What does a middle class Christmas look like?!

[Petitepenguin]

Just wondering if the cost of living is changing things ... I'm not mc but live in London. My most mc friends spend xmas in London up to xmas eve & head to Norfolk for xmas day & the following days. Then head off skiing to France the day before new year's.. Their run up to xmas with the kids is super busy too filled with carol services, Christmas events & art workshops. It looks idyllic.

🤣🤣🤣

Nutters! 🥶

I'm not sure a family visiting extended family for Christmas is a MC thing? Isn't it just a... people thing? 🤨

Norfolk only counts if you're going to spend time in your holiday home. Not if you're visiting ma and pa.

This is exactly what all middle class people do. They only exist in London and Norfolk. Not in other parts of the country, and DEFINITELY not "up north". 🙄

This sounds good! Enjoy Salzburg, beautiful city!

Thank you. I never, ever forget how lucky we all are and never take it for granted.

Thank you. I'm so excited to go it's been on my bucket list for years. I'm really hoping for snow but think it's perhaps too low lying?

Middle class upbringing in (the suburbs of) London.

We stayed home and then visited other family in the evening.

No skiing or second homes! That's UMC surely?

We would often go to a West End show one day between Xmas and NY though. In fact just booking tickets now for the same this year.

The mum is a sahm & her husband is an accountant.. Her parents live outside a village in Norfolk & she goes home regularly. Skiing hol to ring in the new year a family tradition with the extended family & they go again at Easter.

That's it. I'm middleclass.

When the transport network isn't comprehensively fucked by a combination of strikes and maintenance works (so about 2016), we go to DP's home village.

We've been getting into running, which was the slightly more sensible means of escaping the cottage and his mother's soap operas and fussing, compared to cultivating a drinking problem (two pubs, one shop, bugger all else).

Have been known to get a bit wet in the sea as it's only a bus ride away.

Christmas has been delivered by van for about five years because I can't be arsed with shopping and people.

Carol services and events have been my job.

And it gets so cold, skiing is a possibility on the Moor.

I would count me & DH in the high earner category. We live in a sunny warm part of Europe so Christmas is chasing the cold . We fly to New York (Us & 2 DS) for the week prior to Christmas ( hoping for snow) then Christmas eve we fly to Scotland to stay in a 'posh' hotel with family then New Year head to Edinburgh to celebrate Hogmany there . Hoping for snow ...maybe I should of booked Skiing but I hate it 🤣

I am as mc as you can get in terms of education, occupation, earnings, interests, friends. You definitely are not describing me 😆

I think our Christmas looks like most people's. Panto, bit of a gathering on Xmas eve, Xmas day with one side of the family, boxing day or soon after with the other side. Cinema, (reasonable) meals out, kids activities to fill the rest of the hols.

No decamping to the second home in the country or jetting off for a post Xmas break. Those people are the rich & posh upper mc.

This also sounds lovely. My children are still little (early primary) so I'm trying to make the most of their excitement but it's nice to think that when this phase fades there will be trips to the pub together etc to look forward to in later years.

Got it in one. Mumsnet is obsessed with class but always gets it wrong weirdly. Middle class is a massive swathe, not just the people who can afford second homes and skiing!

We’re middle class, will be home with the kids then down to my parents’ for a few days. Standard.

Ah right 😁

Bit of an odd thread. Can't work out if you're feeling jealous or sneery. If jealous, what of? The skiing holiday? They're very expensive but not a typical part of Christmas. I'm middle class and live in London but not terribly rich so do most of the things you mention except skiing, including the outdoor swimming and dry robe for Christmas. Most of them (carol concerts, crafts etc) are cheap/free even if a bit self consciously wholesome/wanky. So far we have done christingle carol concert, made a wreath with foraged ivy and pine cones, made gingerbread santas, participated in living advent calendar and visited other people's, watched charity Santa on his sleigh . We will go to family at Christmas which includes theatre show on boxing day as my mum's treat. I would like to do a light trail but they are £££ so on the waiting list for discounted tickets through work.

I’d be described as MC I guess.. went to private school, had horses, now live in big house in the shires and have a hobby-job. Our Christmas will be spent eating lots of homemade mince pies, drinking mulled wine, eating a wonderful roast at the in-laws, then back to ours for cheese, biscuits and board games. I can’t wait.
We’ve not got much planned in the run up this year, but we went for an illuminated walk at a nearby woods last week which was beautiful. Aside from that we will enjoy Christmas films with the fire lit and chocolates out!

God there's some wankers on this thread

'solidly middle class'

You should live post all this, it sounds lovely and I am so bloody bored of endless misery and worry coming from all angles. I want a bit of escapism.

If there will be a boring relative in the mix somewhere I don't want to know. I want to know that someone somewhere is having a glorious time!

That's what everyone does in my part of London.

I use to not drink on Christmas Day and go for a Boxing Day run.

If I was out early there would be a man dragging a dog round who was not obeying him.

If I was out more in the middle of the day there would be families with children walking a dog. The children's mood depended on their age.

DH solidly middle class, I'm a bit nouveau.

So we go to his family and DS and I will count the minutes until after lunch where we will open gifts after a late-ish lunch.

When I was a kid the presents were opened at 7:30am in a fever of excitement whilst parents drank coffee and tried to be nice to each other.

Dinner was done and dusted in time for the 3pm ITV movie.

DH's family didn't know what ITV was

I am middle class and living in London. Anything involving Norfolk/the Home Counties/skiing sounds quite posh to me

The "Home Counties" isn't posh.

You just need to know friends with space there so you can stay over that's if you don't have family.

I'm lucky enough to have both who don't live right in towns, but spend all my Christmas Days in London.

MC, not London but the NE.

i have to say a lot if my dcs friends are doing something along those lines.
Christmas with family and a week skiing.
Granted all at the local private school (because no grammar schools here). Parents are doctors and the likes. Usually both parents working in similar level jobs.

I certainly wouldn’t call them upper class. Or extremely rich.

Sorry! Didn't realise it was wanky/offensive. Like I said, I'm an immigrant and even after many years some of the nuances definitely still escape me, particularly when it comes to the class system.

The way I understood it was both parents university educated, in secure white-collar 'professional' jobs, have always been reasonably financially secure (though thinking about it husband wasn't growing up so I've probably got it totally wrong....), etc etc.

Very glad to be enlightened on how the phrase should be used!