Xmas Day - Lunch at 4pm - AIBU

[Moonshine5]

Following heated debate and reading a variety of threads. What say you Mumsnet community?
🎅
AIBU - that's a ridiculous time for Christmas lunch
YANBU - perfectly normal you heathens (note this is a light-hearted thread)

Turkey in the oven on a timer. Veg and sides prepped.

Go to church.

Come home and put the turkey to rest, put the oven up for the potatoes and sides, cook the veg and put in a hot spot.

Serve then clear the starter
when the potatoes are done the main is ready to serve!

Then the men clear up and the rest of the day is free for presents and games. We have pudding for tea!

Isn't that lunch time?

We get up at 9:30/10, open presents and then breakfast (Buck’s Fizz and pastries) at about 11, then lunch at about 3/3:30. More drinks and snacky things between 7:30 and 9.

Everyone's day is different. We eat our main meal about that time, but there isn't a plan, it's ready when it's ready with no set time. We have a decent breakfast and plenty of snacks to keep us going. No one starves! It does tend to mean the cheese board doesn't make an appearance until Boxing Day though!

We’ve always he’s ours at 5pm as that was better for the kids to eat.
It means we can run around the older relatives we need to see in the morning/afternoon, have the meal, but not be clearing up too late.

Anytime between 3pm and 9pm is fine in my opinion. Just do what suits you.

Now that the kids are adults and have partners, I’m actually thinking of doing a meal on Xmas eve, then having buffet and nibbles on Xmas day.

We have ours between 5-6pm and that works well for us. My DC has breakfast at 7.30am as usual and we have coffee and a pastry, DC then opens a few stocking presents and plays with them. We then have "brunch" for us, lunch for DC around 11.30am (scrambled eggs, salmon, mushrooms etc. for us and pancakes, eggy bread and fruit for DC). That then gives us a couple of hours to get out for a walk and play with our DC's new toys before anyone has to think about starting to cook.

My mum never really got here until 3ish so we tended to eat about 4 most years. She passed away in Jan so I will likely aim for 2pm this year.

Entirely depends on my DH’s shifts. He’s working til 5pm this year then if anything comes in, he’ll be mopping up til god knows when.

We always have ours at 4/4:30 . Perfectly normal .

4pm sounds perfect to me. I do the same. I cook up a big breakfast at about 10.30am, Xmas lunch at 4pm then we usually have the dessert selection and cheese course at about 7.30pm.

4 is just about right in my opinion. I hate rushing around on Christmas morning. And I do the cooking every year so I decide!

So lazy morning opening some presents - we have a big brunch around 10.30/11 - sausages, eggs, black pudding. Then maybe a little walk. Canapés such as smoked salmon when guests arrive around 12-1. Then more presents and nibbles.

4 feels right and I like it when it starts to get dark and we can put candles on.

I think 4 is fine. I aim for around 2 but doesn’t always go to plan. MIL didn’t serve it until gone 6pm once, I was pregnant and ravenous.

We have a late breakfast, dog walk abd Christmas dinner at 5pm. If works brilliantly for us. We settle down for the evening around 7.30pm with a few treats. I don’t like drinking in the day, so it suits us well and is conducive with dancing!

We eat around 4. Big buffet breakfast about 9 and ready to eat again around 4.
We usually save dessert til later in the evening as everyone is always stuffed after dinner.

We have breakfast mid morning, then some snacks at around 12 then we eat at 4 ish. That's usually it although sarnies are available if any wants to eat about 9

We did a later dinner for the first time last year and it was so much better. No one starved during the day and it just seemed more relaxed to cook dinner for 4pm rather than our usual more rushed 1pm so I’ll definitely do the same again this year.

Cook decides. Everyone else plans around that, e.g. brunch/no brunch, supper/no supper.

I typically make a special bread pudding with fruit and "special coffees" for breakfast; quiche for late lunch; dinner around 7pm. Dessert after that.
Sometimes open a bottle of sparkling at breakfast (!) and sip throughout the day with more at dinner or a fresh bottle of wine.

I’ll be on Phuket for Christmas so leaving these decisions to the people I’m not taking with me. I’m going to visit elephants and scuba dive :)

As others have said each family will have their “normal”. To me anything before 2pm is odd as couldn’t eat a big meal then but again it’s what is normal for us

Typically we will have starter between 2.30-3. Main meal will be dished up after 3 (people that want to watch the King’s speech can). Then typically everyone is too full for a dessert after our main so we have that later about 5.30/6

I do think the pp that says earlier = working class is way off the mark. Comes down to what works for a family, not what social class you are

We start at about 3pm.

We have bacon butties at about 9-10 ish, then I have the starters ready at about 1sh, then main course at about 2.30.
in the evening it’s help your self to leftovers!

There's just me and DD, and our Christmas meal is ready when it's ready. Some years it might be 1pm, and then some years it might be 6pm.

We don't stress about the time we eat, and doing it this way suits us just fine.