To prefer Christmas dinner rather than Christmas lunch?

[SparklyMistleToes]

A bit of a pointless post really, but saw another post discussing Christmas meals and the majority seemed to all have their Christmas meal earlier in the day. I grew up eating Christmas dinner in the early evening (so let's say 4:30pm onwards, but mostly 5pm-6ish). Now that I cook it I tend to serve it between 5-6pm as well.

I couldn't imagine having our main Christmas meal at lunch. Each year we have a decent size Christmas brunch followed by an afternoon of cooking and a relaxing while the children play with their toys. And then dinner between 5-6pm.

Why do people prefer a Christmas lunch? If you eat so early don't you get hungry again in the evening?

Also what time do you all get up and start cooking for your meal to be ready at lunch time?

Does anyone else prefer a Christmas dinner to a Christmas lunch or AIBU? I just feel like it's so much more pleasant and relaxing to end the day having a nice sit down meal followed by dessert and watching TV and then relaxing and winding down. I think I would feel a bit lost if I had my meal at lunch.

We eat at about 3-4pm.
Kids aren’t early risers and I want to enjoy time with them before heading to the kitchen. Earlier in day didn’t suit us as we just don’t eat it then.
I do the ham and prepare as much as possible the evening before.
I don’t do a starter, supposedly it ruins their ability to eat their body weight in stuffing and glazed ham. We actually have desert in the evening when we can move again.

We always go with something like this:
Children wake c. 6am
Breakfast c. 8am, maybe smoked salmon, scrambled eggs etc.
Morning spent going to church, opening gifts.
Lunchtime: canapés, champagne.
Dinner c. 5pm.

I'm not going to declare that I "can't imagine" having a big meal at lunchtime like some posters though. That seems rather unimaginative! 😄

Always eat around 4ish.

And get the cheese out about 8/9

We do stockings in bed then go down for pastures and coffee. This is about 8am, sometimes earlier when the kids were little.
I then Chuck the meat in the oven - it only have a crown so doesn’t take as long. Most of prep will be done Xmas Eve afternoon.
we then all get washed and dressed.
then we open presents at a leisurely pace. Depending on how many people with us for Xmas can take a while.
we have starters at 1 ish, then main course about 2ish then pudding around 4pm, people can then graze on leftovers/cheese/chocolate/mini pies for the rest of the evening.

I just meant that that’s what I personally would call it. I don’t live in the south, I’ve actually lived all over the world but have always called it breakfast, lunch and dinner. Have now taken on board that it refers to the size of the meal though, so accept that if you eat your main meal at lunch time then it’s a dinner!

I can't relax until Christmas dinner is finished so we eat at lunchtime. We are always up at 6am to sort out animals etc, have a light breakfast at 8am then the full Christmas meal around 1-2pm. All finished and cleared away in time for the Queen's speech. We can then relax for the afternoon and eat plenty of chocolate, mince pies and Christmas cake later without ruining my appetite. Also, my alcoholic exDH would have been asleep and useless by the evening! At least in the morning he would help with the kids, and some of the food prep.

Same for us, chocolate and Buck's Fizz 🤣

We do it at lunch time probably because that's how both our parents did it. We're never hungry later as we go all out at lunch and usually don't have room for pudding until tea time. So tea is whatever we have for pudding that year!

Growing up we had Christmas Dinner at about 3pm as my grandparents would come for dinner.

When they were no longer with us & we were teens / young adults we started some new traditions. We'd have a full cooked besakfast at around 11am with champagne. And then dinner in the evening at around 6 / 7pm. It helped us transition from childhood christmas to grown up Christmas.

Now if its just us or we're hosting my family we do the same. Even when our dc were small. Up early to see if santa cane (through thankfully never before 6.30 / 7am) coffee & pastries at that stage.
A lovely breakfast at around 11 - full cooked or pancakes with crispy bacon or smoked salmon etc always with a bottle of champagne & fresh orange juice.

Dinner at around 7pm & we'd have 3 courses & lots of wine. Candles & the fires lighting. Love it!

This year we're hosting wider family & people will travel to & from our house on the day & there will be possibly 17 in total so we'll shift the timings & have guests arrive around 1.30 / 2pm - drinks & nibbles (starters really ) as they arrive. We'll sit down to dinner at around 3pm & I'm hoping we'll be relaxing with everyone gone by 9pm

I like a big breakfast of eggy bread and bacon and bucks fizz and 3 pm dinner.

The very last thing I’d do on Christmas Day is snooze in a chair. Interesting to see how many people like that.

We are, and also don't.

I personally prefer a Christmas lunch.

I don't really like breakfast and struggle to eat on a morning so by 2pm I am more than ready for my Christmas lunch! Then later on the evening I can enjoy the Christmas TV with pate, cheese and biscuits and pickles.

However DH cooks (I'm disabled) and he likes a gazilion bacon butties on Christmas morning so we have Christmas Dinner instead!

3 pm for us. Then just a light snack in the evening.

We eat at 12 then normally have cheese crackers and pickles for tea! Oh and chocolate! My kids wake me up at 4am so I’m ready for bed by 6pm!!
although I am working on call Xmas day so a 6.30am to 22.30 work day for me! At least I can do it in my pjs!!

We've always had late lunch between 2-3ish.
That's always suited best for relatives travelling over an hour to ours for Christmas dinner. Was the same when I was growing up.
Relatives arrive between 12-1, have presents and drinks, then eat and meal all finished by 4.30. Another couple hours of relaxing, watching TV, playing games then leave and drive home

We start the ball rolling with a starter around 3pm then main course at 4pm with dessert around 6pm when people have room for it.

We have cranberry and orange muffins for breakfast with bucks fizz but it's often 9 or even 10am by then. Kids have never been early risers. Stockings are opened before/during this time.

Late morning we might have some snacks like prawn cocktail and some champagne but this isn't a sit down event.

Aim for lunch on table 2pm but always ends up between 2 and 3pm. Too full for pudding. Then (we are weird) main presents after lunch. Then clear up whilst kids are in raptures. Light candles, veg out in front of telly. Christmas pudding/brandy butter/ice cream eaten a couple hours later. Also get out crisps, cheese, crackers, grapes, satsumas, chocolates to peck at and a cheeky brandy for the adults. Yum!

We eat at 1, the kids are up by 6 and I love having the afternoon to laze around playing games and watching crap tv.

Breakfast on Christmas Day isn’t really a thing in our family, everyone is too busy eating the choc coins etc from their stockings then Christmas lunch at 1-2ish all done in time to watch the queens speech - well kings speech this year! And then relax for the rest of the day

Ah I love Christmas breakfast. Bagels, smoked salmon, bucks fizz. Definitely doesn't stop me wanting a big lunch at 1 😄

I don't know where this idea comes from that all people in England/English people are super-Royalist and watch the Queen every year!

Always had main meal at dinner time - no kids in family so no reason to get up early enough to cook for lunch time!

Lavish lunch, about 2. However it’s the focal point of the day and involves sitting at the table until early evening with starter, man, pudding, cheese all with gals between to recover so no chance of being hungry again later. And yes, we did this with children too. They were allowed to get up between courses and play with toys, an adult or two would often join them, then all back for the next course.

Latish not lavish. Though it is, so maybe autocorrect knows a thing or two!