Don’t all come at me, but has anyone else found the day a bit boring?

I do highly recommend. We did it a few times in my teens and went to the Canaries. Spent Christmas Day on the beach and the sunbed attendants all wore Santa hats!

I would love to have Christmas aboard one year ….

I actually thought of the Mumsnet 'our little family Christmas' yesterday at about 9am. Present-opening was great but done by that time. And I realised I was so glad we were off for a busy day...lunch at one side and tea at the other as it would have been really flat to just spend the rest of the day at home.

Having said that, by 9pm I was definitely running on empty and ready to come home! And we do have a quiet lego and snacking day today.

I definitely feel like I have the best of both worlds as family on both sides both local so it's short bursts and waking up and going to bed at home. But everyone is different!

We’ve had a difficult year with the death of DS17’s best friend and my cousin and an old Uni friend both dying in the past couple of weeks in their 50s. And my family has been shitty and useless throughout it all.

I was prepared to be dutiful yet again and have a family Christmas for the sake of DM who is 90. But my brother wanted to dictate everything as usual, carrying on as though him being busy at work was the most important factor in everything. So I though fuck it, told him he can host mum and we accepted an invitation to join Christmas with some friends. To see my lovely DS roaring with laughter playing a game with other young people after the dreadful year he’s had was so worth it. Christmas was fun again and that’s going to be a priority from now on.

I understand with kitty, same here 😔

Where are you going ?

This has been the first Christmas I’ve really not enjoyed and found myself willing the day to be over. My cat died very recently and I had him before all my children and now have this enormous hole in my heart. I miss him so unbelievably much but can’t really talk about it to anyone as it just sounds so crazy how much I’m grieving him.

It’s really hit me today when the kids all disappeared to their rooms to play their various gaming set ups, chat to friends on calls, basically normal teen things, and whilst I’ve been busy cooking dinner (my husband has clear instructions to stay out the kitchen on this day only!) I’ve not stopped thinking about how much i miss my little best friend, who loved me without expectation (maybe the odd dreemie!) was always around and today I’ve almost felt like I’ve had empty nest syndrome, ridiculous as all my children are in the house, just not wanting to be around me anymore. I never noticed it that much before and today really hit me. So after dinner I sat on the couch, not knowing what to say to my husband who probably thinks it’s one of my peri moments.

The kids have had a lovely day, but for the first time in a long time I couldn’t wait for it to be over. I’ll be fine tomorrow and remember we’re all healthy and be thankful, but this Christmas made me realise my kids don’t need me as much anymore and I (stupidly) never saw it coming.

A few years ago my mum was killed a week before Christmas. Since then, no one wishes me a merry Christmas, they say things like "I hope you find it manageable." I know they mean well but I don't want a manageable, sedate Christmas, I crave something high octane and busy. So... today I booked Disney for Christmas next year and I am ridiculously excited!

Yup. When DD was little I loved having quiet Christmasses at home, just the three of us. Her excitement and joy was all the entertainment I needed. Now that she’s a teen, I still love seeing her open her presents, and we still enjoy a good family dinner, but she doesn’t really want to play games and watch films with us any more. We briefly played her new board game after lunch but it was clearly more the sort of thing she’d enjoy with her friends. I hoped for a card game by the fire in the evening but she was glued to her console by then, and DH was snacking in front of the TV.
For the first time I wished we could have had family visiting for Christmas Day. I wasn’t alone but still felt lonely.

@CarrieAnnQ and @Princesspollyyy we did Christmas Day parkrun last year and it was such a lovely and fun way to start the day we did it again this year! My middle one doesn't love the thought of it but it's the trade-off for every other bit of the day being very very chill. It's good fun seeing a sea of Santa hats running in unison!

We went for another walk in the afternoon just as the sun was setting, it was too lovely and sunny not to be outside again.

Roast is done on Xmas eve so Xmas Day is just a nice brunch and then a buffet of everyone's favourite foods in the evening.

Its been lovely!

It can be a really long day after the presents are opened especially if you’re not going anywhere. We were up pretty early and my 10 year old still gets pretty hyped up over presents and extra sweets, and then moans if she no-one plays with her or she loses at board games so had more wine than i normally would.

Overall though I can’t complain though. Got some lovely presents, went back to bed for an early afternoon nap, then went out for a walk and got our ‘Xmas Coffees’ from the costa machines at the local garage. We put on xmas music, eat crisps and chocolate, then play some board games as a family (not always that relaxing with DD though).

We always get a Chinese takeaway for Xmas Dinner so no stress or faff cooking . Tomorrow I’ll cook my ‘Boxing Day Chicken’- nice roast but nothing special and the leftover chicken gets turned into soup. In a way I prefer Boxing Day as I can sleep late, the shops are open and I can get a proper coffee. I then cook us dinner without the need to be ‘extra special’.

