To ask about weird Christmas dinners?

[EightChalk]

And weird Christmases in general! My in-laws are totally normal, welcoming, the house is warm, and the festive food is entirely as expected, with no weird rules around present-opening or enforced games (and of course I think my own family customs are normal!). Grateful as I am for this, I love reading the threads about weird rules you've encountered at other people's houses, and was hoping that there would also be some tales from bizarre Christmases past!

Yes. In my own house. The kitchen is the opposite end of the house to the sitting room. We would freeze if we didn't have the heating on.

I was a kid in the 60s and you couldn’t buy mince pies in supermarkets. My family were Immigrants and every year as a nod to the season my DM made mince pies which we all loved. I was absolutely shocked when I started work and someone bought mince pies into the office to find they weren’t filled with minced beef 😀

The same in-laws I've mentioned upthread also had a pile of buttered, sliced white bread on the table with Xmas dinner (actually, with EVERY meal, all year round) as ex FiL 'couldn't eat a meal without bread and butter'. There was always a big pile, which was offered round but only he ate any of it.

My ex DH family had a rule that all the men in the family (about 11 of them) would head off to the pub at midday whilst the women all cooked, set the tables, looked after the children etc. Then his nana would call his grandad at 2.30ish and tell them they should head back home for Xmas dinner. No women had EVER gone to the pub. It wasn’t allowed. No point asking, it just wouldn’t happen.

So my first Xmas with ex DH I was working (nurse) and would finish my shift at 1pm. It’d been a particularly difficult/emotional shift and I really wanted to see ex DH and have a glass of wine and wind down from work. So I decided I’d meet him and the pub and surprise him.
I walked in to the pub and ex DH clocked me straight away and started trying to ‘shooo’ me out…all wide eyed and panicky. I rolled my eyes and went ahead and ordered myself a drink. No word of a lie….not ONE of the men in his family spoke to me/acknowledged me. They were all so aghast that I had dared come to the pub on Xmas day and not hurried straight round to help with the Xmas dinner.
It made for a very uncomfortable day/evening and to be fair….a very uncomfortable 8 years married. From then on I was seen as a trouble maker. Years later they still muttered on about the time I turned up at the pub ‘uninvited’ 🙄

Glad I’m rid of that lot!

20 years ago on Christmas Day I had a (home-made) curry.
My husband had just committed suicide, his funeral was on 19th December. My lovely father said I should come home for Christmas, but I was in my own home.
I spent the day unpacking boxes from the we moved the year before.
Curry is about my most favourite meal as it is so adaptable.
This year I have been invited to spend Christmas with my fabulous sister and her family, including her grandschildren. Can't wait and looking forward to doing lots of cooking - although not necessarily curries :-)

This is not the weird addition but MIL does this as well! My nan also used to put the loaf out with every meal so we could ‘fill up’, apparently a hang over from rationing after the war

Oh hell no!!!!

I do agree with the rule in principle - in my family we always did the present opening together - it's the disappearing for hours on end I can't deal with.
The first year I went there for Christmas the first present I opened was some socks, FIL then opened something for his computer and disappeared for hours so I was just sitting there with a pair of socks.

We weren't allowed to open up our presents until all of us (mum dad me and brother) had had breakfast / washed / dressed and gone for a 'number 2' - it never occurred to me to lie about having done the last one
Then we had to open each present one by one after having to guess what it was. It was excruciatingly slow!

Even now (am 51) I still feel weird when opening with my own DC opening presents in my pjs!!

Literally the worst rule so far.

At my in laws everyone has to take it in turns to open presents one at a time with much show and appreciation. Feels strange to me as I don’t like the focussed scrutiny and feel pressured to act up to keep the gift giver happy! Even if it’s just socks you must receive them like they’re spun gold. Much prefer with my own family where you can tear open your gifts at your own pace and talk about, appreciate and thank the giver a bit more naturally. Also no drinks at MILs, just wine with dinner, a single bottle between 8. Much horror if you seem to want more than that (by finishing the glass for exaample). Some singing or musical crackers, which I’m defininitely will never be drunk enough for but an expected participant. Very much all about MIL and we are bit players showing massive gratitude. Total opposite of my family who are all about excess, to varying degrees of success and emotional stability over the day.

I love Christmas mornings when we host and DS wakes up and brings his stocking into our bed to open. It’s very early, DH makes me and him cappuccino and a slice of pannetone to munch while DS delights in tat and chocolate coins. Then we go to check the tree and make sure the carrot and mince pie have been eaten. we wake the grandparents and breakfast pastries go in the oven while we open presents, then continental breakfast and everyone enjoys themselves how they chose/ helps make food/ plays with DS until lunch around 2pm that lasts most of the afternoon. Then a movie for kids, maybe neighbours or local friends pop in or we run across the road for a drink. Kids to home/bed and cheese and desserts and wine for whoever has room and is still hanging around, then bed. I’m usually exhausted but grateful.

