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?

Exactly. And why would you care about anyone else’s routine?

Snacks. Most people have snacks things around.

You eat when you want but why get bothered about others doing things differently?

It might be a complete outlier to you. Not to me.

I often finish work at two, home by half past, lunch around three. That happens at least once per week.

Pre-children: sleep in, lazy late breakfast. Walk the dog. Put the meat in, then everything else while it rests, eat it mid afternoon (which is fine, because late breakfast)

Post-children: up at the crack of dawn, starving at 5.30am so have breakfast. Open presents, tidy up all the mess. Frantically run the dog round the park before her bladder pops. Starving again. Eat more breakfast mid morning. Realise its mid morning. Put the meat in. Then as above.

It's not rocket science. People eat when their dinner is ready and sometimes it's ready mid afternoon because of other things that have happened that day. And it's Christmas so your usual routine doesn't matter today unless you happen to still have to be at work.

2pm here, like Sundays

I quite often eat dinner at 3 and supper between 7 and 8. So Christmas meal at 3 is bang on schedule for us. We go to the gym in the morning at the weekend so usually have late breakfast.
We have Christmas supper though slightly earlier than usual (6ish) but will have a light brunch at midday.

I don’t eat breakfast lunch and dinner at set times at all. And at weekends often have two proper meals instead of 3 if I’ve got up late. Why do you think your reality is everyone else’s? Strangely self centred

We usually eat around 3-4pm. It’s a big meal, so we have it as a sort of ‘Linner’. It’s not hard to understand.

At weekends and on holiday we don’t usually have three set meals a day, anyway. It’s not just at Christmas.

I'm another one who eats meals when I'm hungry and one or two meals a day so never any unusual meal times. Christmas dinner will be served sometime between two and four when it's ready.

@IpsyUpsyDaisyDoos i have kids and we won’t be up at 5:30!!!

I once knew a family that would start drinking at 6 am the mom would have dinner done at 11.30 and everyone blind drunk before 1pm

I never understood the drinking for christmas with anyone i see it with some familys drinking before 8am my neighbor cracks open the wine before 10 i just dont get it.
But then again i dont drink so what would i know.

You seem obsessed with your version of “normal” as you keep repeating that word.

Again, why are people so bothered or “shocked” about when others eat? I find that abnormal.

Always had it just after the Queen. Late enough to not need to get up early. Early enough no one driving home has indigestion.

Clearly people just eat at time that works for them. It doesn’t have to make sense to you, because it’s not your dinner.

For us, Christmas is always a pretty chilled day, plenty of time to open presents and have a glass or two of champagne during the morning. We don’t get up at the crack of dawn and at 10am we want to be opening presents and having a laugh, not putting a turkey in the oven. None of us would be hungry enough at 1pm to do the meal justice anyway. We’ll have been grazing on nibbles and canapés and Christmas chocolates. It’s not like a normal day and I don’t need to have a three course dinner at the same time I’d have my Pret sandwich on a day at the office.

It means you're not rushing in the morning, gives time for all the breakfast chocolate to be digested, and early enough that kids can eat with the adults and then be dispatched to bed. 3-4 always at our house.

Not a drinker either, though I came from a family of big drinkers. Dinner was always late after pubs shut. I'll never understand the mentally

3pm is hardly an outlier if a lunch at 2pm is acceptable. We always eat lunch later on a non-school day. Are you really suggesting that you would be able to eat a cooked breakfast at 9am followed by a christmas dinner at 11am?

We had a cooked breakfast yesterday, the adults had three eggs, one slice of toast, mushrooms, tomatoes, hash browns, baked beans, scrambled tofu with spinach and avocado. So you would really eat a christmas dinner two hours later?

It's a combination of a late breakfast and then having Chrismassy things around to snack on that we wouldn't normally have.

I was being a bit extreme to make a point tbh, although I have friends who will definitely have been up an hour or so by then. But between the child and the dog, who are both in a routine which involves being up fairly early on week days, we'll still be up and started early ish for a day off.

Lots of people have roast dinner on a Sunday around 3pm or so. So it's not too different to that.

It’s the evening meal for us (and we eat late)!

Have varied vastly over the years depending on what particular stage of life we are at!
Growing up in the 50’s/60’s it was at 1.pm as usual as my mother had ( undiagnosed) ocd among other things so no variation from normal routine- and even if we weren’t hungry it was tea at 5
When I had young children at home it was about 2 - if we left it any later they’d eaten so much chocolate they didn’t want their dinner!
Children all left home and come round in the morning ( local ones) for present giving, croissants etc then go off and do their own thing and me and DH go for walk and eat about 4/5
This year got various overseas families with assortment of ages toddlers/children so I’m going to be asking with a smile on my face “ What time suits everyone for dinner?” And being a good MIL like I’ve learned on mumsnet x

Isn't it more like a traditional Sunday? get up late have a bigger than normal brunch type breakfast. Then a late/ lunch or early dinner depending on how you look at it. Snacky something for supper for those that fancy it?

I don't but in days of old most people would have been in Church on Christmas morning. Which perhaps contributes to the tradition.

This year we are breaking with the tradition of 2:30/3:00 set in my childhood and somehow carried on by me. So we are doing Christmas walk, evening roast dinner and pud, no starter. It’s the first one without either of my parents or MIL. The last of those still with us but noT able to travel as far as us from where she lives.

I’m personally hoping this will make Christmas without parents - for the first time in 60 years - ok. We are raising a traditional toast in kir royal though to be a bit 70s/80s

Same as me i came from a family that drank like fish that could not handle it i hated it.
xmas was the worst as they would drink more and the arguments would start.
Dinner was always crap They were too drunk to cook.