Im sure I say this every year but next year I would like to try and and incorporate more of the traditional religious elements of Xmas again to try and recapture some of that nostalgic ‘Xmassy feeling again’.

DP promised he would help with food this year. He wanted the full works. He planned, bought it. Only agreed to this as he said he would do it. I was confused as he hates cooking and wanted to go out. But thought ok.

this morning he woke up full of cold - man flu. Apparently couldn’t move as so tired and weak. So I cooked the full breakfast and dinner that was eaten quickly. He did tidy up tho.

then sofa where I watched him play computer games. We were planning games together and stranger things. But he couldn’t concentrate so we sat in silence. I asked him to go to bed to rest.

now watching trash tv. I was so bored today with his man flu. in reality he has a bog standard cold and hates cooking.

I'm generally more excited in the build up, the day is always an anticlimax for me.

Just dinner and lying around watching TV..

I felt like that last year OP.

So this year I just completely lowered my expectations around what Xmas Day 'should' be like. Asked the teens what they wanted to do (get up late, open presents, game/chill out) and just went with it. I got up early and went for a lovely walk in the sunshine (solo parent so went by myself). We opened presents. One teen surprised me by having lunch (ham, baked potatoes and salad) with the grown ups (me and my elderly mum/aunt) and watching a bit of TV with us. The other didn't want lunch but cooked steak for him and his brother for tea and then they gamed together for a bit which was lovely as they're usually in separate rooms chatting to/gaming with their friends.
All very low key but everyone had the day they wanted. Both the teens spontaneously said this evening how much they'd enjoyed it.

We're doing full on turkey lunch etc tomorrow with my sisters and the cousins (all late teens/adults) but we all agreed we like having a quiet and relaxed Xmas Day and we'll almost certainly do the same thing next year :-)

I have found Christmas day boring from I was about 14. Even will small Santa believing children it was boring once the afternoon hit. It's just dinner and then sitting round watching TV or playing games. It's nice, but not the best day of the year by any stretch. I much prefer Christmas eve with the anticipation!

The best Christmas we ever had was the year we went on a cruise.

Im so bored with it all. I've spent the last 10 years of it mostly on my own. I went to my parents one year and caught pneumonia off them and was sick for three weeks during our busiest time of the year.
I have zero interest in it, there is nothing on tv and nowhere to go. The parcel of crafts I was going to do didn't arrive so I just read a book.
Im not interested in decorations, trees, food or presents.i just want to get back to my normal life.

Can you post a link to this thread please? I need to put my current shit life into perspective 😓

We’ve had a lovely day. First time in several years we’ve stayed at home rather than drive 7hrs to in laws. DS (16) and I were up early for ParkRun, it was good to get out. DD & DH stayed at home but DH took himself off to church whilst 14 year old DD made cinnamon buns for post ParkRun breakfast. We opened presents when DH got home then had smoked salmon & cheese as a light lunch. The teens actually engaged for most of the day, and whilst we’ve mainly loafed about watching TV, they did stay downstairs (on their phones), rather than vanish to their rooms. We had dinner at 7.30pm which turned out well. Everyone helped tidy up after which they did retreat to their rooms and DH & I are having a glass of wine and watching Jaws.

DCat has been an ungrateful sod though. She’s not engaged at all, non plussed by her new sleeping bag and didn’t like the strawberry lik-e-lix in her stocking. She also growled at next doors cat who wandered into the garden to pass on her festive greetings. She’s definitely a Grinch.

I think a bit of structure really helps. We find the day quite busy, no time to get bored.
We changed things up this year with presents.

Yup. After the presents…hours go by then we eat a sodding roast? My least favourite food.

I honestly don’t think I’ll be doing it this way ever again. Jesus what a long dull day.

I've always felt the same but this year for the first time I did Parkrun and I loved it! Atmosphere was great and I'll definitely be doing it next year.

Opened presents
Cooked some stuff I was bringing
Packed and drove to parents for dinner.
Had dinner
Walk with siblings
Visited cousins
Very tense board games.
Bed

Didn't get much time to be bored!

Mine was lovely. It was DH, me and DS7. We got up at 6 (urgh), opened some lovely gifts, had croissants and bucks fizz then played Cluedo. Lunch, more Cluedo, and then DH sorted out 2-player Fortnite on the Xbox so they have been stalking around various landscapes as a pair! I had a long bath with my book, then lots of cheese. That said - it was very similar to Christmas Eve and the plan for tomorrow, just with presents.

I do remember that from maybe age 10 being an only child with no family round was pretty lonely and dull, so we're going to think about whether going away might make sense when he is a bit older.

yesz. I’ve got adult DD’s (well 18 and 20 tomorrow actually) who had Christmas morning as their dads then came to us but we’re both a bit hungover from Their Christmas Eve nights out. So for half the day it was just me, Dh and my 82 year old mum (and we were all missing my dad who died at the end of summer). We went for a lovely walk this morning but it all felt a bit meh.