When do you start eating the Christmas food?

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Or “open the Christmas cupboard” as we call it in our house?

For us personally I clear space in one of the cupboards in October and I buy a few none perishables to add to it every week in the food shop including both snacks and drinks. This is firmly the Christmas cupboard and out of bounds to everyone. This helps us spread the cost out a little bit as when I pull it out before the big Christmas food shop i’m always shocked at how much I’ve managed to collect without seeing it hit the bank balance massively.

On the 19th next week I will do a “BIG” Christmas food shop, expiry dates permitting. I will probably have to top up the veg a bit closer to the day but Tesco is just down the road. I’ve just announced to the family the Christmas cupboard will be open from Saturday 20th so cheers all around. Silly tradition but something we all look forward to and have lots of snacks with a festive film. My friend is here and stated that she doesn’t allow her family to eat any Christmas food until Xmas eve.

Just wondering when you start eating the Christmas food?

I don't really buy it in the first place. The kids don't like mince pies etc and I don't need any encouragement to eat badness.

This ☝️ We also accidentally ate a stollen and have had to replace it! Christmas is just a mid-winter festival yo break up the cold and grey for us, so the food kind off spreads a few weeks.

Today! A mini mince pie and i don’t know how many a couple of German gingerbread biscuits

We’ve already had to top up the Quality Street tin 😐

I’ve replaced the chocolate coins (for the stockings) a couple of times already 🙊

Generally when school breaks up, but I've just removed a bag of Christmassy popcorn from our Christmas cupboard for with watching a film later. (We might also have sampled a bottle of wine, to make sure it was going to be suitable to serve to guests 🙈)

Usually when the first of the Christmas crowd arrives - this year it will be Christmas Eve and I'm not sure I can wait that long before I break into the stollen and weird flavour crisps. But I'm on my own here and trying to fight the twin terrors of gluttony and boredom - sometimes both win.

We don’t really buy any tbh… we have a few mince pies whe decorating the tree but other than that it’s just Xmas day until it’s gone really. Now I feel like Scrooge but I’ve just never really thought of it!

Mince pies at the start of Advent. Nothing else until actual Christmas but keeps going, along with all the decorations, for the full 12 days.

Do those tiny Stollen bites and dry roasted nuts count?

Have already gone through 2 stollen, a very small fruitcake and a panettone. Cut into a 2nd panettone yesterday. Have been making warm apple cider and the odd hot chocolate as well. It all started when the tree went up Nov 22. 🤗

We don't really do pre-Christmas festuve snacky things tbh. Used to buy stollen from Booths sometimes, but I can't eat it now as I'm gluten intolerant. Never did the tubs of chocolates thing. We will start eating Christmassy food on 23rd when we arrive at relatives' houses, until we come home on 28th. Equally, when we host, we don't start until guests arrive on 23rd or 24th.

Now!

23rd when the adult DC arrive. I don’t touch a single thing before then. 😇

On Christmas Eve at lunch time I get the little dishes out and fill with nuts/crisps Mince pies are 'allowed' to be eaten as soon as baked which is usually Christmas Eve.

I use extreme willpower to not open the nuts/crisps

I don't tend to buy Christmas chocs as we get them gifted to us on Christmas Day.

Probably new year here at the rate me and ds are going 🫣😂.

We go away next Friday until late Sunday and have an Asda order Christmas ship arriving on the
Monday morning.

Unless we are surprised with them actually having what we ordered in stock it’ll be about Tuesday or Christmas evening when I’ve managed to got out and buy it.

I haven’t even got my Xmas tree up yet 🤦🏼‍♀️

Christmas Eve

I was just eating Pringles when dh caught me.
Baby Jesus wanted me to have them tbh.😂

Officially the cupboard gets opened on solstice eve when the first tree goes up but certain stuff is held back until Christmas eve when the main tree is put up. It'll see us through to twelfth night!

Had my first ever cinnamon knot yesterday (inspired by another thread) and I went out for two more packets today 😳

Everything else will remain untouched until next weekend at least though. Kids all have check up at the dentist late on 23rd (only date in holidays I could get an appointment for all of them) so we may even hold off until then.

We're heading abroad to visit relatives on 27th so I did the Aldi shop for stollen and marzipan fruits this week and declared the feast started today! Also opened the cranberry sauce and made a brie and cranberry baguette for lunch. I love Christmas...

I get out of bed and start eating as soon as I get the call.........Dinner's ready !

The Cadbury ones are really bad and are now hollow. What happened to the solid square of chocolate? Perhaps people don’t do chocolates on the tree anymore.
OP, I usually start eating Christmas food on Christmas Eve but apart from the odd chocolate at Christmas and Easter, I don’t usually eat between meals.

We clear off one of the worktops in November, cover it with Christmas paper and start collecting Christmas treats there, then it gets decorated with tinsel and fairy lights when the rest of the decorations go up in December. By this point it’s groaning, but nobody is allowed to touch any of it until it’s declared open on Christmas Eve. We eat homemade Christmas treats all the way through December through - this week I’ve made mince pies, millionaire shortbread, cranberry and spiced orange muffins and lebkuchen. It works well, because once the “Christmas side” of goodies is open nobody cares about my homemade stuff!

Yes! Currently in there is about 6 big bags of festive flavour crisps, pigs in blankets, turkey and stuffing etc. Also some fancy biscuits, big bottles of coke & appletizer, Christmas cakes, nuts, crackers, chutneys… quite a few things that don’t expire. I just see what’s new in the Christmas aisle and think oooooh. When I buy them they are strictly for that cupboard only and not to be touched. I spend about £5ish extra a week from October in my food shop and I always have loads to show for it!

I have bought and eaten my way through a few boxes of mince pies though as I’ve wanted them in the normal shop. I’ll still do a big Christmas shop that includes snacks but this lessens the burden and adds to the excitement.