(Lighthearted) Christmas Traditions and Guests:

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When you have guests for Christmas (invited ones not pesky gate-crashing types) do you still do all your Christmas Traditions (even though your guests might be a bit eh? )

Are you " Ohhh, guests, will accomodate them a do what they want"
or
"Sniff. My house, My rules hun "

We have specific food on the 24th/25th/26th.
At specific times

Being a goodly hostess , we won't have sweetcorn grills because it makes my SIL physically ill. (I'm kind like that )

Christmas Eve is a lunch time meal then an evening buffet (my family will go to Church late )
My Dad wiill take himself out for a walk (he always used to take the DC to the park, but they're too old now), he can't be confined to the house for three days.

Christmas Day is when it's dark and finished in time for Dr Who.
I cook with the soaps on

My DC are teen/pre teen so we don't have the 5am wake-up call and we don't have to worry about too much routine.

Added to this, DF is diabetic so meals need to work for him time wise.

What do you waver and what's a Set In Stone Tradition in your house?

My house guests will have to partake in our Christmas Bedding Tradition mwah ha ha

I've got some Nordic and tiny reindeer bedding plus some white/blue with a Nordic fleece bedding for guests .

I won't make them have Christmas Jumpers or PJs though

I have lots of guests from 24-27th.

I think I'm a good host (well they all keep coming back year after year). Plenty of welcome, great food and lots to drink.

I have no expectations of what guests will or won't do, and accommodate what I can.

That said, I run Christmas a particular way that suits me and my family as well as my guests. I serve the food that I think works best, at a time that I think works best. We open our gifts on Xmas morning before breakfast. We walk our dogs mid morning (we have fabulous walks near by). We go to bed when we're knackered.

Best thing about moving closer to my parents is that we don't have to stay so I don't have to follow the 'no breakfast as we are eating a big meal at 2' and the 'only one alcoholic drink before dinner' rule.they are within walking distance now so I eat a huge breakfast, drink as much fizz as I want and go there just before dinner!

What are sweetcorn grills btw?

storm I dream of a Christmas where people arrive on Xmas day around noon and leave at seven!

I got it once, when snow and illness stopped travel. It was the first time I have not been filmed on Xmas Morning in twenty years! Bliss....

I dream of staying at home in my pjs for the day! We normally arrive half an hour before food and leave anytime between 5-7 when my dad will go in the bath, that's the 'cue' barrel of laughs my old man!

My set-in-stone rules are - no pyjamas in the daytime, presents are opened after dinner/lunch, and no ipads/computers etc until the evening.
I'm flexible with everything else, eg one of my guests normally has sausage rolls for breakfast, so we're doing that. And another guest loves bubble and squeak for tea, so we're doing that too.

We all stay in our pjs, eating chocolate until lunch time. Last year my sister popped in late morning and was horrified we weren't dressed.