Nobody wants to think about December in early September. That is precisely why doing it now is worth so much. Christmas party drinks planning is one of the few hosting jobs where being early is not merely tidier but materially cheaper and less stressful, because almost every problem people hit in the third week of December is created by a decision they did not make in October.
This is not about buying everything today. It is about making a handful of decisions now so that December is spent enjoying the party rather than solving it.
The genuine constraints are narrower than the general panic suggests, which is useful, because it tells you where to concentrate.
Prestige champagne is the clearest one. Vintage bottlings and the smaller houses are produced in fixed quantities, and by mid-December the specific bottle you had in mind may simply not be available anywhere. If your plan involves something particular for a toast, that is the item to secure early.
The second is delivery capacity, everywhere, across the whole sector. December is the busiest month of the year for drinks logistics, and the last ten days are extraordinarily compressed. The third, less obvious one, is your own time. The week before Christmas is when everything else lands at once, and a decision that takes ten minutes in October takes an hour in December because you are making it while doing four other things.
September and October are for decisions rather than purchases. Fix the date, get a rough headcount, and settle the shape of the evening: drinks reception only, or a full sit-down. That single choice changes your order more than anything else.
November is for confirming numbers and ordering anything scarce or specific. If you want a particular champagne, this is the month.
Early December is for the bulk order, delivered two to three weeks out so you have time to chill and store it properly. The final week is for perishables, ice and top-ups. Note that the ideal is not to have everything in the house by the first of December, since storage is a real constraint in most London flats.
The standard formula holds up well: two drinks in the first hour, one per hour after. For a four-hour evening, that is six per guest, and for twenty guests, one hundred and twenty servings.
Translating that into bottles is where people go wrong. A 75cl bottle of wine gives six modest glasses or five generous ones. A bottle of champagne gives six flutes. A 70cl bottle of spirits gives around twenty-eight 25ml measures, which sounds like plenty until you realise most home pours are nearer 50ml.
The mix matters as much as the total. For a mixed December crowd, something like forty per cent wine, twenty-five per cent beer and cider, twenty per cent sparkling and fifteen per cent spirits is a sensible starting split, adjusted for what you know about your guests. And a genuine non-alcoholic selection should be roughly a third of the total volume, not an afterthought.
If assembling that from scratch feels like work, a pre-mixed case covers the spread in one order.
This determines what you can safely buy early, and it is the single most useful thing to know.
Unopened spirits keep essentially forever. Gin, vodka, whisky, rum and tequila are stable, so buying them in October costs you nothing. Store upright rather than on their side, since high-strength alcohol degrades a cork over time.
Champagne and sparkling wine keep well for months provided they are somewhere cool, dark and free from vibration. Non-vintage champagne is designed to be drunk on release and will not improve, but it will not deteriorate over a few months either.
Beer and cider are the exception. They have best-before dates for a reason, and hoppy styles in particular fade noticeably within months. Buy those closer to the date. Cream liqueurs also have a much shorter shelf life than most people assume, typically well under two years, so check before stockpiling.
Browse the champagne range and the spirits range when you are ready to secure the long-life items.
There is a straightforwardly financial argument for early Christmas party drinks planning. December is an expensive month for everyone, and buying the spirits and champagne in October moves a meaningful chunk of the cost into a quieter one.
It also protects the quality of your decisions. Ordering under time pressure in the third week of December tends to mean buying whatever is in front of you rather than what you actually wanted, which is usually more expensive rather than less.
Plan the bulk early, but do not try to plan every last bottle. Guest numbers shift, someone brings four extra people, and the drink everyone gravitates to is rarely the one you predicted.
The sensible approach is to order the bulk in advance and leave a deliberate gap for the night itself. We deliver right across London within the M25 in 30 to 45 minutes, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including Christmas Day and bank holidays, so running short during the party is a ten-minute problem rather than a ruined evening. Worth confirming your postcode on our delivery areas page well before the night.
If you do nothing else after reading this, do three things. Write down the date and a rough headcount. Decide whether there is one specific bottle the evening depends on, and if so, order it in November. And work out roughly how many servings you need, so that when you do come to buy, you are checking a number rather than guessing at one.
Ready to get ahead of it? Browse the full range and order whenever suits you. Gift wrapping and a personalised message are available at checkout, and we deliver across London in 30 to 45 minutes at any hour, or next day UK-wide.
Please drink responsibly. Drinks House 247 operates a Challenge 21 policy - you must be 18 or over to order, and our drivers will ask for photo ID if you look under 21.
Buying for other people as well as the party? Get the Christmas gifts shopping done in the same early order.
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