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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

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Original poster

Does anyone have their Christmas lunch in the evening?

49 replies

headfairy · 19/12/2011 19:23

I've been vaguely wondering why we have to sit and stuff our faces during the few hours of daylight... we always talk about going for a lovely Christmas day walk, but we rush through present opening, some of us dash off to church, then we all rush around to my mum and dad's so we can have our Christmas lunch (usually only three or four hours after breakfast) and then rush to unwrap a few more presents by which time the daylight's gone.

I'm quite tempted to suggest to my mum we have a more relaxed morning opening our presents at our various homes, have a nice relaxing bath/shower/whatever and get dressed in a relaxed fashion (rather than frantically throwing clothes on and screeching at the kids to hurry up)... go to mass actually being able to say hello and Happy Christmas to our friends before sauntering on a nice walk finally coming home for Christmas "lunch" at about 6pm. I'm sure it would make for a much more enjoyable day.

Anyone else do this?

OP posts:

wordfactory · 19/12/2011 20:28

chipmunk that's what I figure.

I think I'd be far too knackered given my DC like to gte up at silly o'clock and I like my first glass of fizz at 11.59.

snowmaiden · 19/12/2011 20:33

We eat at around 3pm.

CoffeeGoneColdAgain · 19/12/2011 20:33

We normally eat early afternoon, we all (11 of us) go to my parents for Christmas dinner. This year we are eating at 5ish as my Dp is the only one working and my parents thought it would be nice to wait for him! I think its very kind of them to do this, but also think its lovely that we are not rushing early morning with presents etc!

AsinineLadiesDancing · 19/12/2011 20:40

We have breakfast at 8ish, starter at 11, main at 4, pudding at 7ish.

Anonymousbosh · 19/12/2011 20:41

We do, xmas Eve! leaving the whole day free on xmas day to chill, walk withthe kids, play with our oressies and snooze. We make a vveerrry easy veg bake thing to put in the fridge on xmas eve and cook to eat with cold turkey and pickles on xmas day.

RhondaRoo · 19/12/2011 20:45

My mum has worked most Christmas since I was about 14 so we have to have our Christmas meal at 5pm.

I wouldn't have it any other way now, I love having the candles lit and the twinkly lights

I found that the running around to visit family and friends got very exhausting with a LO in tow, so after the first year I said 'come to me if you want to see us' funnily enough they all refused (it's ok for me and my parents to rush 10 miles to see them, god forbid they come to us for an hour though!!

So now, DD and I have Christmas morning unwrapping presents and I do a luxurious breakfast, we stay in our pjs and play with her presents and then about 2pm my dad comes to get us and we go over there, may have a light bite while we wait for mum to come home from work and sit down to dinner at 5pm ish. Once everything is cleared up we then tackle the presents around their tree - it's great, the day lasts for ever and I'm a big kid I really like eeking every inch of fun out of present opening for DD.

IT'S NEARLY CHRISTMAS AND I'M VERY EXCITED....EEEEEEEE!

And calm

Original poster

headfairy · 19/12/2011 20:49

psudonym I have never ever watched the Queen's speech (for any other reason than work that is - never watched it for leisure iyswim) so Queen's speech isn't really a feature of our Christmas lunch/dinner planning. Maybe we're just horribly republican!

OP posts:

RhondaRoo · 19/12/2011 20:59

I'm not republican but I've never 'got' the Queen's Speech - it isn't a part of my Christmas day, although my dad insists on watching it. I tend to choose that moment to help DD with her drawing/new book/new doll/or have a cheeky snooze...!

lisaro · 19/12/2011 21:00

We don't have Christmas lunch, we have Christmas dinner about 6pm (ish!).

lucysmam · 19/12/2011 21:11

We tend to eat later too. Have brekky with the kids around half 8 or so, starter at lunch time (12ish in this house), Main meal around 4pm ish, pudding about half 6 and just chill in between. Never rush around much here Christmas day, doesn't matter if dinner's served up on time or not, still just as tasty when it gets there

Chestnutx3 · 19/12/2011 21:21

I like to get the dinner out of the way to relax and drink. The kids will fill themselves up with chocolate and crisps and not eat their dinner if I did it late. We aim for 1/1.30pm. I'm so tempted this year to take the pressure off and cancel my Ocado order and just have a M&S christmas food and bugger the peeling of potatoes et al and enjoy opening the presents, as our guests think they may not be coming now but can't decide! Kids would be more than happy if we had lasagne rather than turkey.

willowstar · 19/12/2011 21:22

the only couple of times I have hosted Christmas it has been in the evening (around 7 I think) because it took us that long faffing around! no-one minded and it is the way I will plan it again when the time comes.

