PLEASE TELL ME HONESTLY...

[NanaNina]

Now that the Christmas ads have started appearing on TV I am finding myself wondering the same thing as I do every year. Are there real families who sit in a perfectly cosy, tidy large room with a lovely Christmas tree in the corner, with a couple smiling happily at each other (maybe Christmas eve) and the snow falling softly outside......And the one on Christmas morning with 2 sweet kids in fluffy dressing gowns who are enraptured by their presents and a smiling mum and dad. Later the turkey is carried to the table by a woman with beautiful hair, lovely make up and dress, (no sign of being hot and harrassed by cooking the Christmas dinner) to the grateful cries of the rest of the family. DO they exist?? If you are one of them Please Tell Me. Thanks

My mum puts on at great day, starting by delivering her 3 grown up with children of their own daughters with what used to be Chamapane and orange (now it's straight up to take the edge off!). She cooks the best turkey and all the trimmings. We stay in our PJs all day unless we have guests. If guests come we put our best clothes on and sit in the dining room and eat of the silver and put the mustard, salt ect into tiny silver pots (this annoys my mother but I have to do it so they get used once a year). I love Christmas and this year my sister is hosting it in her new house - she's nervous and I'm excited.

We have the perfect day where we are awoken by DS (9) at early o'clock, who proceeds to empty his stocking on our bed and starts the choc fest. We all get up together and try to rouse DSD (23) from her blissful drunken sleep.
We all sit around the fire in our delightful Xmas PJ's smiling scowling at each other appreciating the early part of the day as DS rips through the carefully selected santa presents in about 5 minutes flat.
We have breakfast with the neighbours alternating each year, which is actually lovely ( especially as it is their turn this year and they usually have champagne! )
We then sit down for dinner around 3ish, being thankful to each other for participating in making the food and the day special ( DS is already suffering separation anxiety from his XboX).
We drink a lovely bottle 3 of wine with dinner ! And then retire to the sitting room to discuss argue about the evenings viewing and eat chocoalte and proceed to get merry! DS has rejoined his XboX. It is a race to see who can stay awake the longest.
I wouldn't have it any other way!

Mostly like that, but only the one child unless you count by 40-something extremely childish brother.

And the sprouts will always be overcooked.

I do, however, always see Christmas day through the cream-tinted blur of home made Baileys.

Oohh, how do you make a home-made Baileys - that might help !

Our family christmas is even better than you describe tbh
Standards of tidiness and TV standard beauty fall below but other stuff is much better

Of course the snow is pretty much a rarity...and there is only 1 child in our family - perhaps this makes for more harmony than families with more kids?

Yes world gone crazy, how do you make home made Baileys? tries not to think about the time she curdled mars bar flavour vodka

Just DD (17) and I at Christmas. Usually quiet but OK. I drink very little all year so get a bit sloshed. I cook a great Christmas meal and have to do it only for two. This year, not looking forward to it (see post on AIBU re DD furious at house purchase) as am mega miz. It'll pass. Hope it will be as good as it can for all of you out there

It's nothing like that for us.....for starters I will be working the night before so wont be home before 8. The dses will open presses, I will slope off to bed whilst dh supervises the Lego building. I will ge up and grumble about having to go back to work that night and dh will secretly be cursing the day he agreed with me that we wouldn't bother with the full christmas dinner and have a picky meal instead

Anyone want to swap

No one else going to have fish fingers followed by jelly this year then? Seriously who is the full roast for and do they really want it? My LOs are not really up for it I'll get stressed cooking it. I guess DH will miss it but many be smoked salmon and champagne supper after the kids are in bed might make up for it.

hang up their velvet stockings on our period fireplace

arf

mine starts with kids on the bladder and lights burning out my retinas and then chaos reigns.we are up at silly oclock[and i always look wistfully for signs others up but alas never a light on anywhere in our street]present opening is after a gobbled bowl of weetabix all round then the paper shredding starts and floor disappears.spend most a.m assembling playmobile whilst try put batterys in other things while they wait.bloke looks stressed and goes to pieces it not choc box perfect.lambs our dinner of choice which we get to eventually after relocated floor for 5mins.try get kids out for walk/ride if poss p.m[they like bloody puppies if cooped up to long start going nuts with excess energy]then play games eat sandmiches and crap til bedtime.i really do live in a bloody zoo at xmas with 4 kids careering round but i wouldnt have it any other way!

Oh god LeQueen - I thought this was a pistake and was looking forward to the punchline.............sorry for saying this but sound a bit snobby!

Christmas chez Turps is a fun-filled battle between my mother's eternal quest for attention and my SIL's OCD. Can't wait.

Have any of you seen National Lampoons Xmas Vacation? That sums up our xmas and I am Chevy Chase.

I love Christmas. That's all.

Perfect christmas here -

Chocolate covered children by 8am
Wrapping paper everywhere by 9am
Dinner on the table at whenever-it's-cooked-O'clock
Christmas pudding flamed and filmed at least three times
Toys everywhere
Books already half read
and no-one phoning during Dr Who!

Bliss - sod the adverts.

Well except the John Lewis one. DS's take note of that one please.

As kids we had to be dressed and breakfast eaten before main present opening (we did have stocking presents in our jammies in bed). We weren't allowed to eat chocolate or sweets until after lunch and the tv didn't go on until after tea. We always went out for a walk before lunch. Some people might think that sounds awful but tbh we never questioned it and I think it made for a better day - we'd play games instead of watching tv and we'd all gobble up lunch cos we hadn't been scoffing chocolate... Am sure I will be called a spoilsport. Each to their own!

reasonably advert-ish here but took years of drilling to get it to a manageable level. Ds arrives with his stocking at about 8am and goes through all the contents with us while we pretend we don't know what's in it.
Older DDS have to be prodded awake to do their stockings. Then church for 9.30 and they open their presents when they come back, around 10.30ish.
then we go to my mothers and do more presents under the tree with champagne and canapes. then we have lunch with all the trimmings either at her house or ours, around 2pm. then chill out, play with toys etc until bed time!. we'e not dressed to the hilt, but it is reasonably well mannered and enjoyable.

Two Xmas's ago I was 7 months pregnant and sober
Last Xmas I was breastfeeding and sober
This year - woo hoo

OMG at your post Lequeen lol. Reminds me of pseuds corner on Private Eye or that journalist who wrote about the mini hurricane that hit her home in London. Pretentious, toi?

We had a great Christmas day last year, after three years of failing to actually manage to cook the turkey on christmas day I have now given up. The DCs could choose whatever they wanted for Christmas day lunch and we had pizza and mini sausages and breadsticks. Loads of cava for us. And the thing the DCs liked best and want more of this year is the left over halloween chocolate skulls with smarties in that I had chucked in their stockings as an afterthought. I do worry that we are letting the side down but it makes us happier than trying and failing to have the perfect family christmas and while the DCs are little I have little energy for much else.

And no I now have not got any chocolate skulls as they only mentioned it last night.

I think lequeen's post is alright, except the 3rd paragraph, that all sounds too much like organised fun for my liking. And I kind of read 'extrovert and game for a laugh' to mean 'loud, try hard, pain in the arse'. I'm sure you are nice though!