What's your Christmas Day routine?

[ErinAndTonic]

Interested to know the timetable of other peoples Christmas Day!

My partners family do things a bit odd and often we don't sit down to eat til gone half 3 and then don't do presents til like 6pm, after which everyone is exhausted, has a tiny dessert, one game if we are lucky before leaving for bed!

I think I'll shake up the routine next year. We host every year bar this year so I'd love to see how other people run things (no matter how big or small your group) for some ideas and inspiration 😊

Currently it's a bit like this

Wake up - mad rush faffing with food, tidying, last minute bits.. though this year should be calmer as I'm ahead and not hosting so the cleaning is less pressure. Partner and I will do stockings in the morning this year as I wanted us to actually open something before Christmas Day evening 😆

Head to theirs for 2pm. Nibbles and chat while food inevitably drags on. I do half the food and usually end up having to pause mine when partners dad is running massively behind 😂

Usually sit down to eat just before 4pm, no starter just main. After that it's presents usually by 6ish. Then 7:30ish is some dessert and Christmas quiz, a board game if we can fit it in.

Then everyone leaves.. booze throughout the day generally. So to me it feels like wedding style waiting around that first half a day.. or lots of cooking and faffing, which needs to be balanced out!

We usually get up about 6am, my husband gets the tree light on and the camera on, and me and DD come in, mad frenzy of present opening 😀😀 We then have a quick breakfast, e.g. cereal (I usually treat DD to one she doesn’t get usually) and lounge about for a couple of hours, playing with the new toys, before having a special breakfast, get ready, and head to family in the early afternoon. We have dinner about 3/4pm, head home about 8, and change into my new pyjamas and settle down to the soaps/Christmas specials with a glass of wine.

We’re at home this year, no one coming round. The kids are allowed to come in with their stockings at 7, then we’ll have a cup of tea in bed. Then pottering around - Buck’s Fizz and pastries for breakfast, then espresso martini and smoked salmon mid-morning whilst getting on with the cooking. Lunch around 1300-1330, finishing in time for the kings speech. Then present opening, and after that we’ll have a zoom call with my family. Then sitting around semi-comatose watching something Christmassy, reading new books, etc. Grazing on leftovers later on, but no one can eat much.

Our Christmasses are more or less like this, but often include driving to my family or DH’s family and doing the meal and presents bit there.

Up by 6.30am, DD will be giddy with excitement and we'll rush downstairs.

Presents will be torn open and admired then breakfast is pancakes with maple syrup.

Playing with toys with a Xmas movie or music on in the background.

Lunch is an all in the oven to roast deal, very little faffing so we'll eat about 1ish then spend the afternoon chilling. If it's dry we'll go for a walk.

Evening meal is leftovers, pickles, coleslaw and baked baguettes.

DD will be ready to crash by 7.30ish and then I'll watch Call the Midwife Xmas special while DH plays his new video games.

What time do you normally eat? We always do It later.. because I prefer to eat when it dark

I get up early and start making the breakfast, the children get up and we have breakfast, then stockings, then tree presents. Then there's some time to relax/play with presents/do a treasure hunt for the children before we go to lunch at FIL's but we don't spend long there, then usually do a quick visit to the graveyard, then home to finish cooking and dinner around 4ish. We do Santa presents at some point, whenever we can book a visit from Father Christmas, usually late afternoon then play a board game before the youngest goes to bed.

So quite spread out. I don't start drinking until mid-afternoon though, if I started drinking earlier I think I'd be exhausted by dinner time and the timetable just wouldn't work.

Wake up, DD opens her stocking on bed with us. We go downstairs and see if Santa has eaten his mince pie etc and there's a gift from him at the fireplace. She opens that and then plays with whatever it is till my parents get up. We all have breakfast and then all get a cup of tea and go into the 'big' sitting room with the tree. DD picks a present out from under it and hands it to the recipient, they open it, repeat till all are opened, sometimes with a break for more tea and mince pies. My stepdad appears dressed as Santa at some point which is the highlight of the day for DD1. DD2 is only 6mo.

Dinner probably about half 3/4 but we just please ourselves on that front. Then more playing, eating chocolate, etc till kids' bedtime. Then we might watch some Xmas TV or read a new book we got, etc.

Just woke up today with flu so it will be pyjamas, lemsip, vicks, and maybe some food for my two friends who come over each year.....if i feel like cooking...

Wake up
Head downstairs in pjs
Cup of tea
Open champagne
Drink a few glasses with family
Open presents
Shower
Food prep and planning - with champagne
Pin for an hour or two
Return home and start cooking
Continue drinking merrily. Sing carols with family while cooking together. Play with toddler.
Dinner
TV specials
Cheese, mince pies, more booze

This year I'm pregnant and my two year old knows what's going on so it's looking very different 😂 but still lovely

Younger children (10 and 7) aren't allowed to wake DH and I up until 6 a.m. so they'll open their stockings in bed before that. Wake up older children (19 and 16) then open Father Christmas's presents. Breakfast of grapefruit, croissants, fruit juice and Buck's Fizz then open our presents to each other. Lunch of smoked salmon etc. then open any other presents (relatives are very generous to the kids.) Dinner will be early-ish, maybe 4-5 p.m. If anyone is still hungry later on then we will have a cheeseboard. In between, play games or with new toys, watch a movie or whatever they want to do.

I don’t think 3 is that late for dinner personally- everyone I know has it around that time!!

Stockings in bed around 7.30, then coffee in bed for us as the kids admire their things

Breakfast about 9-10, American pancakes has become the tradition. Will make people dress after this.

Presents about 10, probably all of them this year as there’s not a huge amount.

Maybe a short walk if the weather is ok, then the kids play while we (well, DH) makes dinner.

