9.30 and we’ve not yet had dinner

No cranberry sauce because I opened the jar and it was mouldy! Out of date 2026, never used but can't remember if the seal was popped.

A sense of superiority about anything is strange- I always wonder why people who get up really early feel superior- it isn't when you get up it's how many hours you that are productive that is important.
People are strange, leave it at that- wanting to eat early isn't particularly strange.
Many, many people are bothered about food, otherwise there wouldn't be so many cookery/food programmes on the TV, or so many cookery books published.

you are missing the point

Most people don't even have meals when they want, it's more of when they CAN. And they are not that bothered about it, because it's only food.

The sense of superiority about people having their diner at 5pm is still very strange. Is it something they royals do, so these people think it makes them superior too? Again, what is it all about?

And yes, it's weird to be hungry for diner 3 or 4 hours after lunch!

Not being invited again would be fine by me, everyone's normal is different- there are no hard and fast rules.
You have to decide what is acceptable to you, and stick with it. 8pm is fine for you- great, that doesn't mean it's fine for everyone.

10pm may be normal in Spain, but we are not in Spain- also normal is going home for lunch and having a 2-3 hour siesta- eating late is obviously less of an issue then. It's not relevant to being served Christmas dinner after 9.30pm in England.

You are making yourself look a bit daft now.

You eat your meals when you like, and let everyone else eat when they are hungry.

9:45 is so late! I like to go to bed about 10pm and I would be too full to sleep if I ate that late.

I grew up with eating quite early. I often used to put things in the oven so that we could have dinner at 6pm despite my mum not getting back until 5:45 - she wasn’t a fan of eating late (late being about 7:30 or so!)

I think that some people are just not all that interested in food.
( I’m always thinking about the next meal).

I never understand why people are so smug about having diner middle of the afternoon. Is it because they don't work, so have all the freedom in the world?
Is it some kind of achievement to have diner 3 or 4 hours after lunch? What is that about?

Some of these comments are giving competitive late dining 🙃

why do you have a chip on your shoulder like that?

You are the only one making it about "big important jobs", most people stuck with big commutes only have .. jobs and can't afford to live closer to their work place! They don't feel important, they feel poor 😂

I still maintain 6-6.30pm is a normal time to have dinner, because me and DH and many people I know have it at that time.
you maybe, I don't know anyone who does. Shops are still open or are just closing, the school car park is still full of cars, most teachers are still there, the GP surgery is still open. The most common work pattern is 9 to 6.

Of course people work shifts and do various things, but it's ridiculous to make it that it's normal to be home and have diner so early. Even my kids are not home from clubs!

It's also a load of bollocks that 'Europeans all have dinner at 8pm (or later.') Know every single person who lives in Europe do you?!
no... but France for example tend to have early diners or kids diner at 7pm and adult diners more at 8 or 9. Don't even get started on Spain.

Why do you feel so insulted to realise you have an unusually early diner? Practically most people couldn't have a 6 pm diner even if they wanted to.

And D) you won’t get invited again.
8pm is a perfectly normal time for dinner.
10pm on the other hand…

Merry Christmas 😂

If we are talking about the adult population distribution in the UK, I would strongly suspect that regularly going to bed at 8 pm would be at the extreme end of the distribution, that would basically make any evening social events impossible. I would expect people on shift work who have to get up super-early go the bed that early. The fact that my home town is rammed at 8 pm is consistent with my theory. It is not short sighted to point out something that is very likely to be true.

We normally eat at 8, 9 at the weekend. I often have a snack about 5

I'm at my in-laws. We only sat down to eat last night at 10.50. This is standard for them and not just the Christmas rush.

We had chocolate biscuits for breakfast (1.45pm).

It's madness.

Are your family operating on the Atlantic standard time zone?

At 6.30 I would ask when dinner is- they would probably say something like 8.00, I would then say I experience serious indigestion if I eat after 7.00 and ask for a bacon sandwich or cheese on toast because I won't be able to join you.
Either A/ they will speed things up or B/ you will get your snack or C/ they admit their oven is malfunctioning and is far too cool (this happened to me one year) and make snacks (on the cooker top) for everyone.

Well usually one of us did the club and the other cooked so we could eat as early as feasible. Now with teans we eat at about 6.30. Maybe 7, but usually earlier. Short commute.

Phone for a takeaway !

Saying mainland Europeans tend to eat later means on average they do, not that every single person has been consulted about it and confirmed they do.

This is Mumsnet. We don't do distributions. It's OK to generalise about any group of people(*) as long as no identifiable representative of that group is present in the thread. At that point, however, any generalisation, including true ones, will be met with "How dare you, I'm not like that" and a report to the mods.

(*) Except people who generalise, of course. It's not OK to generalise about them. #NotAllGeneralisers 🤪

Agreed 💯!!!! The late eaters are always so bloody sneery about it. I grew up in scandinavia where our dinner time was always early and as I don’t have to commute I can luckily keep it to 6-6:30pm. If Spanish want to eat at 10:30pm, it’s really nothing to do with me or my lifestyle.

On a side note, I read article a while ago about a big sleep problem in Spain. Something about children being perpetually sleep deprived because of the very late nights but parents still needing to get up to work very early the next morning.

How very joyless. I hope there are no children with you?

Excellent post by @SabreIsMyFave* *
Very well said.

I’m not sure swearing at strangers on the internet and calling them names. On Xmas eve. On a post about dinner time, is something to be applauded is it? Seems mean to me

Excellent post by @SabreIsMyFave .
Very well said.

Thanks for posting @Ticktockk . Glad to hear you will be fed at a more normal time today.