Christmas family traditions and routines.

That sounds amazing, enjoy!

New young children here stm so we have a long and lazy Christmas, traditional turkey and ham and all the trimmings about 2:30pm Lots of board games, lovely drinks and fun.

My mother maintained that since Christmas was supposed to be a time for children, and since tea (as in cakes etc) was often the children’s favourite meal, tea shouldn’t be neglected. As well as Christmas cake she’d already made all our favourites and she insisted on everyone sitting down at the table and that’s when we had our crackers. It was wonderful.

I think you need to actively enjoy cooking Christmas dinner, and other people need to actively enjoy clearing away, for eating in the evening to work well

Pork pie for breakfast is non negotiable here

kittylester

Pork pie for breakfast is non negotiable here

And trifle for breakfast on Boxing Day 🍧

Just the 2 of us & the dog on Christmas Day.
Walk with the dog on the beach.
Late lunch, about 3, steak & chips.
Presents after lunch.
A lazy day.

Boxing Day, at ours.
Son, my parents, Mum just out of hospital after a 5 week stay & very frail & my dad’s sister.
Also a lazy day

I am eating with DD and her menfolk this year (if they ever manage to move the half built Lego model of Rivendell off the dining table!) and I shall be told what time to pitch up in time for present opening, then parked in a chair for the duration as I am not allowed to “lend a hand”. But GS will be appointed to look after me and that is the best Christmas gift I could wish for! I shall probably be initiated into the mysteries of his new XBox thingy!
A traditional Christmas lunch will be served around two - ishhhhh! Christmas pud will be a Matthew Walker courtesy of the Percy Pud race that DD took part in a couple of weekends ago! Every finisher got one. The decks will be cleared for games, and then more food will be trotted out. There will probably be a film at some point. I shall stay over and may get a walk with DD on Boxing Day if the weather holds, after which I shall go home.
I shall spend Christmas Eve on my own, thinking of DH and how he revelled in the whole Christmas thing, bless him! He knew how to make it special.

Dd has taken over Christmas dinner so the meal will be after the King's speech. I still do stockings for adults children 🙄. One year I stopped and there were protests 😂. So a late breakfast/brunch and then ds and I will go to dds.

Grandmabatty I can’t say how happy I am for you to read and DS and I will go to DD’s.
Your family is back and complete ,what could be better?

Thank you utbb. I am very happy to spend Christmas with all my family 😀

We have a light breakfast and then walk the dog, we're home this year so will be up on the hills, when we are with SIL and family we go to the beach. We have present opening when we get home with champagne and smoked salmon blinis, I must remember to get some cream cheese. We eat a traditional turkey meal by candlelight when it starts to get dark. We go to town on all the festive bits as they are the real treats and everything is home made. When with SIL the port gets passed with the cheese and I always get a headache so we'll give it a miss this year. I normally get a Mont D'or but so far haven't found any! We finish the day with board games, the grandchildren are older now so we do more grown up stuff and it's horribly competitive! This year I think we'll just have a few rounds of cards but at SIl's there's always something really difficult and an opportunity to display my inferiority which everyone enjoys apart from me! It's actually really good fun (I think).

Kittylester I don’t eat meat but as a child we always had melton Mowbray pork pies for breakfast Are you from Leicestshire ? My Nan and grandad were and it seemed to be the norm there
Very quiet here all my family are scattered and all the grandkids are away living working or travelling and having great experiences
Just me and my eldest left here so I ll go to hers for dinner at dinner time 1 to 1.30 ish hoping to do the Christmas Day swim first then a hot shower before eating a traditional meal( me having a nut roast) maybe a walk or if the weathers bad just watch T v
Can’t wait to get back to normal days and put all the hype behind me
Christmas is only good for big family get togethers not if
you re on your own

When the children were little we would stand at the top of the stairs, whilst DH went down to see if FC ( as he was known) had been. If he shouted up a yes the children went down and explored their stockings and whatever else FC had left. My parents, DH’s parents, my aunt and my DS and her children all came to lunch. Boxing Day was at DS. We swapped days every year.
Now of course it is just us,our children and grandchildren, who are adults now. A much quieter day .

Astitchintime

kittylester

Pork pie for breakfast is non negotiable here

And trifle for breakfast on Boxing Day 🍧

My DB used to eat trifle for breakfast on Boxing Day!

Christmas Day was the only day the dog was allowed upstairs to 'help' discover what was in the DC's stockings!

It used to be smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast but now it's just croissants with French apricot jam.

We don't really have traditions- we have to adapt to the circumstances.
So this year I have no idea how my son and I will spend Christmas Day. He has been working non-stop for a few weeks helping deliver parcels so he will be ready for a day off.
My plan is to wake up Christmas morning and stay in bed!
Then we maybe will have a fry-up because that will be a real treat.
Then I intend to watch some TV, maybe make a few phone calls and have a very lazy Christmas dinner with maybe a glass of wine.
After maybe my son and I might watch an old film together and eat some treats, maybe open a few presents.
Probably have an early night because Boxing Day is when the family arrive and a ham has been requested. We may have a buffet or sit down depending when they arrive.
We will then open presents and maybe play a game and collapse with a few drinks in the evening.
Bring it on- I love a flexi Christmas!

Breakfast is just our usual toast or cereal. I tell my daughter that lunch will be around oneish (more like two thirty in reality!) She comes round with her family and we have a glass of Marsala and open the presents. Eventually we get round to lunch which finishes up with Christmas pudding, custard and ice cream. My daughter and the children tidy up the mess from the present opening and my son and I load up the dishwasher. When daughter and family have gone home I sit down with a cup of tea and watch mindless TV until it's time to think about a turkry sandwich

kittylester

Pork pie for breakfast is non negotiable here

My late father always had pork pie Christmas morning and a tot of whisky in his tea.

monk08

kittylester

Pork pie for breakfast is non negotiable here

My late father always had pork pie Christmas morning and a tot of whisky in his tea.

I've never heard of this Pork pie breakfast thing! Quite a nice tradition though. I have a butcher at the end of the road where people queue in the rain for his pork pies- maybe I should buy a couple?

I think it's a Leicestershire (or East Midlands) thing.

My father always ate slices from the gammon joint on Christmas morning, with bread and butter. I still do the same.