Aibu to stop this multiple Christmas day madness?

[Sugargliderwombat]

So we have toddlers and babies in the family now, and we seem to be settling into a routine that I think is odd but wondering if IABU to basically stop the tradition from next year.

To account for multiple adults who work over Christmas (none of whom have children) we seem to have ended up doing 3 seperate Christmas days that cater for them. So my side I have to do boxing day, my OH side is Christmas eve and then Christmas day on our own. But instead of being them joining in with Christmas eve or boxing day we are doing 3 full bloody Christmases, that is madness going forwards, right?

if you're having full xmas dinner on xmas eve and boxing day with relatives, i'd be keeping xmas day for ourselves and keeping it more buffet style/low key.

2 - 3 months notice? Crikey. Why?

My family lives in different places and nowadays we celebrate: Christmas eve, Christmas, New year's eve, New year and The Epifany when the three wise men visit baby Jesus, also there are three birthdays, one on the 30th of December, one on the 5th of January and the other on the 6th of January.
We never had enough big meals these days.
It depends of the family setup and beliefs I suppose, some people celebrate none.
BTW if you don't like three days YANBU to stop it.

Embrace a quiet Christmas Day at home in between - Santa gifts and what you give them.

Low key meals and playing with the DC.

You will have to decide what time you want to be home Christmas Eve to do Santa Mince Pies etc. hopefully a busy day and late night they will be shattered and go to sleep quickly.

Christmas Eve and Boxing Day they get gifts from family that you get to thank them for and hopefully the DC will play with.

YANBU
You'll need to get a grip of advent calendars too.
Primary school mornings were a potential meltdown, school refusal situation so it was very calm here, very routine.There was a memorable year when each set of grandparents gave chocolate advent calendars, plus Aunts and Uncles. Some were shared, some individual, on involved popping balloons but only one of the favourite.
By about the fourth, after school I put the whole bloody lot on the table and said just open them all now, all of them. #making memories

My mum does the whole repeat the entire Xmas roast dinner thing. This was pretty much wanting one of us to crack and say ' you do the best dinner, my roast potatoes are a poor shadow. You are better than Delia, Nigella and Nigel. M&S barely warmed thru side, gosh how you spoil us.

I've never come up with the combination of timing and words to stamp this out.
You get extra indigestion if school Xmas dinner, work and a club also feature a Roast dinner within a fortnight.

I think it's normal to do the three days but not normal to do a full Christmas dinner 3 times.

Christmas Eve - buffet, random supermarket Christmas bits
Christmas Day - dinner
Boxing Day - ham + leftovers

You’d have to be pretty dim not to realise you can’t magic up ham or turkey for 4 on Christmas Eve 😮

Yeah who are these people with spare ham

We buy a turkey to feed 8-10 even though there's only 2 of us because there's always people popping in last minute and we have a lot of leftovers so we don't have to cook anything proper for days.

We spread the presents out over a few days. In your situation I would just cook the Christmas dinner on Boxing Day and have something easier on Christmas Day so you can spend the time with your children. I won’t be slaving in the kitchen on Christmas Day.

Presents are exchanged on multiple days, because we do them when we see people, but stockings and presents from us are a Christmas Day only thing. The children get the same number of gifts either way but it’s much less manic and more enjoyable for everyone that they end up a bit spread out. I wouldn’t tell my parents or in-laws they had to send presents for my kids to open on Christmas Day if they were seeing them the next day and could enjoy giving and watching them be opened.

I only cook one Christmas Dinner, usually on Christmas Eve. On other days if we have guests then it’s a big lasagne I’ve made ahead or a side of salmon or a ham. But no way am I cooking three consecutive roast turkey (well, actually chicken because I hate turkey) dinners. They’ll still be nice meals, but not a traditional Christmas dinner.