ByTheSea · 19/12/2011 21:26

We do. We have brunch after opening the presents and then I like to relax while I do dinner. It is often quite late as we're not that hungry until then.

Blu · 19/12/2011 21:27

No, we have Christmas Dinner in the evening!
Breakfast, light lunch, Christmas dinner at normal evening dinner time.
PLenty of time for a good walk, play with the new toys, relax in the afternoon, sit round table with drinks and crackers til late into the evening.
People chip in with cooking and prep as the day goes on - no stress.

DogQuestions · 19/12/2011 21:28

We do Xmas dinner at 6pm on Xmas eve "in the Continental style" and then eat cold turkey and ham on Xmas day. Leaves us free to play with toys and go to the park on Xmas morning, and gives us time to cook the turkey starting at a reasonable hour.

BellaVita · 19/12/2011 21:33

WordFactory 11.59 bit late innit? We crack open the bubbles at about 10.00am mid morning.

We have lunch here maybe starting at about 1.15 but courses spread out, so mains at about 2ish and then dessert, coffee, cheeses at delayed intervals.

orienteerer · 19/12/2011 21:33

Only when I was an 'older' teenager/young adult and there were no young children in the family. Now we have DS9 I think lunch (1-2pm..ish) is a good way to break up the day. DS would be climbing up the walls if he had to wait until early evening........and Grandma wouldn't last the course. We spread out present opening as well, so some in the morning and some after lunch. On top of all the dog always needs a late afternoon walk.

Scuttlebutter · 20/12/2011 00:25

We grew up with dogs/animals so using the few hours of daylight was important. Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without a long walk on Oxwich Beach.

Now that I'm all grown up we do the same, have a leisurely stockings/breakfast/coffee, then walk the woofs, then back home to shower and change/look smart. Presents are opened with some bubbly and a few nibbles and then we sit down to eat around 5. Works brilliantly. We also cook the turkey on Christmas Eve, so all the cooking on christmas Day (which is done by DH) is just really the veg and roast pots - so much less stressful.

toody · 20/12/2011 00:31

have done this for years much prefer it whole day seems more relaxed and enjoyable.

LolaLadybird · 20/12/2011 17:55

We eat about 5. DC's are 6 and 4 but it is fine as we are eating about the time of their usual teatime. It is lovely to be eating after dark with candles and it does allow plenty more time. This was how my parents did it when we were kids.

The only time I have eaten at lunchtime rather than late afternoon was when staying with in-laws and it seemed a bit of a rush - in our house, Christmas breakfast is a leisurely affair but there simply wasn't time to fit it all in. Also didn't feel very festive eating in broad daylight.

If you eat a big breakfast and are nibbling through the day there is no need to do lunch (although usually give the DC's a more substantial snack early afternoon).

baubleybobbityhat · 20/12/2011 17:56

Always. We always have Christmas dinner at about 5pm. I find it much easier that way and it is more atmospheric when its dark outside.

slapdashsusie · 21/12/2011 07:39

My family always open presents onChristmas Eve (german-american background!) and we decided years ago to eat the big meal that night too- we are in Australia and a hot turkey goes down easier in the cool of the evening rather than in 35 degree noontime heat.
It also frees up any married members of the family to spend Xmas day proper with their inlaws, the singletons go to my Mum's in the Blue Mountains for a bush walk.
It also meant that my son could go to his Dad's every christmas day and I could have every Christmas eve, so no arguing one day out of 365!

vesela · 21/12/2011 07:54

We eat Christmas dinner at 5-6 - sometimes 4 depending on the ages of the children involved.

When I was growing up, my father's family used to have Christmas lunch and my mother's family Christmas dinner. They lived five miles apart, so we used to go to both until my parents decided it wasn't such a great idea.

Goolash · 21/12/2011 09:48

We eat around 5 to 6. We usually take the kids for a short walk and visit relatives for an hour, or have visitors drop in. I like feeling that we've done something, then can come back, relax, open the wine. Most of the food prep is done the day before, so there's not much mess in the kitchen. This year it's all coming prepared from Waitrose [fgin] Everything has to be done and packed up for Dr Who.

This year we'll be opening the stockings first thing, then having breakfast.
Go for a short walk and drop into relatives.
Coming back for 1 to 2pm. We'll then have wine, open the main presents. Food will be instead of a starter or lots of side dishes with the main event. So pate, pigs in blankets etc
Dinner between 5 and 6.
Dr Who

If we have Christmas dinner at parents we do similar. They live by the sea so it's nicer to spend some time outdoors, come back for soup, start the prep for the dinner.

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