To ask you what is the most English thing you do on Christmas?

[ConfusedWife1234]

As somebody who is not English I’d like to know.

Before Christmas:

Advent calendars
Carol services at Church and the childrens’ schools
Grumbling about Christmas shopping
Ordering a turkey or goose for Christmas Day
Office Christmas party
Brass bands everywhere
Decorating the house with cut branches
Wreath on the door
Mistletoe hanging over internal doors - licence for a kiss
Christmas tree with lights and baubles

Christmas Eve

Family drinks parties on Christmas Eve with mince pies
Carol Singing round the village on Christmas Eve
Midnight Mass at Church with candles
Stockings at foot of bed for children

Christmas Day

Lavish lunch with roast turkey or roast goose
Sprouts
Bread sauce
Roast potatoes
Stuffing
Parsnips
Christmas pudding
Brandy butter on the pudding
Mince pies
Crackers at the table

Presents - not big ones in our household - I usually get a woolly jumper

Boxing Day / St Stephen’s Day

Traditional rainswept walk in the country with dogs

I identify as British over anything. Scottish mother N Irish father, born and live in England but have also lived in Scotland. DH calls me a crossbreed.

My Christmas has been the same wherever we lived

Christmas eve present from the tree, usually very small
Stockings opened first, always have chocolate and underwear in plus a fee bits of tat
Always have sprouts but that's ok because I love them
Squashing too many people round the table on various mismatched chairs
Always have Christmas pudding even though only 1 person likes it
Doctor who (can't believe it's not on Christmas day this year)
Call the midwife
I have never watched the queens speech

Gather round the TV to watch our dear Queen?

Sticking to the old traditions of Christmas pudding, cake, mince pies, turkey, even though many of us have gone off them.

Stuffing our selves with the above and copious amounts of booze like there's no tomorrow, after all in olden days we were probably starving peasants and we have to have a blow out while we still can.

I shall of course practice moderation in all things, including moderation.

Go to Asda on Christmas Eve for 'last minute necessities' having already been 3 times this week!

Pork pie for breakfast
An urge to drink random stuff you wouldn't touch normally....advocaat and sherry. And then realise quickly why you don't.
A bowl of nuts which then wither

Eat all the sprouts,we love them in our family I'm making loads!

@Saracen So sorry for meddling into your affairs but I think it is so important you invite them and are persistent.
Do not get me wrong. I am not a psychological expert. It is just my opinion.
My dh has ptsd and has been feeling rather down and it is so important that people do not treat him as if there was something wrong with him if you get my meaning... he is actually afraid that he won‘t be able to eat because of gut issues.
Best thing to invite him and not make him eat.
As for dh he really loves to be around people but he is afraid not to meet their expectations if you get my meaning.

If people who are down make themselves lonely it is often not because they want to be alone but because they feel they are no longer good enough...

But then of course there might be other persons who enjoy being lonely. Who knows.

Crackers are not just British.

Foreigner here. I think pantomimes and Christmas jumpers are the most British traditions.

And the Queens Speech.

It’s about celebrating the true meaning of Christmas.

As an English Christian this is very important to me and my family.

@PinkCalluna great diagram, i'm still confused about that after 20 years here. Immigration should give a printout to everyone as they arrive

My dad used to make everyone watch the queens speech before opening presents 😱

It’s about celebrating the true meaning of Christmas.
As an English Christian this is very important to me and my family.

The Christian meaning of Christmas is very important to Christians and it's the origin of the festival's name.

But the early Christians co-opted various pre-existing local festivals and renamed them so that pagans being encouraged or forced to became Christians wouldn't be grumpy that they were having to lose out on celebrations. Hence Christmas being on the 25th of December when - if Jesus was a historical as well as a biblical person - he wouldn't have been born on that date.

I see the increasing secularization of Christmas as being almost a return to its pre-Christian roots as a midwinter chance to enjoy being with friends and family and to overindulge in good food and drink at an otherwise gloomy time of year.

Say “sorry” to people that bump into ME at the shops 😂

What @cariadlet said in spades.

Not that I mind Christians celebrating their faith during the holidays, but the best bits of the holiday (for me) are those which are non-Christian in origin and so the secularization of the holiday is great.

It’s about celebrating the true meaning of Christmas. As an English Christian this is very important to me and my family.

As a Pagan, we celebrate the true meaning of the Winter Solstice and the turning of the seasons. Happy Christmas to you :-)

Carols in the pub

Watching the Morris men on Boxing Day

Eat cold meat with hot food

Boxing day bubble and squeak, cold turkey and a massive cheeseboard are very British.

Drink, fight, eat bad food, drink fight, get cabin fever cooped up all day.

Anyone have any foreign traditions, as a child we would swim on Xmas day, then have a turkey for lunch

Scottish here but not living in Scotland. We get our decorations and tree up on the 1st Advent weekend, Christmas will be celebrated and pressies distributed on the 25th, and we have crackers! There will be turkey on the table and sausage rolls later on. Along with a cheeseboard and After Eight mints.

Nothing mentioned on the thread is solely English. Scottish living in Scotland and all are common here. England doesn't encompass all of Britain.

Eat sprouts and roast potatoes while watching the Queens speech. Followed by a quick morris dance round a christmas maypole.

The British Isles is a geographical reference not a political one so it includes Scotland, England, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

This is disputed by the Irish government at an official level. Please don't make this claim as it's roots are 100% in the justification for occupation.

Go to the village pub at 12 noon while the turkey is in the oven?