Busy-night survival: Christmas and New Year's Eve tips for UK takeaways

Updated 13 Nov 2026. This guide is for UK takeaway owners planning Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and New Year's Eve. It has no invented statistics. The only published figures are Just Eat's own and Google Trends timing, both dated and linked. Any sum is an example you should replace with your own numbers.

In short: the nights that break takeaways are short and sharp, so you win them before they start. Cut the menu, confirm stock and staff, test the app and printer, and decide in advance how you will slow or stop orders. On the night, accept with a realistic prep time, mark dishes sold out as they go, and shrink delivery to what your drivers can cover.

What the published data does and does not tell you

Just Eat published its December 2025 UK figures on 9 January 2026. They are the platform's own numbers, include grocery orders and cover Just Eat only, so treat them as a sign of the pattern, not a forecast for your shop:

• Just Eat took more than 17 million orders in December 2025.
• Chinese takeaway orders more than doubled on both 24 and 31 December.
• Over 145,000 orders were placed on Christmas Day.
• More than 4,500 orders were placed in the final hour of New Year's Eve.

The lesson is about shape, not size. Demand bunches into a few hours, especially on 24 and 31 December. Your own order history from last year is a better guide than anyone's average: look at the busiest hour on your busiest night and plan to be ready for that again.

The calendar in 2026

Christmas Day and New Year's Day are both Fridays. Boxing Day is a Saturday, with the bank holiday on Monday 28 December. Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve are Thursdays. The full table of bank holidays, Google special hours and licensing is in our Christmas opening hours checklist.

UK Google searches (Google Trends, pulled 13 November 2026) give a rough timing for customers: "christmas opening hours" peaks in the last days before Christmas, "takeaway christmas day" starts rising from about the second week of December, and "new years eve takeaway" has peaked on 28 December in each of the last two years. That is a reason to have your hours and menu settled by early December.

Two weeks before: the boring jobs

• Suppliers. Ask for the last delivery date before Christmas and before New Year, and order for the two peak nights with no top-up in mind.
• Rota. Agree who works 24 December, 26 and 28 December, 31 December and 1 January now, not on the day.
• Equipment. Test the printer, replace the paper, and check you have enough bags, boxes and labels. A test print at the start of service is cheaper than a remake.
• The app. Charge the phone or tablet that runs the Chefzi Orders app (Android now; iOS coming soon) and check the sound is on. It rings until someone accepts or rejects.
• Allergens. Any new festive dish needs checking against the 14 allergens before it is on the menu. The Food Standards Agency says allergen information for online and phone orders must be given before the order is completed and again when the food is delivered. See allergen information for online ordering.
• Licence. If you plan to serve hot food after 11pm in England or Wales, check your premises licence. See the late night refreshment licence.

Menu ideas for the peak nights

A short menu is faster to cook, easier to stock and easier for customers to choose from. These are ideas, not figures, so adapt them to your cuisine:

• A "night off cooking" bundle. One price for a main per person, a shared side and a drink. In Chefzi a bundle is a normal meal deal with sizes and extras.
• A New Year's Eve party box. Sharing dishes that cook in batches and hold heat, packed in one order.
• A festive special. One seasonal dish, such as a spiced dish or a dessert, instead of five. One new dish means one new allergen check.
• Cut the slow dishes. Anything that takes much longer than the rest, or needs a separate station, comes off for 24 and 31 December. Mark it sold out in Chefzi and it disappears from your online menu straight away. Sold out does not delete the dish, and there is no switch to hide a whole category.
• Keep the vegetarian choices. Family tables often include someone who does not eat meat. Keep two or three clear options.
• Say what is gone. If a dish sells out at 7pm, mark it sold out on the till so the next customer does not order it.

If you run a Chinese takeaway, pizza shop or chicken shop, the same principles apply: fewer dishes, faster tickets, one or two bundles. See also takeaway online ordering.

On the night: seven rules

1. One person owns the screen. One person accepts and rejects orders, and tells the kitchen. The cook cooks.
2. Accept with a prep time you believe. The prep time you set when you accept is the time the customer sees. When the kitchen is behind, accept new orders with a longer prep time rather than promising 20 minutes you cannot meet.
3. Reject honestly. If an order is impossible, reject it with a reason the customer can read. A rejection is better than a cold meal an hour late.
4. Mark sold out as it happens. Mark the dish sold out on the till and it is off your online menu.
5. Shrink delivery. There is no switch to pause a single zone. Take your furthest zone off the saved list, raise its minimum, or turn delivery off and leave collection on. Give each zone a realistic delivery time. See delivery zones by postcode.
6. Pause when you must. Pause ordering in the dashboard, then resume it with one action. Chefzi has no per-slot cap, so the pause is your hard stop. Pause it before you reach the point where food is going out cold.
7. Protect the peak hour. If you know the busiest hour from last year, put your fastest people on the pass for it. Prepare sauces, sides and packaging beforehand.

After the peak

Between Christmas and New Year, quiet days are normal in some areas and busy in others. Check your hours on Google and your ordering page, and keep the sold-out list up to date. If customers ordered on your own page and agreed to hear from you, a short message about your hours is useful; use only contact details you may use under UK GDPR and PECR.

What Chefzi does and does not do on a busy night

Printable checklist

• Supplier last-delivery dates and rota agreed
• Peak-night menu cut; slow dishes marked sold out
• One bundle and one festive special at most; allergens checked
• App charged and sound on; printer tested with spare paper
• Packaging stocked
• One person assigned to accept and reject orders
• Longest prep time and delivery time agreed for the peak hour
• Furthest delivery zone and delivery pause decision agreed
• Hours updated on Google, your ordering page and social profiles
• Licence checked if you will serve after 11pm

Sources

• Just Eat Takeaway.com Newsroom, "Chinese takeaway and last-minute groceries drive December demand on Just Eat", 9 January 2026 (Just Eat UK figures for December 2025): https://newsroom.justeattakeaway.com/en-GB/259433-chinese-takeaway-and-last-minute-groceries-drive-december-demand-on-just-eat/ (read 13 Nov 2026)
• GOV.UK bank holidays in England and Wales, 2026: https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays (read 13 Nov 2026)
• Food Standards Agency, allergen guidance for food businesses (information for online and phone orders): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/allergen-guidance-for-food-businesses/allergen-guidance-for-food-businesses (read 13 Nov 2026)
• Chefzi online ordering features and order app: https://chefzi.co.uk/features/online-ordering and https://chefzi.co.uk/features/order-app (read 13 Nov 2026)