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Original poster

Christmas “dinner” - can someone explain please?

160 replies

Notcontent · 27/12/2020 11:28

I am not British although I have lived in the U.K. for some time now. For me, the main meal on Christmas Day has always been lunch. This would normally be at 1 pm or or a bit later.

On mumsnet I see a lot of people talk about having Christmas dinner, but at round 3 pm or later. Is this like a cross between lunch and dinner? I find this quite confusing...

OP posts:
Notthe9oclocknewsathon · 27/12/2020 13:08

@MrsEricBana

I'm not sure it is the content that matters really, it's a regional thing, so dinner/tea, or lunch/dinner or lunch/supper. BUT on Christmas day, the main meal can be anywhere from 1-6 really and if it's later you just sone Christmassy snacks during the day. One question though, in the above scenarios of breakfast, church, presents, walk "and then the lunch is done", who is cooking this meal then?
We usually put turkey in to cook before we go to church. So it’s cooking away whilst we’re out.

Yep Xmas dinner can be anytime between 1pm-7pm in my book. In our house it’s usually 3-4pm.

MsTSwift · 27/12/2020 13:09

There are no rules! each family does their own thing
For us
Light breakfast - smoked salmon or a croissant
Stockings and church or hot tub
Main meal Christmas lunch
Presents
Evening snacks sausage rolls cheese etc

SouthDownsLass · 27/12/2020 13:10

Your confusion arises from the fact that many British people call lunch dinner.

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Events & celebrations
OneWildNightWithJBJ · 27/12/2020 13:12

I think we're quite unusual according to MN! Growing up we had ours at around 1 - 1.30pm but now we have it at about 12.30pm. We just have a normal breakfast and then I'd rather cook in the morning so the kids don't fill up on junk, then I can relax in the afternoon.

For us, the main meal is called dinner and can be lunchtime or in the evening. Sometimes we still have dinner at midday on a Sunday, which will be the main meal.

FreekStar · 27/12/2020 13:13

I always do Christmas dinner to be served after the Queen's Speech, so about 3.30pm.

LolaSmiles · 27/12/2020 13:14

Christmas dinner is just what the christmas roast is called.

Ours is usually around 2pm, but it could easily be closer to 3pm.

Later in the day we have Christmas cake, turkey sandwiches and snacks.

NuniaBeeswax · 27/12/2020 13:16

I've always had christmas dinner at "dinner" time, like early evening. For some reason early afternoon just feels a bit wrong.

yetanothernamitynamechange · 27/12/2020 13:16

Dinner USED to mean the main meal of the day. There was a point when when you ate your main meal was associated with your class (and area) to a certain extent - there is a point in the book "wives and daughters" where the snobby social climbing step mum insists that they eat only a cold light meal at the middle of the day and the hot main meal much later and makes a really big point of it to the richer neighbours she wants to impress. This despite the fact her husband, who is a doctor, is absolutely starving by lunchtime. This stopped being the case a while back and now most people would have their main meal in the evening most of the time. HOWEVER the words used remain the same - so dinner is used for the midday meal in many areas (particularly but not exclusively/always the North) even if the midday meal is only sandwiches and tea a big cooked affair. Other areas/people will always eat lunch and dinner even if they happen to have a massive cooked lunch and a small "dinner" that day.
Because Christmas is a wierd day, everyone regardless of area pretty much reverts back to the older meaning of the word "dinner" and so the massive cooked meal that is eaten ten gets called dinner regardless of whether it is eaten at 11 am of 7 pm.

HeelsHandbagPerfumeCoffee · 27/12/2020 13:16

For us
Light breakfast - smoked salmon or a croissant
Stockings and church or hot tub ⬅️ Do you live in a brothel?

Bluntness100 · 27/12/2020 13:17

It’s the same meal. Just everyone differs on when they wish to eat it. For example we had ours at five. We had canapés at 1 and breakfast at ten.

Gonkytonk · 27/12/2020 13:17

@BertieBotts

Dinner in the UK just means the main meal of the day, it could be at lunchtime (commonly working class) or the evening meal. If you have dinner at midday your evening meal is called tea and would probably be lighter. If you have dinner in the evening your lunch would be the midday meal.
Not true in all parts. Here Dinner is around noon and would be what you might call a light lunch. Tea is main meal of the day and around 5-6pm.

The word “dinner” is interchangeable for either meal tbh. Hence dinnerladies at school.

So dinner doesn’t always mean the “main meal” in the UK. Born & raised northerner and whilst I do sometimes swap the word dinner and say lunch instead, just thought I should point out that your rule depends on region. Tea is either evening meal or a cuppa.