Dinner about 2 I imagine, then a film, maybe a board game and some chilling and playing before baths to wind down for bedtime.

Thats with a 6 and 10yo.

Up around 6ish for present opening although I'm hoping for 7!

Once unwrapped, breakfast, playing with toys. Inlaws arrive at lunch and we go to the pub for dinner.

Home around 3ish for more playing with new toys, a board game, nibbles and a xmas film. Bed for kids and more booze for DH and I before bed.

Up at 6 ish. I make coffees and the Dcs start on their stocking chocolate. Dh takes a while to come to so we hang around waiting for him.

Presents around 7 - croissants after that.

I start the cooking. Dcs play. Lunch around 1 pm. Then clean up. Then walk then collapse then Christmas films and bread rolls stuffed with ham and cranberry sauce for dinner if anyone wants it.

We might facetime family about 3 pm.

Presents from FC / us first thing. PIL come over mid morning and we'll do their presents.

We eat about 1pm but it is all pre prepared from Waitrose so I just spend the morning putting things in the oven and taking them out again. Nothing complex. MIL has cooked the chicken this afternoon.

Games after lunch, PIL will leave after the King's Speech, then just games, TV etc.

My parents are away but usually we would see them Boxing Day for a very similar timetable.

Wake up at a leisurely hour. Bacon sandwich and bucks fizz before heading to the pub for a few and then walking down the road to my mom's for a present exchange, then head to DPs moms at around 3.

Take over the cooking of the dinner as she's inevitably stressed by this time and usually dish up around 4. Present opening in the living room, followed by the traditional game of Monopoly which somehow stretches into the early hours yet never seems to reach its conclusion due to general drunken debauchery, in-game scheming and someone either going to the toilet, out for a cigarette or pouring a drink every 5 minutes. Bicker over the playlist constantly.

Call it a night around 2am and taxi home, ready for a raging hangover and the dreaded boxing day shift at work!

When DC were younger we'd be up around 6:30 to open Santa presents then leisurely breakfast of pastries & mimosas. Get showered & dressed around 9ish, then open gifts under the tree from family/friends we won't see on the day.

Head out to visit the set of parents we weren't eating with around one then onto other set of parents for dinner at around 3.

Nowadays it's still quite a similar routine but DC aren't up so early, I only have to visit my own parents & do a swap over with DS(14) usually about one.

DC will appear about 7am, open stockings and drink tea in our bed.
Downstairs to see if Santas been, open gift from him and gifts from us under the tree.

A choice of bacon or smoked salmon bagels all round at 10am for visiting grandparents.

Sort ourselves out, get dressed up and cook some bits. Go to my parents for 2.30pm, gin fizz and a chat then lunch (main and dessert) at 3.30/4pm.

Gift exchange around 6.30pm.

Family game, look at old pictures, quiz etc all options afterwards.

Home with DC around 9pm and feet up!

Presents between 7am and 8am followed by breakfast. Kitchen closes at 9am so if anyone is still hungry after that they have to wait!! (We’re all adults so I’m not being mean to children).

Starter is served between 12:30 and 1pm after which we play a timed game of something dramatic and noisy (not monopoly) then get on with the veg prep.

Main course is served between 4:30 and 5pm then we sit down a watch a Christmas movie and snooze on the sofa

We have dessert between 7:30 and 8pm followed by cheese and biscuits if people are still hungry.

After dark we take the dogs for a walk around the estate and look at all the Christmas lights then back home ready to start it all over again the next day when we entertain extended family with a buffet big enough to feed a small town!!

What's pin?

Lovely hearing everyone's different routines! I think for me it's just not opening a single present til so late is what feels off.

I think me and my boyfriend need to start our own routine for the first half of the day. Your breakfast choices have inspired me!

Kids bring their stockings through to our bed to open (they are teens )😂

We get up whenever Ds aged 10 gets up. Hoping for at least 7 tomorrow! Who knows! We then head downstairs and he opens Santa’s presents whilst we (dh, dd aged 19 and me) try and stay awake 😆 and then I potter off to the kitchen to make tea for us all. Then we all open the rest of the presents, usually dd and Ds are in charge of handing them out from under the tree.

Then we have a fry up with hash browns, bacon, eggs, fried bread etc.

We don’t usually eat our main Turkey dinner till about 4ish so that keeps us going - and then we pick at all the rest of the Christmas goodies in between. We usually go for a walk somewhere in the middle of the day to break it up a bit - we live rurally.

Coffee
Collect my parents
Present opening with more coffee
General merriment
Starter in the early afternoon
Turkey late afternoon
Games
Drive parents home
Bed

Wake up around 8:30, kids do stockings by the fire, dh drinks a lot of tea.
Breakfast, shower/dressed and then downstairs for presents at about 10/10:30. Tree presents usually takes around an hour of frenzied excitement.
tidy, kids take most of their presents to their rooms while dh and I start sorting kitchen stuff out. Guests arrive at 2, sit down to eat at 4.
evening visitors come at about 7 for drinks, games and buffet. Usually everyone has left by about 2am, dh and I collapse in a drunken happy state 😂 can’t wait for the morning to come.

Kids have stockings in their rooms and they do them together then into us around 7:30am.

then down stairs for some presents from FC. Chocolate is eaten and dh will make coffee. I’ll make salmon and eggs for us and pancakes for the children.

shower and into nice clothes around 10am and then crack open the champagne and the children will have another present.

set the table together and listen to carols. Family arrive around noon.
starters at 1pm. Then some presents and then a dog walk. Come home play games and cook the turkey. eat around 5pm. Then games and chatting and espresso martinis then pudding and perhaps a flop in the sitting room and tv if anyone wants it.