So no, we don’t replicate Christmas Day multiple times. We do enjoy a nice day with a nice meal and games on Christmas Eve or Boxing Day, but they are distinct. If other people want to host extra Christmas Days or prefer to do things alone so they can have a full on Christmas Day on the 27th then I’m fine with that, but I’m not doing the work that involves myself.

Once is more than enough.

I agree with most that the 3 days is pretty normal in order to see everyone. Many would be jealous that you get a quiet Xmas day at home. Why do you cook turkey on Xmas day though if you've had it Xmas eve? That day seems the easiest one to change. Just have a meal that suits you and the dc.

Obviously you can't influence what MIL cooks on Christmas eve, but the other 2 days are in ypur hands.

I'd either do Christmas Dinner on Christmas day and then do a nice buffet incorporating leftovers on boxing day OR have a nice but easy meal on Christmas day and do a pared down Christmas meal on boxing day.
Presents happen on Christmas day with maybe a few on boxing day for/from thkse yiuvsee then.

On threads where people without children or grown up children are upset they're the only ones made to work year after year to accommodate people with small children, they're told to grow up, they can have Christmas another day. Now we know why they're so upset, their families don't want to have Christmas another day so they never get Christmas with their family.

Wouldn't do 3 Xmas dinners but the rest sounds normal. We do a buffet on boxing day and takeaway on Xmas eve.

Well no, I wouldn’t want to do Xmas another day for family members that are not around on actual Xmas day unless it was husband or kids. If my SIL couldn’t make Xmas day then il keep a plate to the side for her but we do different things on Xmas Eve and Boxing Day so I wouldn’t be changing them because an adult couldn’t make it.

We do this and the kids (now late teens) love it.

We do separate it out a bit though so not back to back days, but yes three full Christmas (although Santa only arrives on Christmas day)

I love it because it means I get Christmas day just as our family (although we don't do roast on that day) but still see our family.

I think it's lovely that the working ones get a Christmas dinner and a great excuse to have a really relaxed day yourselves on Christmas day.
I would enjoy the meal and some presents Christmas eve, then do stockings and all the other nice Christmas treats on Christmas day, in pyjamas all day if you feel like it, then ideally a roast beef or ham for boxing day and some more presents.
I see what you mean about your own traditions -.my main tips would be don't get sucked into hosting every year and do tell people what you want to do. Different years can be different. It saves resentment.

We do this, but it's a different house/family hosting each day.
It's generally a different cuisine each day so normally Xmas Eve - Family 1's cultural food, Xmas Day - Roast dinner, Boxing Day - Family 2's cultural food. With some presents being opened on each day depending on who is or isn't there.

It's a lot nicer for anyone who has to work one of the days, because then they don't miss out on everything. It also slightly takes the pressure off for cooking because it doesn't have to such a huge meal because there's other big meals planned.

I thought the point of Boxing Day tea is that you layout a buffet and family all arrive and eat what they want. Not Christmas dinner again, but cold cuts of turkey, a ham, salads, cheese, pickles etc. And trifle. No need to make Christmas Day dinner three times, surely.

I usually have at least 2 sometimes 3 Christmas dinners, think it’s pretty normal when there are other people to see over Christmas, especially when you have children. I wouldn’t host all 3 though.

That is mental. I wouldn’t host anyone on Christmas Eve as I do a full on dinner for 12 on Christmas Day. Boxing Day is for left overs from the day before. For a few years we did one day at mine, next day at siblings, but tbh the kids got fed up of it as teenagers so it fizzled out. Now, I love a busy Christmas Day and a very peaceful, chilled Boxing Day.

I’ve worked Christmas Day but I’ve hosted my Christmas dinner myself, don’t host if you don’t want to. If I was hosting I’d mix the menu up a bit too.

Exactly this....especially when you know you're going to have one cooked for you on Christmas eve...

Boxing day is normally cold cuts and buffet foods.

Do the ones that work over Christmas do so every year, if not do they contribute to having a turn cooking a Christmas dinner or do they always expect others to do the cooking?