Christmas dinner or tea - both ok here.

Keha · 27/12/2020 13:18

Where I live, you have dinner at lunch time and tea in the evening.

KarlKennedysDurianFruit · 27/12/2020 13:19

We had toast, smoked salmon, scrambled eggs and champagne around ten after some present opening and showers, then out for a walk (no church this year), while the turkey was in. Got back prepped everything else and started cooking, opened a few more presents, dinner was at 4. Nuts , chocolates and other bits to snack on and people often get sweets/treats in stockings. We then had pudding around 8 because we were full from dinner. No one wanted Christmas pudding so just a choice of mince pies cream and a few other home made baked things, Tiffin etc. We had a cheese board, charcuterie, olives and other things but it was just us this year and we didn't fancy it, so DH and I are having left over cold meats, cheeses, pickles, crackers and so on for supper tonight, after DS goes to bed, with the remaining bottle of champagne, we're actually both off work until Tuesday so we're making the most of it, might have a little glass of port too!

TheVanguardSix · 27/12/2020 13:20

We've always had ours as dinner... as in 6-7pm in California.
And we do the same here. Sometimes I get it on the table around 5. Other years, like this one, 6pm.

jessstan1 · 27/12/2020 13:20

@Keha

Where I live, you have dinner at lunch time and tea in the evening.
Tea in the afternoon surely, supper in the evening.
OnceUponAnEnzyme · 27/12/2020 13:24

Each year we aim for about 1pm. Each year, the dinner actually emerges at about 2-3pm.

DumplingsAndStew · 27/12/2020 13:27

We have ours around 1pm. Before that, we just eat chocolate.

Then from around 5pm, we serve a party style buffet, sausage rolls, chicken, party susie etc.

inappropriateraspberry · 27/12/2020 13:29

We always eat our main Christmas meal at around 1pm. We've found eating later doesn't work for us - young children don't want to wait until mid afternoon and you end up filling up on rubbish all day and don't enjoy the meal.
Plus, you then have leftovers for the evening spread!

inappropriateraspberry · 27/12/2020 13:31

Also, we cook the turkey in a pressure cooker so only takes an hour or so!

merrymouse · 27/12/2020 13:31

Even if you could work out some rules for lunch/dinner/tea/supper they wouldn't help with Christmas Day.

It's normal to eat the main meal mid afternoon to allow for longer prep time, and also to allow for time to digest what is usually a very big meal. The Queen's speech might fit into the plan somewhere, but the timings will probably have been abandoned by 3pm.

This meal is lunch or dinner or both interchangeably, but probably not tea or supper. Christmas is the one time when most people do legitimately eat tea and supper as light meals - tea: a cup of tea and a piece of cake and supper: cheese and biscuits. However you still can't be 100% sure what somebody is offering when they suggest 'tea' if you don't know them well.

Crystal90567 · 27/12/2020 13:32

We have a big cooked christmas breakfast at 10am, that can fill you for hours. Children have snacks, fruit, chocolate, croissants and cereal from when they get up. Then drinks, snacks, canapes and chocolates all day then Christmas dinner at 4pm then more snacks and chocolates and buffet / self service eating in evening. Noone goes hungry (but you do it your own way). Christmas imo is about excess.

AliceMcK · 27/12/2020 13:32

We do ours late. It’s presents, easy breakfast, usually toast or crepes we can just hand the DCs while they are still focused on their presents. Then we sit down for brunch around 11. Then we relax and enjoy the day before sitting down to dinner around 5 so we are full for the rest of the night.

When I was young it was 1pm lunch every year with a Buffett at night.

Crystal90567 · 27/12/2020 13:36

Also just rtft.
Breakfast / dinner / tea is northern.
Breakfast / lunch / (optional 'high tea' which is cup of tea and cake) / then dinner as main meal, is southern. Also all schools now follow this way. Its LUNCHTIME at midday nowadays.
It's also said to be related to class but I don't want to be roasted.

BigPlanes · 27/12/2020 13:37

I’m in the UK and we eat it whenever we fancy year upon year. Sometimes we eat chocolate for breakfast and have it in the middle of the day. Sometimes we do a big brunch, eat mid-afternoon and snack in the evening. It’s funny how freaked out British people get about the timing of a meal Grin

RaspberryCoulis · 27/12/2020 13:39

For me, the main meal on Christmas Day has always been lunch. This would normally be at 1 pm or or a bit later.

And for lots of other people, the Christmas meal is a lot later in the day. We usually eat our Christmas Dinner around 6pm.

And yes, lots of people refer to the meal eaten in the middle of the day as "dinner", which is why we talk about school dinners.