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.

Agree with this, they don't put the chrimbo decs up the minute the Halloween ones come down! They have more self restraint than me...

That doesn’t sound much like ‘ordinary’ MC - more like plenty of money whatever-class.
I don’t know how often it needs saying that class - if it really must be discussed - is not all about money.

The lead-up to Christmas for us is always intense, and involves a lot of hosting Christmas coffees and parties, helping to put on the odd charity event, church obligations, the children’s instrument and choir concerts, end-of-term meetings with the school teachers, participating in the village Christmas market, attending work parties, carol services, etc. That is of course in addition to ‘making’ Christmas for us at home, preparing and sending Christmas cards, making sure the shopping/sending/wrapping has been done for both sides of the family, etc. By Christmas Day, I usually am ready to collapse.

We live in Europe for DH’s job, so usually we either fly to see family for a few days or they fly out to stay with us. However, this year we are (miraculously!) on our own, so
we can get away with Christmas zoom calls. Luxury!

Christmas Eve is our big Christmas meal as I refuse to slave away on a turkey on Christmas Day. Christmas Day involves a large sit-down brunch around 10/11, a family walk in the forest, and then a massive charcuterie board which comes out after the walk and is topped up throughout the day. Fondue or raclette and board games by the fire in the evening. Lots of champagne for the adults and hot chocolate for the kids.

We usually are hermits over Christmas and then for ski for a week over New Year. That week in the mountains, being physically active as a family in the fresh air and sleeping like a log at night, is always rejuvenating and something I look forward to all year. Just the ticket for going back into school and work with a healthy body and clear head. It’s not such an expensive thing for us as we live within driving distance of good ski resorts, so we just load up the car after our week of Christmas sloth and head to the mountains.

Living in Europe and the house is a tip with renovations this year so actually are leaving for wintersport over Christmas, albeit by car and only a couple of hours drive. Christmas dinner will be at a restaurant. Will come back Boxing Day to spend the evening with friends, between then and NYE lots of quality time, walking and nice play dates. We usually go ice skating somewhere too.

Normal Christmas would be food prep with wine and fondue Christmas Eve, presents, cooking, eating and drinking way too much, games and a movie Christmas Day with ILs at our house and Boxing Day with leftovers and friends. Between then and NYE we would normally get a night away at a spa or nice small touristy town over the border but now that we have DC2 I'm not sure when that's going to be a possibility again. Christmas is very much about getting our friends together, kids and all because we rarely all see eachother that way- babysitting normally left to other parent while one half of the couple goes out. Life is so busy.

No "wild" swimming for us. Didn't that used to be just swimming??

I love that rule and am going to use it henceforth.

Even Audrey Fforbes-Hamilton got to watch telly over Christmas. Basil Brush, to be precise. Although that was after the Boxing Day hunt, haha.

We are upper MC hubby has a high earning job

Do UMC call their husband "hubby"?

We live in the Shires. When we hosted large family Christmases, we always did Christmas Eve carols on the village green, with a visit by charity Father Christmas in his sleigh. Our aged P used to love that traditional bit. One sister used to enjoy midnight mass in the village church, so some of us would go with her, if not too inebriated and despite being pagan.
The tree would go up on Christmas Eve, with the DC in charge of decorating it. They continued doing this as adults, after driving up from London, practically before unpacking.
On Christmas Day, the only day when it is permissible to drink in the morning, we would have Fuck's Bizz with breakfast, and bung things in the oven. I would shoo everyone off to the pub at lunchtime, so that I could cook and swear in peace.
The older the DC got, the later we opened presents, until it ended up being after dinner.
Then some TV, preferably Dr Who, a film, preferably Die Hard, and board or card games. Sometimes a blind taste test, for example different kinds of fake Baileys with the real thing.
The obligatory Boxing Day walk with the dogs, beach or woods, hot chocolate and a cold buffet with the salmon we get given every year, and masses of left overs.

Now Christmas looks very different, as the adult DC have taken the baton for hosting, or we have a quiet one at home, as in this year. We're considering having curry for Christmas dinner…

The middle class seems to encompass everything from 'teacher/nurse/middle manager' to 'multiple homes and trust fund' - there's a huge variation between the ends of this scale.

Yes. The term ‘upper class’ is reserved for the angels.

Also differences between living in a city or in a small rural town.
Londoners seem to have the money for both mind you.

How was the fuck's bizz Giggorata ?

