What is your opinion?

There'll be 14 of us for Christmas here, Maywalk, and it'll be pretty traditional! Things will be more modern, of course, but the basics will be the same. No one will be on technology, they'll all be arguing over the contents of selection boxes and who gets to eat the last pig-in-a-blanket or pinching their siblings present because it looks better than theirs.

We don't get together very often due to distance so they love to make the most of it. I'm not allowed to make any changes to anything. 'But we've always done it this way!' is th chorus that goes up if I suggest anything different.

Christmas dinner is stilll the same with everyone chatting around the table but no one wants to play games any more. My teenage grandchildren would laugh at the idea.

Were newspapers published/sold/delivered on Christmas Day in the far distant past of our parents and grandparents? Perhaps one had to buy them the day before.

Anyway, my point is that I expect people have read newspapers and books on xmas day forever, not to mention sitting digesting huge dinners in front of the telly. Is this so different from "being glued" to one's tablet or phone (which complaint is, I think, overstated).

If you don't like what your family does on xmas day don't share it with them. Do your own thing. Go for a walk with a bunch of ramblers, for instance.

You can’t look back you can only look forwards
Each generation thinks theirs had all the answers
Accept it for what it is or change yourself I remember as an only child after the presents and dinner nan being in the kitchen cleaning and washing up grandad asleep in his chair mum and dad listening to the queen on the radio and me being bored ? or reading one of my new books
Nothing really changes

Well Santa is coming to our town tomorrow!
We must be an odd family but we always play games like charades on Christmas day.
We may use the internet to find the words to songs .
Our DC love the traditions. It's us old folks who want to take a nap after overeating and drinking.

Baggs, I remember being sent buy a newspaper on Christmas Day, but there were none on New Year's Day,

Maywalk that’s a really nice poem, well done.
As you are somewhat older than a lot of us ( from what I remember on other threads in the past) your childhood Christmas experience is slightly different ( though not much) from mine.Since then much has changed, and yes, it’s a far more commercial world and Christmas now, the expectations are so much higher in every way.
It’s worth remembering though that it’s often parents as much as the children who over strive at Christmas.

No buses used to run on Christmas Day where I lived, so unless a family member had a car ( mine didn’t) you didn’t see the relatives in Christmas Day.

We did have buses on Christmas Day, but not on New Year's Day. Christmas wasn't such a big thing, as it is now.

My father was an ambulance driver, who always worked New Year's Day in order to get Christmas Day Off. He hated New Year and it worked out well, as many of his colleagues preferred New Year off.
I remember him having to walk in all weathers to get there.

And yes Maywalk I agree. It is much more commercialised now and expectations are higher. Its the world we live in. But we can choose not to join in. Thank you for your poem. I hope you have a lovely Christmas day. (You could have a no phones rule for dinner.?)

Things move on, my parents went to Church on Christmas Day, as did I, as did my daughters, not my grandchildren.

Everything evolves! Often for the better though not always! Nostalgia is is OK but even that's not what it used to be!

Ah but that was Scotland Marydoll
In my early childhood Christmas Day was not a holiday although my granny’s paper shop did shut early (late morning I think)

Ah! The good old days! I remember saying to my mum 50 years ago when she said something similar, that one day these will be the good old days. I think it means we're just old.

Telly absolutely!

Ah yes, I remember those days 70 years ago when we all piled round to Granny's house for ginger wine and mince pies on Christmas afternoon. She played carols on her out-of-tune piano and we all got slightly tipsy because my uncles had laced the non-alcoholic ginger wine with brandy.
Yet it's not so very long ago that we had that memorable game of charades which my GC will never let me forget, when I was crawling round the floor trying to be Tom and Jerry. That was a year or so before they got into computer gaming!

I think what many older people 'miss' is the shared experiences eg..listening to the same radio show, watching the same TV programme . Now we have the facility to each do our own thing on tablets , phones and multiple TVs. This makes us feel more disconnected. I am sure families can make up their own set of expectations.. e.g no screens when opening gifts/ at table etc etc. to agree on so there is a mix of shared time and own time

We are going to one of our AC for Christmas Day along with our D and GS, also there will be DIL's parents and DIL's Uncle, Sister and BIL.

We are already planning what games to play after dinner, the GC are 4,3 and 20 months so,they shall be playing with their,new toys. In the past we have played, pictionary, balderdash etc, something fun and not too cerebral.

Boxing Day is at another AC's and we shall be 10 adults and 4 GC, second round of games commences. ?????

I think the biggest change to family Christmases was probably the TV

I remember going to work on Christmas Day. No, not essential services, an office. That's just how it was.

Maywalk, I agree completely. Isn't it really about good manners?

Of course, technology also means my sister can talk to both her sons together on Christmas Day, even though one lives in the US and the other is in Hungary with his in-laws.

Now my children have left home, I know far more about their daily lives through Facebook, Instagram etc than my parents ever did about mine through phone calls and occasional photo prints sent by post.

Since none of my family look at phones while eating and have never been obsessed with them while in family gatherings I can't see it being a problem his Christmas either.

We are still very traditional on Christmas Day. My nephew (12) and niece (16) will undoubtedly get technology gifts, in fact I have bought them both an Echo Dot! But after 14 of us have sat down for a very lengthy meal, the "children" still insist on us playing board games. We have our favourites from years ago but if someone gets a new one, we always give it a go.