How to take Christmas pre-orders for collection

Open Christmas pre-orders in mid-November, close them about five days before Christmas, and give every order a collection day and time slot. That is the plan most butchers, delis, bakeries and takeaways use to get turkeys, mince pies and platters out of the door on 23 and 24 December without a queue round the block. Below are the 2026 dates, a copy-ready order form, a slot plan and the UK labelling rules for festive food, then how to take the same orders online.

This page is about food customers collect or have delivered. Planning a Christmas party or a set menu for your dining room instead? Use our Christmas menu templates, which include a party pre-order form.

Print a free Christmas order formCreate your free ordering page

Christmas 2026 and 2027: the dates that matter

Source: GOV.UK bank holidays. In 2026 Christmas Eve is a Thursday, so most collections fall on Wednesday 23 and Thursday 24 December, with Tuesday 22 December for anyone travelling.

Timeline: when to open and close Christmas orders

Close earlier for anything that needs a long lead time, such as whole birds from a farm, and later for things you bake daily.

What to put on a Christmas order form

A good form saves phone calls on the day. Use these fields, in this order, on paper or online. Our free holiday order form prints them on one A4 sheet with your logo and terms.

• Customer: name, mobile number, email.
• Collection: day and time slot (or delivery address and day).
• Items: each item with its size or weight (for example "turkey crown, serves 6–8"), quantity and price.
• Allergies and dietary needs: a box, plus a line telling customers to ask before ordering.
• Payment: paid in full, or deposit paid and balance due on collection.
• Our terms: the order closing date, what happens if an order isn't collected, and your cancellation policy.

Copy-ready Christmas order form

A worked example: a bakery's three collection days

Take a bakery that expects 140 Christmas orders. Most are for mince pies (boxes of 6) and Christmas cakes, with a few Yule logs. These figures are an example, not a benchmark.

Christmas cakes are made and fed with brandy weeks before. Only the mince pies and Yule logs are baked for each day, so the bakery bakes to the order list: by the evening of 21 December it knows exactly how many boxes each day needs. Pre-orders are bagged and labelled by slot, so a customer gives their name and walks out in a minute.

UK rules for festive food orders

• Allergens. Festive food is full of the 14 regulated allergens: nuts and sulphites in mincemeat and Christmas cake, gluten, milk and egg in pastry, celery and mustard in stuffing and glazes. When customers order online or by phone, allergen information must be available before they buy and when the food is handed over. See our 14 allergens guide.
• Prepacked for direct sale (Natasha's Law). Boxes of mince pies or sausage rolls that you pack on the premises before the customer orders, and sell from the same premises, are PPDS. They need a label with the food's name and a full ingredients list with the allergens emphasised. Food you pack to order, at the customer's request, is not PPDS. More in our Natasha's Law guide, and print labels with the free allergen label maker.
• Keep it cold. Chilled food such as raw turkey, gammon and platters must be kept at 8°C or below by law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland; the FSA recommends setting fridges at 5°C or below. Christmas Eve means fridges opened all day, so log the temperature: our free fridge temperature log sheet does it on paper.
• VAT. Cold takeaway food such as a raw turkey, a cold pork pie or a Christmas cake is generally zero-rated. Hot takeaway food is standard-rated. Some items are standard-rated even when cold, including sweets, chocolates and crisps. See VAT on takeaway food and HMRC's VAT Notice 709/1.
• Deposits and cancellations. Put your deposit, closing date and cancellation terms in writing when the order is placed. CMA guidance says a genuine deposit can be kept if the customer cancels, as long as you made that clear when they ordered, but it should normally be a small percentage of the price.

How to take Christmas pre-orders online with Menuthere

A paper order book works until the phone rings during the lunch rush. An ordering page takes the same orders with the slot, the payment and the allergy note already filled in.

1. Add your Christmas range as menu items with sizes, such as "Mince pies, box of 6" or "Turkey crown, serves 6–8". Tag each one with its allergens; customers see them before they order, on every plan including Free.
2. Turn on prebooking (Lite). In Prebooking settings choose Date & time, set a Date range of 22 to 24 December and fixed collection slots, such as 9:00–11:00.
3. Make the Christmas items need notice. Under Applies to, choose Specific items and tick the Christmas range. Set the Earliest booking time to the notice you need, for example 2 days, and use Only made on for the days you produce them. Your everyday menu still orders as normal.
4. Take payment up front. Turn on online payment with Stripe (Lite) so orders are paid in full when placed. Menuthere doesn't take a part-payment deposit at checkout; if you only want a deposit, send a Stripe payment link with the order confirmation instead.
5. Control how many you take. There's no per-slot order limit, so watch the Prebookings tab. When a product or a day is full, mark the item out of stock or shorten the date range.
6. Tell customers the deadline. A pop-up banner (Lite) can run from 16 to 19 December with "Christmas orders close Saturday 19 December". An early-bird discount code can be limited to the dates you choose, but not to a time of day.
7. On the day, work from the Prebookings tab: the Prepare now box shows the orders coming up next.

Lite costs US$17 a month (billed in US dollars), with a 7-day free trial; a card is needed to start, and nothing is charged until the trial ends. Every order is 0% commission. See pricing. Regulars who use your own branded app can get a push notification when Christmas orders open.

Then to switch on Christmas pre-orders.

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Planning the rest of the season? See our Christmas marketing ideas, the New Year's Eve menu templates and the full restaurant marketing calendar. Bakeries can also use the cake order form for celebration cakes, and the holiday hours sign for your Christmas opening times.