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 number. Reserve your delivery day with a caterer as soon as you know you are hosting, give a headcount range instead of a figure, and agree on a point closer to the date when you will confirm the final count. Most caterers, including my kitchen, will hold a day on a range and adjust the dozens later, and the cost adjusts with it at $5 per tamal.

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. I open holiday pre-orders well ahead of the season for exactly this reason, so the people who plan early can be sure, and I would rather have you on the calendar with a rough number than off it with a precise one. 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 get in touch, 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 I am really reserving.
2. The address. Your house in Allen, the office in Plano, your mother’s place in Lake Highlands. If it might move between two houses, tell me both.
3. A headcount range. “Twenty to thirty.” “Somewhere between fifty and seventy.” The width of the range tells me how much to hold.
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, I send a quote priced on the top of your range, with a note of what it drops to at the bottom, and I hold the delivery day. Then we agree on a confirmation point, and you go back to not thinking about it until then. The terms for holding a date are written on that quote, so you know exactly what you are committing to.

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 exactly the amount a kitchen can add or drop with reasonable notice. 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 window. 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 confirmation point

• The exact headcount. Inside the range, this moves the dozens up or down.
• 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.
• Sides, salsas and crema. Rice and beans for a full meal, or just the salsas if the sides are homemade.
• Serving spoons and utensils. Easy to add at the end.

If you tell me only the early list, I can hold your day. The late list I will ask for when we confirm, and you can answer it in one text.

How the confirmation point works

When I take a holiday booking on a range, we set a point before the delivery date when you give me 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. The exact point is written on your quote, because it depends on how full that week is and how big the order is.

At that point three things can happen. The number lands inside the range, and I simply update the dozens and the invoice. The number comes in under the bottom, which is fine; you pay for what we make. Or the number comes in over the top, which is the one to tell me about the moment you suspect it, because the extra dozens have to fit into a week that is already full. Going up is possible far more often than not, but the earlier I hear, the more likely the answer is yes. I wrote about the general version of this in what to do when the headcount changes.

One more piece of advice: confirm 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: reserve the day with a range that covers the whole staff at the top and the usual meeting attendance at the bottom, then confirm after the replies come in. I go into the specifics, including conference-room logistics, in holiday office party catering in Dallas, and the corporate catering page covers how office orders and invoicing work.

If your office already has a standing monthly order with me, the holiday lunch is even easier: the delivery details and the dietary notes are on file, and all I need is the date and the range.

Money, deposits and what is on the quote

People are nervous about committing money to a number they do not have. Here is how it generally works. Most caterers ask for some form of commitment to hold a holiday date, because that date is turned away from someone else, and the final balance is settled once the count is confirmed. The cost tracks the dozens: at $5 per tamal, a change of one dozen in either direction costs $60 and an honest range does not expose you to a surprise.

For my kitchen, whatever is needed to hold the day, and when the balance is due, is confirmed with the written quote you get back the same business day. I do not want a rule on a web page to be the thing you rely on; I want the thing you rely on to be the paper with your name and your date on it. The FAQ page covers the ordering and delivery questions that come up most, and I answer the rest by phone.

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, tell me the date, the address and a range like “thirty to forty,” and I will send a quote and hold the day for Maggie’s tamales. We will confirm the exact count at the point written on the quote, when your family has finally answered. Request a holiday catering quote, and be the one in the family who booked early.

Frequently asked questions

How do I book holiday catering without a final headcount?

Reserve the date with a headcount range instead of a number, for example twenty to thirty, and agree with the caterer on a point before the delivery when you will confirm the exact count. My kitchen holds a holiday delivery day on a range, quotes the top and bottom, and adjusts the dozens when you confirm. The date is the scarce part; the number can move inside the range.

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 delivery days go to the people who asked first. I open holiday pre-orders well before the season so families can put a name on a day and fill in the number later.

What happens if my headcount goes down after I book?

Inside the range you gave, it just means fewer dozens on the final order and a smaller balance; you pay for what we make. Tell the caterer at the confirmation point and the invoice is updated. A drop below the bottom of the range is usually fine too, though the terms for holding the date are the ones written on your quote.

What if more guests say yes than I planned for?

Tell your caterer the moment you suspect it, before the confirmation point if you can. Going up a dozen or two is usually possible, but in a holiday week the extra tamales have to fit into a kitchen that is already full, so early notice matters more than at any other time of year. When in doubt, confirm 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 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, which works out to $5 per tamal at any quantity.

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

Most caterers ask for some commitment to hold a holiday date and settle the balance once the count is confirmed, because that day is being turned away from someone else. With Maggie’s, what is needed to hold the day and when the balance is due are confirmed with the written quote you receive, so you are relying on paper with your date on it rather than a general rule.