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.

It's hard to say if the thing I do are "English" or not, as I haven't had Christmas anywhere else.

Umm, eat sprouts at lunch and a selection box for breakfast.

And start drinking immediately upon waking.

That's from a Brit living in the Caribbean for the past 11 years so I can't remember any other proper "English" bits.

This year I'm doing roast Beef but with a side order of pigs in blankets for DH.

Scottish-British here, we have clothe dumpling rather than Christmas pud, it’s probably a broadly similar thing

Clootie not clothe 🙄

I think most of these are British traditions, chocolate for breakfast, church services, oranges in our stockings, Brussel sprouts, pigs in blankets, the Queen's speech, Christmas films on in the background all day, Christmas Day walks etc.

I can't think over anything overly Northern Irish only, although nearly everyone I know will have Christmas Eve drinks in the local with all their friends, it's a great way to see friends who've come home from various different countries for Christmas. Also on Christmas morning we have the Steel and Sons Cup final, a football game that kicks off at 10:30 usually and is quite popular. Our wee local team won it a few years back and the social club was rammed on Christmas night, it's a real community thing. Another little tradition we had in my street was where my dad used to go round and take a bite out of all the carrots left out for the reindeer.

I was born in Britain (England). The things that we have

• mince pies, my parents were apparently shocked on first tasting one
• crackers
• flaming Christmas pudding
• Christmas tree
• family rows, but maybe that is universal

Traditions family haven’t picked up

• turkey, curry or pot roast with spices
• Christmas lunch, we go to church have brunch eat main meal in the evening
• watching the queen speech, though I’m not sure how traditional that is any more

WeeBean what an absolute Star your Dad was/is

Leave Father Christmas a glass of sherry (only time of the year we have it in the house).

We listen to the Queen's Speech before dinner - as a child we had to have eaten and cleared up beforehand and weren't allowed presents until we had sat through it in silence......

I always wondered why my dad left a Budweiser out for Father Christmas... I assumed he must be American!

Crudd 😂😂😂😂

Boxing Day dip in the sea - no wetsuits!

I think crackers are a British thing, invented by someone called Tom Smith. They may have spread outside the commonwealth from people visiting here.
Panto is very British although I think it's origins are Italian. We went to a brilliant one a couple of days ago with Paul Merton as the Dame, absolutely hilarious. I love all the standard sequences, noise and shouting from the audience, light up toys, reading out birthdays etc

Chocolate for breakfast? Ugh! Yy to champagne before lunch, brussels sprouts (love them!), mince pies, turkey etc, but not the Queen's speech (I've never seen it and none of my family watch it). Also board games and dog walks.
I don't 'identify' as anything btw. I am English and British (in which ever order you like).

Singing loudly in the pub to fairytale of New York, last Christmas etc.
Watching/reading A Christmas Carol
Watching the old Christmas ToTP
Crackers, pigs in blankets, sprouts,
snowballs (eggnog drink)

Aviatorshades oh my dad loved it as much as all the kids did ☺️ He's too old to do it now but it's a very happy Christmas memory.

Oooh yes love Panto

Watch the Queens speech at 3pm.

I do most of these.

I'm not English, and am struggling to pick up which are "English" specifically.

Except of course the reference to Father Christmas. Deffo Santa here.

Re: sprouts.

We cook them even though we all hate them because it is tradition, and we are English, and there's definitely a streak of masochism in the English national character.

What do we do with the sprouts we cook but all hate? Eat them, of course. Can't have good food going to waste.

OP, I don't know if you've seen the TV programme Peep Show, but I've always felt it gives a pretty good insight into the minds and motivations of a lot of English people. I recommend it.

Moan about the seasonal traffic, drink bucks fizz from breakfast time, buy socks, mock the queen's speech, eat my own bodyweight in roses/quality Street but only in late December and at no other time of year, cheese -so much cheese, smile politely and say thank you for even the most hideous gifts, wear paper hats from crackers and tell each other the terrible cracker jokes over dinner, play trivial pursuits in a ridiculously competitive way....

Decorating the house with holly, ivy and greenery. Definitely not Buck's Fizz here.
Whole ham as well as turkey (we've gone off ham due to the processed nature of it these days, but it is a tradition.
Sherry trifle. Mince pie and Xmas pud.

Having spent several Christmases abroad as a kid, I'd say the things which marked us out from our Dutch/German/American neighbours were: Carols from King's. Midnight Mass. Mince pies. Christmas cake. Christmas pudding. The Queen's Speech. Christmas crackers. Going to a panto.

I'm English and British; my husband is Scottish and British and his family do all of the above too.

DH does wonderful sprouts in a wok which, unfortunately, I can no longer eat due to being on a low fibre regime. We had 14 people here yesterday (DH's family) and will have 17 on the 27th (my family) and we love it.

Make a Christmas cake that nobody eats except me 😂

Go to work