AIBU to ask if anyone else is spending Christmas alone?

[ElvisChristmas]

Just that really. My DH and DC have gone abroad for Christmas to visit relatives. I couldn't go due to work and tickets were too expensive so close to Christmas so I'm staying home. I don't know many people locally and those I know well enough are either going away or have other plans so I'm just going to be by myself. Planning to do a lot of binge eating and binge TV watching. Have caught up on sleep and cleaning. Might go to the church tomorrow and Christmas day for some social interaction. Anyone else alone this Christmas? What are you planning for yourself?

I wish I was, just me and Dd, she is being a total dick, she'll sulk in her room, I'll watch TV.
I'd rather be on my own and have her go to a friend's.
I swear next year either she goes elsewhere or I do.

If I had the choice I would not be spending time away from my children.

No way. Hell would freeze over first.

I understand that for some people there is no option, but the OP did have a choice.

@Bulletfox

Actually although I'm having lunch with the neighbours I was slightly concerned they don't seem to have a sense of tradition. I took one look at what they'd planned for eating and immediately went out and got a cheeseboard, grapes, smoked salmon, fresh bread and lemons, pâté, butter etc.

One thing I would always do Xmas morning is have smoked salmon and a glass of champagne.

I am sure your neighbours will be thrilled that you think their choice of food is shit, and you are taking your own around.

If someone did this to me, they wouldn't be asked back. 🙄

And that sounds gross. SALMON and CHAMPAGNE for breakfast ??? BOAK 🤮

awaits a barrage of mumsnetters claiming they also have salmon and champagne for breakfast on Christmas morning, when they in reality they have weetabix or a bacon butty.

Actually although I'm having lunch with the neighbours I was slightly concerned they don't seem to have a sense of tradition. I took one look at what they'd planned for eating and immediately went out and got a cheeseboard, grapes, smoked salmon, fresh bread and lemons, pâté, butter etc.

One thing I would always do Xmas morning is have smoked salmon and a glass of champagne.

I sense this could be a late entry for the What is middle class anyway? thread.

PMSL @butchy 🤣🤣🤣😂😂

I had several Xmas days alone in my 20s as I was a retail manager and only got the 25th off. I lived 250 miles away from family.
I loved it. M and S food ( quite novel in the 80s), I went to Blockbusters for videos and had a supply of books and booze.
The thought of going to a friend's family for the day didn't appeal one bit.

Butchy how very DARE you!!

Anyway cheese platter etc bought

I do actually have some smoked salmon for later, it'll go well with some fanta, right?

Happy Christmas eve everyone! I've got to force myself out of bed and maybe a nice long walk before settling in front of the telly. I'm skyping dh and dc later and my parents as well.

I'm on my own tonight and tomorrow night but spending tomorrow day with dc, I'm quite looking forward to it!

Olive I'm sorry but I'd always do this

It's just tradition really, something instilled in me from being younger. I love it actually, having some fish and champagne for breakfast!

Obviously I didn't say that outright to the neighbours, I just surveyed the scene, so to speak, and took matters into my own hands and went and bought what needed to be bought

and I'll have my middle class brunch even if the neighbours look at me skew eyed. They might even like it

I also find it odd that your dh/dc are away. My dh prioritises me over everyone else

I've spent Xmas alone while dh went to visit his relatives with the dc.
Nobody we knew thought it was odd because they knew all the circumstances and in fact it was quite a sensible thing to do.

My dh doesn't prioritise me over everyone else all the time and I certainly wouldn't want him to at the cost of others. Sometimes you have to take a sensible course of action that causes the least discomfort for the least number of people.

Just because a few people find it odd doesn't mean it's odd.
There are lots of us who can imagine a situation where spending xmas alone is the best way to deal with a particular situation.

I wouldn't have bothered answering but this post oozed smugness.

I think there's a big difference between someone who is temporarily alone, and will rejoin family at some point, and someone for whom Christmas is a painful reminder that there is no one in the world who wants to spend this day with them.

If the former, I'd enjoy the peace and indulge myself in exactly the way op plans to - food, tv, long bath, wine.

Thank you Peony, I couldn't have put it better.

I managed to get up to get breakfast but somehow I've ended up back in bed. I have a feeling this will be a much less productive day than I planned.

Lovely idea to go to midnight mass OP. I find it the most magical service of the whole year and lots of people come who don’t usually come. A word of warning, some churches start as early as 11.15pm so that it’s just finishing as it strikes midnight on Christmas Day itself, so don’t get there too late. (Sorry if that’s obvious but I made that mistake years ago.)

Um, smoked salmon and bubbly here too. Family always had champagne as pre-dinner drinks on Christmas Day and at Hogmanay so I do the same though pre-dinner can mean when I choose to get up 😂

I think I may give the smoked salmon a miss for breakfast tomorrow and go straight for the bubbly. That should help me get through the phone call from friends insisting it's still not too late for me to see sense and go and spend the day with them

Smoked salmon and champagne for breakfast in my house. Solid chrimbo fare.

Yeah, I'll be alone - I'm working in the morning and DH and SDC can't wait for me to come home so they're buggering off to his parents and I'm having a microwave enchilada and a bottle of wine when I get home.

PMSL! I knew it. I knew a bunch of people would come on and say 'weeeeeeee have salmon and champagne for brekkie on Christmas morning.'

Textbook mumsnet. 😂😂😂😂

Must be a thing that only happens on mumsnet regional thing - as not one single person I know has champagne and salmon for Christmas breakfast.

And I know people from all walks of life, from top ranking professionals and upper classes, to the working classes and middle classes, and no-one I know in real life does this.

Olive, on the programme 'Back in time for Christmas' on the eighties bit, they had Gary Rhodes on cooking breakfast with smoked salmon and bucks fizz

olive honestly dunno?

By contrast I thought most people did it :)

It's not in a 'weeeee have' sense, just tradition!

I'll absolutely horrify you now and say that I also bought the neighbours brussel sprouts...