Very (hic) nice 😀

Sod that! If our DDs came downstairs to find only 4 presents under the tree they'd think they'd woken up in the wrong house. They have a positively vulgar amount of presents.

Many Londoners are some of the most deprived and poor people in the country, though.

We're middle class (but only the 'comfortable' sort - not wealthy) and our Christmas sounds a lot like many of these posts. In the past we used to go with a friend to a beautiful carol service at a local public school - I think they could have given carols at Kings a run for their money!!!! It was lovely with mulled wine and nibbles beforehand. This year we'll go to a Christmas market, have a few lunches and dinners out, and we're spending Christmas day with our daughter, son-in-law and toddler grandson - perfect - it's all about children. He'll have a mountain of stuff from his three sets of doting grandparents and his parents - no doubt it will be something cheap and cheerful that is the most played with toy!!!!!

Where we lived previously we had very wealthy, middle class neighbours (think retired CEO) and they had a beautiful house. We were deep in the country. Her sons and their wives came down from London and we always used to feel sorry for those girls - dragged out for a country walk, they were usually on their phones!!!!!!

We have a Christmas month - starts on 1st December with all sorts of Christmas food and drinks - think kirsberry and cider brandy. Love it, and it takes the pressure off Christmas day and Boxing day. I think most people do some of these things, you don't need to be middle class necessarily. We're in a more working class country area these days and I love hearing people leaving the pub - such a happy vibe. They know how to party and socialise round here. Love seeing all the lights in the village too - beautiful. I'm just happy that all's well with my little family - my daughter's just passed her probation for her new management job - and being older and wiser, I just count my blessings to be honest.

God this thread is cringing. In real life I have never heard anyone talking like this. Is it an English thing? I’m from central Scotland and I certainly don’t hear folk bragging about what class they are in. What’s wrong with working class. Is it a mn thing?

God this thread is cringing. In real life I have never heard anyone talking like this

Me neither nor anyone in my part of England. It's amusing though so let's let them carry on 😉

They buy lots of expensive cheese.
Make mincemeat.
Go to a butcher to place a meat order.
Have an air of superiority around gifts. The whole thing is slightly vulgar but it can be ok if you buy artisan products only.
Hand print their own wrapping paper, or even better get the children to do it.

Salzburg is amazing! Please make sure you all do the 'Sound of Music tour', its great fun, champagne on board and you get to go to all the places in the film! And up into the Alps. DH not a fan of the film at all but absolutely loved it.

"KateBain · Today 09:42

We are upper MC hubby has a high earning job

Do UMC call their husband "hubby"?"
Indeed. That certainly betrays the class of the poster but they might well be quite well off (not that money means people change class in the complicated world of the UK class system).

Ah yes, someone mentioned above the boxing day walk that should also have been added to my description for the years we are not away skiing.

What people should do is what they enjoy doing (or feel they ought to do for religious or other moral reasons), not what they think they should do to put them in a particular class.

For 20 years in our case as my then husband was/is an organist he was working at mid night mass and then Christmas morning (and as the children and I are Catholics we were at a different church on Christmas morning) so our Christmas really used to start (if we were not abroad) with driving up to relatives in the North on Christmas day afternoon (a good afternoon to drive as hardly anyone is on the roads by the way.....)

😂😂😂😂

What, all 8 million?

KateBain · Today 12:11
haha very true. Have a lovely Christmas

I love threads like this, just classic MN and it never fails to make me laugh. Like most posters, I don’t think regular MC people can afford ski trips. Very much an UMC- UC thang.

We’re of the MC breed I’d say and I will be that smug fucker going for a run in the morning, only to get away from the kids for a bit . We have freshly baked pastries for breakfast, I start cooking the dinner around midday because it takes so long and we’re always up at 4.30am with over excited DC. That’s honestly the crux of our Christmas. Crackers at dinner, board games afterwards, sometimes a film to finish the day off.

Personally prefer Christmas Eve. It’s the only day of the year we step foot in a church and we go to a lovely medieval one so it’s great. Also go on a Christmas woodland walk thing at a nearby stately home every year and DC have Christmas Eve boxes to open when we get home. I make them wear matching pjs and we watch a film with hot choc. Make Santa Claus and snowman pancakes for breakfast every Christmas Eve too, have done since they were toddlers.

We are already booked on the Original Sound of Music Tour. Beyond excited, though our DDs are refusing to wear play clothes [sulks]