Celebrating Christmas with Celtic Manor

You may have read recently about the amazing Afternoon tea I attended at the Celtic Manor in Newport last month (high recommended) and I am all about celebrating and supporting amazing local business especially when everything they do is so high-end such as the Celtic Manor, a 5 star resort 20min from Cardiff. They also offer a Gourmet To Go Christmas Lunch menu - which really does make your life easier, and with the table set ready for entertaining I was over the moon to do a review.

So what is the Gourmet To Go Christmas Lunch - well it's basically everything you need with all the trimmings, already cooked (except for the locally sourced Free-range turkey which is the only thing you need to prepare yourself) to make your big day run more smoothly and make you appear like the calmest hostess ever.

Really loved the Cranberry Compote and fresh veggies

What I was nervous about was that it wouldn't fit both our needs - John is a meat eater and I am a Veggie but at Christmas we usually have family over and do the whole bells and whistles with a special veggie dish prepared on the side so it was great to see that the Carrots & Brussels sprouts, Roasted Parsnips, Red Cabbage and Apple and Cranberry Compote was veggie friendly and also meant less preparation for me and I loved the Red Cabbage and Apple. For the meat eaters there are also a extras onto of the Turkey and include the Roasties, Sage and Onion sausages wrapped in Bacon and Bread, Sage, Onion and Pork Stuffing balls and a Turkey Jus. The Gourmet lunch is for 10 people and the portions are really good - no skimping there and it costs £145 but for 10 people and the highest quality ingredients all cooked for you I think this is a really good price.

As I mentioned earlier in this post we also decided to take Mr A to the Christmas Kingdom to meet the man in red. We had been debating a few places but the fact that the Celtic Manor had two reindeer  in nice open stables for the kids to see after Santa is what swayed us as well as making a gingerbread tree with Mrs Clause when you arrive as well as having a quite space to write a letter to Santa which you could either post or hand to him in person, it just made the whole experience a little bit more magical and I can see why it get's fully booked each year.

Thanks to Celtic Manor for asking us to review Gourmet to Go