Timings with toddlers

[cuerti]

There will be 6 adults, 2 babies and 3 toddlers. I’d like to have normal time breakfast for the kids; a relaxed morning with presents; picky stuff for lunch then do the roast preparation during toddler nap time then eat Christmas dinner at 4:30pm for toddler tea time. Cheeseboard in the evening for adults after kids in bed. The other set of parents would like to have the main meal at lunch time before nap because that’s what their DC are used to but I think this will make the morning more stressy because less time to watch DC open and enjoy presents.

What timings are you doing?

We always have lunch at 1. DS goes down for his nap at 11:30 and will just be waking up then. He'll probably be grazing throughout the morning.

And by lunch I mean the big roast Christmas lunch.

I have a two year old and 7 month old. The toddler will eat the roast properly whilst the baby will just pick, so I cater to her. Small breakfast at normal time. Presents. Snack before they nap at midday until 2 then dinner around 430ish too. Cheese and crackers etc in the evening.

Christmas dinner at 4-5 (when it’s ready) so we’ve time to enjoy everything. Lunch for toddler will be pizza that she has asked Santa for.

We'll have normal breakfast and presents with 15 month old DD before heading to DPs. DD will have lunch around 11:30 followed by a nap. We usually have a main meal around 2pm which I'm sure she'll dig in to when she wakes up. Then she can have a beaker of milk, snacks around 4:30/5 if she wants it and home to bed.

I would prefer main meal in evening, that way babies and toddlers can have simple snacky lunch, then dinner prep done whilst they nap in afternoon.

4.30pm would be too early though, 6pm more normal and not too late for toddler still.

Well one or the other of you is going to have to 'back down'

I think it's important to remember that it doesn't matter when you eat, kids for in around things and if your child eats at a different time one day a year it is no big deal. It's easy to get bogged down in routine but it really won't do any harm to have a 'day off'

We eat our Christmas meal late. Usually about 6pm. The rest of the year small DC eat about 4:30/5pm, DH and I very late at about 10pm and the older DC just eat whenever.

Don't let this issue of timing ruin your day or the lead up to it, in the grand scheme it really doesn't matter. All the kids will be just fine, and you will all enjoy your day!

*kids FIT in

We have a 2 and 4 year old. We'll stick to fairly normal weekend timings for us, so will get up around 9-9:30 have a fancy breakfast of dairy free croissants and brioche (allergies) with Christmas jam and clementine juice after they have a small amount of their usual cereal like porridge with pumpkin seeds.

Open stockings and father Christmas present

Lunch at 2, something with eggs and mushrooms is the children's favourite. Mince pies

Naps 3-5 (optional for older one)
Snack on waking probably something like Kiddylicious or cinnamon popcorn from their stockings and a banana

Open family presents

Dinner at 8, roast with Christmas pudding. We tried doing it at lunchtime once and really didn't enjoy making or eating a big meal then.

Bath and bed for 9:30

DS1 gets overwhelmed by opening presents so we don't do them all at once. Any from outside the immediate family like Grandparents we let them open when given them if the giver is happy with that, so my mum gives them hers the weekend before and MiL brings hers on Boxing Day afternoon.

Well, I prefer your suggested schedule and agree the later Christmas dinner takes the pressure off but really it’s up to whoever’s hosting.

Kids can cope with one day of nap schedules being messed up. Just depends on which set of parents is more stubborn!

We get up at 7ish, open stockings. Everyone gets washed and dressed and we have a late breakfast at around 10am. Clear up and then open presents from around 11am.

Dd will then have a nap, probably not for long! And I’ll be cooking etc.

Lunch around 2pm.

I have realised over the years that while the evening meal might work better, in reality, the dcs snack throughout the day on christmas day, so if you want them to eat something of the meal and not just a day of sugary crap, make it lunchtime then relax about what they est afterwards.

With small dcs, we are normally up at 6ish on christmas morning, breakfast at normal time, so have Turkey ready to go in the oven and put it in at 9:30/10, everything's ready to go at 12:30/1ish.

That said, we have a Christmas day birthday in our family, so this works even better as we do the big Christmas morning and lunch, then around 5pm have a birthday tea with sandwiches and birthday cake.

I find the kids are a bit tired and irritable by the time it gets to their normal dinner time of about 6 so prefer to do a snacky buffet type meal for that rather than trying to make them sit at the table.

Prepare and cook all the veg the day before then put the meat and potatoes on in the morning for a lunch time meal. Simple. My toddler just picks his food tbh and has an attention span of a knat.... I'd rather let him plays toys and relax than fuss about what time he's eating as it will just stress me out. Just go with it, it's Christmas!!