easy to buy the week of.

Settle the early list and you can place the first order. The late list waits for the RSVPs, and it fits in one more order if you need it.

How adding to your order works

Once your first order is in, the date is yours. Then set yourself a point before the delivery date to check the real number. For a family it is usually the point when RSVPs are in and the travel plans are firm. For an office it is often after the invitation goes out and the replies come back. In a holiday week, earlier is better.

At that point three things can happen. The number lands at the bottom of the range, and you are done. The number comes in lower still, which is fine; the extra tamales go into the freezer. Or the number climbs toward the top, and you place a second order in the store for the extra dozens, as early as you can, because the extra tamales have to fit into a week that is already full. Next day orders must be received and confirmed by us before noon the previous day. Only confirmed orders will be delivered as requested. Questions about an order you already placed? Call or text (469) 888-8398. I wrote about the general version of this in what to do when the headcount changes.

One more piece of advice: order on the higher side. A holiday tamal is not wasted. Leftovers freeze beautifully in the husk and are the best breakfast of the year on the day after, so the cost of three extra tamales is a lot lower than the cost of running out in front of your uncle.

Booking a holiday office party on a range

Offices have the same problem in a different shape. The party is approved in the fall, the date is set, and the count is a mystery because nobody has sent the invitation yet. Book it the same way: order the day early for the usual meeting attendance, the bottom of your range, and add dozens after the replies come in if the whole staff says yes. I go into the specifics, including conference-room logistics, in holiday office party catering in Dallas, and the corporate catering page covers office orders.

If your office already runs a monthly Tamale Day, the holiday lunch is even easier: you already know your count and your split, and it is the same order with a holiday date.

Money: what you pay and when

People are nervous about committing money to a number they do not have. Many caterers ask for a deposit to hold a holiday date and settle the balance once the count is confirmed. With Maggie’s it is simpler: you pay online, at checkout, for the dozens you order, and delivery fees are shown there too. Nothing is billed for a number you have not ordered. At $60 a dozen, each dozen you add later costs $60, so an honest range does not expose you to a surprise.

That is why I suggest ordering the bottom of your range first: you pay for what you know, and you add what you learn. The FAQ page covers the ordering and delivery questions that come up most, and for anything else, call or text (469) 888-8398.

Ready to hold a holiday date?

If you are hosting Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, New Year’s or a Día de los Muertos gathering anywhere from Richardson to McKinney, pick the date, choose delivery or pickup, and order the dozens for the bottom of a range like “thirty to forty” in our online store. When your family has finally answered, add the extra dozens with a second order. And if you want tamales in the freezer before the rush, our frozen tamales are made for that. Order holiday tamales, and be the one in the family who booked early.

Frequently asked questions

How do I book holiday catering without a final headcount?

Plan with a headcount range instead of a number, for example twenty to thirty, and order the date early for the bottom of that range. With Maggie’s you order and pay in our online store; when the RSVPs come in, add a second order for the extra dozens. The date is the scarce part; the number can grow with a second order.

When should I book catering for Thanksgiving or Christmas?

As soon as you know you are hosting, even if that is early fall and you have no headcount. Holiday weeks are the fullest of the year for a tamale kitchen in Texas, and the days go to the people who ordered first. Our online store takes orders for a date ahead, so you can put your dozens on a day now and add more later.

What happens if my headcount goes down after I book?

If you ordered for the bottom of your range, a drop is rarely a problem: the extra tamales freeze beautifully in the husk and make the best breakfast of the year. If you have a question about an order you already placed, call or text (469) 888-8398.

What if more guests say yes than I planned for?

Place a second order in the online store for the extra dozens the moment you know. In a holiday week the extra tamales have to fit into a kitchen that is already full, so early matters more than at any other time of year. Next day orders must be received and confirmed by us before noon the previous day. When in doubt, order on the higher side; leftover tamales freeze well.

How many tamales per person should I plan for a holiday dinner?

Two per person when tamales are the meal with rice and beans, three each for a hungry crowd where tamales are the main event, and one to two when they sit next to a turkey or ham. Our tamales are big, so those numbers hold. Round up to whole dozens at $60 each, or a half dozen at $30.

Do I have to pay in full to reserve a holiday delivery date?

With Maggie’s you pay online, at checkout, for the dozens you order, and that order is what puts your date on the calendar. There is no separate deposit for a number you have not ordered yet. Order the bottom of your range first and add dozens later with a second order.