I agree OP that late 80s-early 2000s was “peak Christmas”, largely because there was a specific and quite widespread Boomer kind of Christmas that was both more elaborate and planned and fancier than the pre-Boomer Christmas, and that has kind of gone out of fashion or seems too much these days. I mean we do loads for Christmas these days, collectively, but somehow seem to fit in less stuff for some reason.
Like - a Christmas Day for my grandparents (pre-Boomer) went something like: get up late morning, put turkey on, couple of presents, menfolk nip to pub for an hour when it was open, Christmas lunch (two courses: dry turkey (frozen from the local butcher), sprouts/potatoes/stuffing and gravy, followed by Christmas pudding and cream, Queen’s speech, then a long rest of the day in front of Morecambe & Wise and Tommy Cooper drinking whisky, eating leftovers and cheap cheese on Jacob’s cream crackers and smoking like chimneys until all rolling off to bed still drunk.
Boomer Christmas of my 80s/90s childhood went something like this:
All kids up at crack of dawn, stockings, eat chocolate, full breakfast of croissants etc., showers & dressed in party clothes/Sunday best, then tree presents (loads); clear up wrapping paper, put turkey in oven, then to church at ten, complete with each child bringing one of their new toys to show at church. Mince pie and tea afterwards in church hall.
Then back to put roast potatoes on at 11:30, rearrange sofas for guests, family guests start arriving at 11:30am, champagne at 12:30, dinner with at least three courses starting at 1pm (starter, which got more elaborate over the years from melon or soup to smoked salmon mousses and so on); then full Christmas roast including three types of potatoes, fresh farm-reared free range turkey for twelve, pigs in blankets, plus carrots/sprouts/broccoli/sweetcorn/roasted butternut squash/home made bread sauce/home made cranberry sauce. Then Christmas pudding with cream, brandy butter and another dessert for those who don’t like Xmas pud, followed by Stilton and biscuits for cheese, liqueur chocolates and coffee while watching the Queen and Christmas Top of the Pops.
Then the big Christmas film on BBC1 at 5-7pm while kids play with new toys. Parents clear up. Then everyone piles into car to drive round 2-3 different relatives’ houses for full Christmas evening buffets, Christmas cake, and drinks at each house, party games, charades, Trivial Pursuit and board games until midnight or so.
This all seemed quite normal and what everyone seemed to do for Christmas in our rather traditional and homogenous town.
I mean though - it was fucking mad in retrospect. Not only was everyone kind of drink-driving around all evening, and going out to church leaving the turkey in the oven (!) but I have no idea how my parents fitted it all in. It must have been like a military operation. And who wants to go out driving around to auntie so-and-so’s and grandma’s all evening after all that? I guess people often lived closer to relatives though in those days - whereas I now live half the country away from my family.
My Christmas now - is not actually that dissimilar from my pre-boomer grandparents (only with less smoking, pub, whisky and Morecambe and Wise, and with far better food). We get up late morning, kid opens stocking on our bed, lazy brunch of pastries or eggs on sourdough, open some tree presents, then we have a roast (slimmed down to just a really good free range meat, roasties, lots of veg but no sprouts, home made gravy), then a non-Christmas pudding dessert). In the evening we put on some Christmas music and watch a bit of TV, have some leftovers, a glass of wine or two and then go to bed. We’re exhausted enough by that - no idea how we’d manage church or an evening buffet!
Long post, but I definitely agree that people don’t tend to do the full Boomer mad Christmas Day as much any more. Fewer people going to church, no-one would leave the oven on these days while they’re out, it’s not fashionable right now to dress up much, people don’t tend to want to overeat or drink as much as they did, and often don’t live that near all their relatives, or want to put on a big evening buffet (or go to one). Drink-driving is socially very unacceptable for most people these days. TV is rubbish as well now at Christmas - no big Christmas film that everyone wants to see; no Christmas Top of the Pops to watch for the Christmas number 1 with bated breath. The big Boomer Christmas seems on the way out to me.