What are you doing this Christmas then?

[gregssausageroll]

This year on Christmas day it will be me, DH, DS and the dog. We will have nibbles, champagne, the tv, toys and lovely food. We will head out for a walk at somepoint too. No parents to spend it with but I am looking forward to it although will very much miss Australian family.

Boxing day is very different. 16 friends and their families all coming for food. This year I am doing curry. Nice and easy. Usually a good day with wine, a few games on the wii and lots of chat.

New Year we just sleep right through that!

We have just found out that we're going to Australia! DH's parents are paying for our flights so we can see them....I am a bit shocked tbh.

Of course it's lovely....but part of me keeps thinking "But it's not the SAME in Oz!"

Which it isn't.

It's boiling and the decorations look odd...AND I'm worried what to do about presents for two DDs....we can buy some out there and bring them back...but nothing large....I'm thinking of having small gifts in Oz and having Father Christmas come over when we're away and leaving their biger things (A bike and a scooter amongst other stuff) here under the tree for them to find when they get home.

Peaz, if MIL insists you must go to her on Christmas day, could you time shift your own Christmas day to the week-end or Christmas eve instead, complete with presents if you want. This way you can enjoy yourselves as you choose and DS1 can play with his gifts without being uprooted. Seems a shame to have to wait until after Christmas to have Christmas at your house which is what DH wants too. (Unless of course you have other plans for those days)

You can then have the second Christmas at the ILS and enjoy it or not, they can do presents there as well which spreads it all out and prevents present overload on the one day. It's the celebrating that matters rather than when it happens.

We will be having christmas with the inlaws for the 1st time, I have already had a cry about this as it will be so different to christmas with my family :( the reason we are having christmas with the inlaws is because we live in Sweden and I am due to give birth to a baby on the 8th of December, I don't think we will have enough time to get a passport to take DS to the UK, if there was enough time I would go home.

My mum and brother are flying over just before christmas so at least some of my family will be there.

They celebrate christmas on the 24th here, so we will go to sil's house for a traditional Swedish christmas dinner (cold fish and porridge ) in the evening jul tomten (swedish father christmas) will come and visit and bring the pressies.

On the 25th we will open stockings and I'd like to do a champagne breakfast, then me my mum, my brother and dp will make a English christmas dinner.

Then probably go for a snowy walk/sledging.

After christmas my step dad and little sister (shes 9) will fly over so we will have another christmas celebration with them :)

I imagine we wil have an early night on nye, either that or we will be up with our baby :)

I think that's what we'll do. I really, really want it at ours, to start our own traditions, but with MIL, she will make it all about her. So the best thing is to just suck it up and go to her, then do it all again at my place and make so damn better that OH will want it at ours every year!

I still want DS1 (and DS2, but he'll be one so won't remember a thing) to open our pressies on CD morning though. Mmm, need to think about that.

With any luck, SIL might invite PIL to her place before we do...

Thanks for the reply!

We will be having Christmas morning at home with DD who will be 23 months and DC2 who will be around 6 weeks old. I intend on sitting on the sofa BF'ing and eating choc and drinking a small glass of something sparkly!

Then down to in-laws for a meal, where I intend on doing much of the same while other people do the work

We will have had a Christmas day with my parents and extended family a few days earlier - funnily enough my plans for that day involve sitting on the sofa with food and nice drinks to slurp while BF'ing DC2.

Am planning xmas at home this year.
Lots of stuff on the run up...school stuff, church stuff...
So hopefully Xmas day will be here just me, dh and the 2 ds.
Slobbing out, pjs all day, Xmas lunch care of marks and Spencer's :)
I normally do a big party on Boxing Day for both families but am having a year off this year.
We don't do anything for NYE, except sleep through it.

Same as every year, get up at stupid o'clock then downstairs to open pressies. Between 10-11am we go to my mums then home around 1 to start dinner. Then back out about 6pm to go round mil's for more pressies.

Another first-time cook here, aged 40, it's finally my turn to host after years of alternating between the grandparents.

We have four confirmed and two possibles (depending on hospital shifts) plus me, DH and DD.

When do I order the turkey (serious question)?

DH,me and 3 DC's, midnight mass on Christmas eve. kedgeree and bucks fizz for breakfast followed by present opening then all DH's family for lunch so cooking for 13. I try and do as much beforehand so bread sauce and cranberry sauce will be frozen and veg prepped the day before. It's an exact repeat of last year and the previous 6 years and I love it!

Choccy - it depends what sort you want, whether you want from local butcher whatever. I never order ours these days.

