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

I always tell myself the alcohol burns off, jugglingwithGoldandMyrhh

Agree that mulled wine is best when you are cold, I think it has a soapy taste otherwise.

Quite like a winter pimms with apple juice and berries instead.

Loathe as I am to spoil the thread, can I just say LeQueen that asking people to be honest doesn't mean that I can't make comments back. Lots and lots of people have posted about Christmas's a bit like the ads and that's fine. AND LeQueen you must be able to read minds as you read mine in your earlier post about what I wanted, what I expected di da di da di da. AND you've gone and rumbled me about the fluer-dy-lyes wine glasses and the tepid Blue Nun..........so, proof that you can read minds! Incidentally I'll be posting the glasses on E bay so get in quick mumsnetters as I couldn't bear to use them again................shame though.

Ok enough is enough I agree no more nasty comments (from me anyway) and hope you have a lovely Christmas LeQueeen. Peace on earth!

Being snobby about Blue Nun is one thing. Making a point of slipping in details about Georgian rectories is another. For what it's worth, we also have period fireplaces (although reconditioned) and the girls have velvet stockings (actually they are velour and were from Woolworths iirc) but they are in a small Victorian terrace. Christmas can be lovely without a swathe of interior designers and I wouldn't wrap up a load of empty boxes because I think it's wasteful and I am horrified by the amount of paper wasted in Britain - but other than that, each to their own!

Can't stand mulled wine but agree that if you're going to have it at all, it has to be because you are feeling cold.

Agree with Pag that the best Christmas days are those without all the extended family. We made a rule a few years ago to have just the four of us and it's lovely.

Agree with Lequeen that there needs to be at least one board game in there somewhere.

I am interested in winter pimms now.

Recipe?

We have a modern newbuild (well it was when we bought it 6 years ago) and last year put in one of those modern hole in the wall fireplaces
We had to tell the DS's that we were leaving a key for Father Christmas to use to get in to bring the presents, they were utterly distraught.

No Blue Nun or fleur de lys transfers though and we still manage to have a wonderful time

And yes, agree with Pag starting the day with a cold glass of Champagne makes it all go far more swimmingly.

Yy winter pimms recipe please, thank you.

And I think mulled wine is like eating outdoors whilst camping. Everything tastes so much better if you have had to work for it. Mulled wine after a winter run, mmmm.

YYY. Peace on earth and goodwill to all men and all that. And I can forgive Pag about the rellies because she has about 49 siblings so it can;t be easy to liek all of them and all of their assorted partners and children, but the rest of you must not row at Christmas, ok? Anyway, Pag does as I would do - spend it with just very close family if at all possible. Although I do allow some extended family for the same reasons as LeQueen. (by extended I mean parents. siblings and in laws, neices and nephews - that's all.)

Pag, 'Winter' Pimms is sold as it is - completely different to Summer/Normal Pimms. You add apple juice and a cinnamon stick or summat, but I was underwhelmed by it and prefer a pint of gin.

there were so many typos and sp. mistakes in there. Sorry - typing in the sark.

the dark, THE DARK. FFS.

Pmsl to typing in the sark. I feel a pirate Christmas coming on!

Winter Pimms and ginger beer is yummy but it isn't warm.

My Christmas day drinking agenda goes:

First thing in the morning (irrespective of how early I have been awoken) Bucks Fizz.

A few more Bucks Fizz

For help whilst preparing lunch/peeling veg - Sherry. Lots.

Immediately before lunch (which to be fair is more of an almost-teatime thing on out house) a G&T

With lunch, red wine.

After lunch/into the evening - something like Baileys or Ameretto. Naff but oh so yummy.

And on Boxing Day my sister and I always have to have a Snowball or six (with a maraschino cherry) because that was the first alcoholic drink we ever had, always given to us at Christmas by our beloved Grandpa.

in our house, not 'on out house'. (still dark!)

Christmas is in our house this year. The meal is no bother. I have ordered everything from M&S including the vegetables and pre made turkey gravy. It will taste just as delicious as if I had spent hours slaving over it myself. I am buying christmas shaped breaded chicken goujons for DS who is fussy as I refuse to spend Christmas day fighting over food.
It will be super.
I just have no idea how to get everything to fit in the fridge for the day before and day after that our relatives are staying, plus having 10 of us in the same house for 3 days may start to get a little cramped after a while, oh yes and must check we have mulled wine.

Lequeen - saying you hang up stockings is one thing: making a point of saying it's a velvet stocking on a period fireplace is piling it on a bit imho. BUT as far as I'm concerned you can do no wrong because we agreed so entirely on all those bonkers unconditional parenting threads there were a while back - so less of the faces, please!

Raises a fleur de lys print goblet full of Winter Pimms. Hic.

Last Christmas my mum screeched at me over the dinner table for drinking too much (i'd had a glass and a half of wine with lunch). The year before that my stepdad decided that between starter and main course of my first ever Christmas lunch was the right time to turn the table upside down to fix the wobbly leg. The Christmas before that my mil fell out with us and wouldn't speak to us til new year. Before that, I have spent various Christmases flat on my back with flu and on crutches with a torn ligament。
I farking hate Christmas.

Advocat and snowballs both bring back happy teenage memories for me too. Both are very easy to drink too much of - especially as a youngster !

Go on. I dare you.

None of my family have period houses, (unless the 1960s is a period?)

So, I'm not going to even bother trying.