To not understand why people eat at such strange times at Christmas?

[NumberSixtyTwo]

I really don't get why so many people choose to have Christmas dinner at times they'd never normally eat a meal. Like many seem to have it at 3 or 4pm. Normally no one eats at that time so why do it on Christmas day?

Why not have it at a normal lunch time, like about 1pm, or a proper evening meal time?

Having it in between normal meal times surely just means you're too hungry or not hungry enough?

I find the concept of a “meal time” a bit weird in the first place. We eat when we’re hungry, not because it’s 1pm or 6pm and supposedly that means it’s “time” to eat. If that’s 4pm or 10pm, all cool. Christmas is no different. It’s better to be hungry and looking forward to a big meal than stuffing it in regardless because you think it’s the right time.

When my DGPs were alive DGF would be watching the clock and counting down the minutes to 1pm and woe betide if dinner was a minute late. Christmas dinner in our house now happens when it’s ready, sometime after 2, and well after the sun is over the yardarm.

I wouldn’t enjoy a big meal at 1pm but I’m a two meal a day person anyway tbh, I’m happy to eat at around 9 and then again at tea time - which could be any time between 3 on the likes of Christmas Day and 5-6pm normally.

I can never get my head round people eating their dinner at 8pm. I wouldn’t sleep until 2am if I ate that late.

We have it at about 4.30. We get up around 10 (when kids were little obviously earlier), open presents then have something fairly substantial like french toast and bacon. Then it's cooking and setting up for the dinner. Eating at 1 would be way too early, but no one would last til 7 and with young kids too close to bedtime. So 4.30 is perfect! Then after a few games kids to bed and adults pick on leftovers and watch a movie.

Do you always eat your meals at the same time?

Sometimes I have breakfast, sometimes not - could be anywhere between 9 and 11.

Lunch could be anywhere between 12 and 3. Dinner between 6-9.

This is just normal days let alone Christmas!

Not all of us live our lives in strict routines.

We eat between meal times around 2.30/3 as it allows guests to arrive without rushing in the morning. Plus the turkey takes about 3.5-4 hours plus resting time.

We eat a big breakfast and no supper as cheese board is out.

We used to do a smoked salmon, scrambled egg and champagne brunch for about 11.30 then the main meal for about 5, which suited growing children and elderly grandmother, and then stuck to that for years.

This year we are going on toddler and travelling timing ( agreed by all) doing a 9.30 breakfast ( same smoked salmon and scrambled eggs but with orange juice) then a 3pm main meal. I’m the main meal cook and it’s fine by me.

Your DGF sounds like my kind of person!

I can see that Christmas is busy and that some people have a lot to fit in on the day so I get it. It's a different sort of day.

Personally though, I get up at normal time so have breakfast at a normal time and want my turkey at lunchtime (1pm is fine). I'm not someone who likes missing meals so I wouldn't be able to have just 'brunch' to last me until 3.

We eat dinner early on a normal day so actually 4 wouldn't be that bad for me. But it would be eating my dinner early, not eating my lunch late. I would have to eat at lunchtime still.

I remember being shocked on here at the number of people who have Sunday lunch at 3pm though.

I love having Christmas dinner at 3.

We have a late breakfast, there's no rush to start cooking for a normal lunchtime. In the evening there's no need to cook - people can pick at leftovers or have hummus and veg sticks and breadsticks.

I quite often eat like this on holiday too. The mealtimes that are 'normal' are only normal because we as a society have made them that way.

We are eating at 4 this year.
Schedule is up
6.30 go to yard, turn out horse and muck out stable.
7.30 shower
8 breakfast
9 1 hour drive to pick up mum
11/11.30 get back home with mum (it's an hour each way)
12 open presents
1pm light snacks
3pm back to yard to sort horse
4pm dinner
7/8pm DH takes mum home.
9/10 DH gets back home.
Mum can't stay over now as her alzheimers means she gets too confused and distressed also she can't manage the stairs now and we don't have a downstairs bedroom.

I'm hungry later because we have breakfast later and then I'm snacking on nuts and dates. If I have breakfast late on a weekend I might not have lunch, then have dinner at 5, I don't necessarily follow a weekday routine of 7am, 12:30pm, and 6:30pm.

I (oldest in a family of three) normally eat my main meal about 1:00. My daughter and her partner (the other two members of our family) eat theirs about 8:00.

on Xmas day, in order to eat together, we eat at about 4:30/5:00.

so for us it's a compromise we are all willing to make on Xmas day.

Because our family is busy in the morning, we’ve had a big brekkie and the meal takes fucking ages to prepare and cook. It’s hardly the enigma bloody code.

We have bacon butties after opening presents, and doing ponies so about 10am. Then I like to tidy up, have an hour relaxing and start cooking, aiming for 4-5pm. The dcs will pick at stuff during the day. Dh might have cheese and biscuits or something about 2pm.

We usually have a sunday roast for 5pm anyway. Christmas dinner is a bit earlier to allow for us to clean the kitchen down and then relax in front of tv for a few hours with a few drinks, pudding, maybe picking at leftovers.

We go to bed early anyway as my alarm goes off at 7am, 7 days a week because of ponies and dh is a builder to usually up and out early anyway and although he doesn't work over Christmas his body clock takes a bit of adjustment.

Not exactly the same time, but there's a ballpark. So breakfast 6-9, lunch 11-2, tea 5-8. So 3 or 4pm is a complete outlier!

I really don't get why people are saying that a cooked breakfast or some smoked salmon fills them up enough to not need lunch either. Are these the same people where a chicken feeds ten people for two weeks?

Like scrambled eggs on toast is a nice breakfast but I still want lunch at a normal time after it!

We have random mealtimes all year round so no different for us 😂. My sister OTOH has fixed mealtimes but even she will flex at Xmas

We have our main meal around 5.30pm Xmas eve so that's probably even more weird for some!

Because it’s not a normal day plus Christmas dinner is so big you don’t normally need to eat lunch and dinner so eating at 3/4pm is a good time for the one big meal of the day.

Also why does it matter what other people do?

Usually the early prosecco puts my timings all off 😂

We have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast on Xmas day and then hot sausage rolls around 11.30am. Then graze for a bit and then turkey soup and a turkey sandwich/cheese board in the evening.

Eat whenever you want, what a strange thing to get frustrated about

Not everyone has rigid routines. You might but that doesn’t mean others aren’t flexible.

It’s not a normal day though is it. We normally eat a large breakfast at 10am. Then it’s snacking & probably sit down for Christmas dinner at 3pm & then it’s pudding, cheese, more snacking a bit later on.

Tbh I thinks it’s strange to eat breakfast at 6am & lunch at 11am, lots of restaurants aren’t serving that food then & I’ve never worked anywhere your lunch could be earlier than noon.

How do you know everyone else's normal routine?