After years of trying out different things - farm shop, local butcher, supermarkets, friends (!), I now get DH to get ours on his last day at work in Marks and Sparks in London before he comes home. This is usually 23 Dec or thereabouts and there is ALWAYS a turkey, we usually get a nice free range one for 8-10 people.

Another first time host here, we've go PIL coming and possibly BIL and DN.

The plan is to do lunch for 13:30 or 14:00 and to invite PIL et al to arrive about 30 mins or so beforehand, so we can have a leisurely morning with some nice nibbles and a nice bottle of something fizzy.

I plan to do as much food prep as possible the day before.

No idea..its our year here ( so with dh side) but dh refuses to tnink/ consider and keeps his head in the sand. Some lovely plans on here , whatever we do I will not be bogged down by the ILs just not doing it right......

It's going to be fun and games here. I'm not talking to either my brother or my sister, guess who's both coming?

It's alright though, I'm cooking. In the kitchen. With all the wine.

at home with dp and dd1 and dd2, get up, open presents, eat dinner whenever it suits us, play games and have a drink, no stress all day.

see parents few days before or after but have never been to anyones house on xmas day and never invited anyone over.

Spending it alone as it's XH's turn to have DD. I fking hate years ending in even numbers

Sorry to hear that Prforone, I sympathise. Me and my ex do alternate years too. When they were younger we had two Christmas days, could you try that so on the actual 25 December it's just another day for you?

We arrange it so that we 'hand over' early evening on Christmas Day so we both get to see them.

I hate Christmas.

Going to my parents. Which sounds wonderful after last Xmas.

First Xmas with DPs parents. 5 days. 5 nights. To cut a long story short we ended up in relationship therapy.

My lovely MIL died this year. Usually she spent Christmas with us as she was widowed the year we got married. Once upon a time I might have been on here moaning about how I never got to invite by own parents because BIL never invited MIL to give us a break. Now I think back to all the Christmases we had together (13 of them) and I'm so glad we did. I realise now that we created lots of our own traditions over the years (she always came to us - wherever we were living in the world) and I'm going to really miss her even though it means I'll finally get my wish of spending Christmas just the four of us or inviting my parents to join us.

My FIL died in August, so MIL will come to stay for a while - it will seem odd without him here too.....

but one plus has come out of it - I will wake up on Christmas morning in MY own bed for the first time EVER as an adult - no, I am not a tart! -have just travelled to family or given up my bed to in laws every year since leaving home... 30 years ago!!!

I'm going to change the bedding on Xmas eve, and relax into stiff, starched, clean sheet comfort and wake up in my bed!!! (probably at 3am by excited kids!!)

Australia with family.
French onion soup on Christmas Eve, then a ham with a simple salad and crusty bread.

Will mostly likely be champagne to start, with oysters.
Then crayfish and home made mayonnaise.
Then rare roast beef and french beans.

And homemade chocolate eclairs for pudding.

Am going back for this, and will suffer the jet lag. Can't wait!

I will be with my mum, dad, 2 brothers 4 chinchillas and maybe a DS(due christmas eve)

I will wake up excited that the child i still am , make my mum and dad some breakfast normally something cooked! Wait until my older brother comes over to open gifts. Dad does a 'lunch' which is just an egg sarnie, each year he does it.

Then mum puts the roast on i help her too, sit down watch a few programmes and eat lots of chocolate. Dad would be drinking his home brew cider same with my brothers(i might be able to have some)

Have dinner and we watch a film, then 2 brothers go home and thats the day ended!

Stuffing something up the chimney, I'm told.

I think that means a spot of festive bumsex.

Goodness knows. We moved to KL about a month ago. We can't cook here, I've a worktop oven and a two ring gas burner outside. The local restaurants are all curry/kebab/indian/malay. I can't be arced to get a cab into town to go to a pub.
Still under consideration is
A] Flying to Aus
B] Flying to Thailand
C] Flying to India.
I imagine one of the above options will be what we do. Don't fancy trying to cook anything here. DD won't be fussed if I don't, she really fancies India.

Same as every year - I love Christmas. Everybody at our house, so I shall cook for about 17, lots of food, wine, watching Grandad try and play on the Wii, board games and silly games in front of a log fire. It'll be brilliant.

New Year we always go to Scotland for a week to see DHs huge family, which is fab. Scots do Hogmanay brilliantly. We once brought the DCs home at 5.30am and they complained bitterly all the way through the village that we were the first to leave the party .

either admiring new baby, having baby, or wishing to have baby. By Christmas I will be a week overdue....

Christmas Eve on my own - I love it, eggnog, trashy films, cinnamon candles burning
Christmas Day - me and my parents are having an Indian at the local. Very untraditional