Anyone else divvy up the presents and then each person takes turns to open their whole pile with everyone else watching? As in, one person at a time does all their presents, then the next person...

Not my family but interested if anyone else did this...

absolutely the weirdest one yet! You weren't allowed to open a present until the whole family had opened their bowels??? This sounds like it belongs in Royston Vasey!!

Yep, if this had been a rule in my house they would have waited a day or two for present opening. Not constipation I promise, I just have never needed to go every day ... 😂

😂 yeah this is the winner. Mandatory festive shitting is unfathomably weird.

DHs side of the family is vegetarian (as a religious thing). The years they come and visit we all just have to have a vegetarian Christmas meal unfortunately. When it's just DH us. I do make a good vegetarian dish for DH and make a good roast for the rest of us

Friends sons of DH hated roast meat of any kind when they were small so their mum served chicken nuggets.

One year DH experimented with the carrots by adding an orange juice sauce. (He fancies himself as a home chef) Never again.

My ex's family used to do skit or performance on Xmas eve. They would take it in turns to each do something performancy last 5-10mins and I was expected to do something too.

They weren't even an especially dramatic family

I was glad to let that one go when we broke up.

We have a theme every year. We've done Mexican, Greek, Australian, Italian and Spanish amongst others. People who love a traditional Christmas dinner either react in horror or say they would love to have something different like we do! I've literally just found the box with the Australian blow up kangaroos and cork hats in whilst looking for decorations 😂

We all buy lottery sratchcard tickets and play Texas hold’em after dinner the prize for the winner being a lottery ticket scratch card. However, we all sign a contract which states that if anyone wins over 10 k it has to be shared. Nobody has won over £100 so far though so we’ve never been put to the test!

Yes to the drinks in the garden, frees up space in the kitchen and the fridge! My work colleague got me onto that one, they've done it for years. It's usually as cold outside as it is in my fridge!

I have only had Christmas dinner at my inlaws once and it was fecking awful. Turkey cooked Christmas Eve, and for an hour longer than it should have been because "you can't be too careful". Dried and leathery, and served cold on Chrisrtmas Day. Veg went on to boil just after breakfast to be served at 2pm. Roast potatoes swimming in about a litre of lard. No bread sauce because FIL doesn't like it. Dessert - a 99p "absolutely gorgeous" mandarin cheesecake from Farmfoods.

Never ever again.

I love all of these.

I'm from a country/culture that doesn't really do Christmas but my lovely ILs get into it in a BIG way.

Two things got me taken aback the first time I stayed for Christmas:

Firstly...All business on christmas day before the big meal, takes place in pyjamas. It is the only time of year I see FIL in his pyjamas as he's an early riser and quite private. Weird shock.

Secondly... in the afternoon after the christmas meal, we all sit in the living room and watch banal TV (eg strictly come dancing etc) and...they all fall asleep. Like, all of them. My FIL, MIL, DH, even my deadly-serious BIL. Also the dogs in their baskets. I'm the only one awake, glancing around at this sleeping family on their armchairs, feeling like I'm in a weird absurdist movie. Wondering if it'd be rude to switch the channel!

The last few Christmases pre-DC I took my Nintendo switch and started playing that on my lap while they all slept around me lol

I have been to my FILs (widower) for Christmas day once, it was before me and my husband were married, we all sat in the living room with our food, with the exception of my SIL who took hers up to her room, ate without speaking a word to each other and my FIL sparked up a cigarette before we have finished eating! No dessert, no Christmas crackers nothing, I think he just didn't know what to do, my husband's late mum took care of all of that! So he comes to us every other year now, and on the other year he goes to my BIL.

He is an Incredible cook though, so whilst the atmosphere was a bit lacking the meal was out of this world!

We always had a Christmas day of excess, started with dad going downstairs ti “check if he’s been” (and put the gas fire on!) mum getting coffee for her and dad prior yo letting us into the living room together to view snd open presents. We were always at fever pitch by that point. Unbridled frenzy of unwrapping and paper mountain ensues. None of the presents had bows or ribbons, just bog standard 80’s wrapping paper, all the same. Always tangerine and Terrys choc orange in stocking. Pre breakfast chocolates allowed Christmas and easter only! Special folding Christmas day table produced from hut with assorted odd chairs to accommodate everyone for 3pm lunch. Queen on in the background and Christmas day top of the pops. Loads of tat, tinsel, crackers on table, everyone must wear the cracker hats, tell the jokes and have dressed up in something nice - new jumper or something. Special Christmas day white soup as part of four courses including a choice of desserts, luxury!! Not deemed a success until paralysed by overeating and half-cut. Few rounds of the new board game, them leftovers and comedy on telly. We always had big group and a couple of randoms who would have been alone otherwise. Sister and I do same between us now. First time I had Christmas day without my immediate family I was devastated at how crap it was. Tasteful restrained table, no crackers, nothing. All very sad. Much prefer my trashy traditions!