What’s your Christmas Day schedule?

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

I was just looking back at the time stamps of the photos from last Christmas Day to work out what we did when, and it seems a little unconventional, so I’m wondering what everyone else does!

Our day (with DCs 3 and 5) went something like:

8am - DC awake, stockings opened
9am - breakfast
10am - a couple of presents opened and played with, dinner prep.
1pm - Christmas dinner starter
3pm - out for a walk
5pm - Christmas dinner main
6:30pm - open majority of presents
8pm - Christmas pudding and mince pies
9pm - DC in bed
10pm - cheese and biscuits.

I like staggering our Christmas dinner and we traditionally don’t open presents until after we’ve eaten but it now seems a bit absurd that it was so late in the day!

We do stockings when DC wake up. Well the littlest dictate the time so likely 6am but might try hold her off an hour for the older ones sake 😂. Then we get up make tea and the girls open their presents from Santa. Breakfast and then presents under the tree. Play with whatever for a while then we would get ready to go to my mums for dinner. Get there and follow whatever plan she has but it’s usually presents. Dinner then games before home and bed ☺️

I love with and care for my parents.

9ish-get up, coffee breakfast for me and parents.
Chill for a bit, sort out last minute things.
12ish-sort seating out and lay table.
1ish-prep my side of dinner, wait for sister's family to arrive.
When they arrive open presents.
3/4- eat dinner.

7ish- sister's family will leave.

I usually go out then, but this year will be scrabble with mum, and reading/watching TV.

Bedtime I'm not sure.

I'm so excited, cannot wait.

This year is a quiet covid-dodging Xmas at home so....

Up earlyish, make a few last minute things like bread sauce etc
DS wakes up about 9.30, open stockings,
Make Breakfast, pancakes, berries, maple syrup
Open rest of presents, DS rings his df
Play games, call various family
Lunch
Walk, film, more games
Carpet picnic supper in front of the fire

Totter off to bed vaguely tipsy

We open stockings at around 7am
Then we wait for other family members (who live with us) to wake up so we can open the rest of the presents
Then we have breakfast
Meal prep
Dinner around 3pm
Everyone goes and does there own thing until 6ish when we play games and cards. Been like that since we were kids and our kids know the same now 😊

I am always up at 5 and have a peaceful cuppa. 7am dc and DH come down, open stockings and presents. 11am parents arrive, more presents and nibbles, 3pm Christmas lunch, 7pm cheese and biscuits, bed!

Ours will be different this year due to us being in tier 3 from today. We usually pop to the local pub at 2pm until 3pm.

But otherwise
5am: DS creeping around the upstairs seeing if DD is awake. She won't be as she's a lazy teen
6am: DS creeping into her room and up the ladder of her bed, for a cuddle and being told to go away. She will then relent and let him snuggle in.
6.45am:. Neither can actually sleep as with the 2 of them in bed and 25 million bears and books in bed they have no room.
7am: both will get dressed then I'll hear "d'you think mum is awake?" Never Dad, always me as he's as crap in the morning as DD.
7.30am: I get "morning mum" with a head round the door and a coffee. DS is so excited he literally cannot stop jumping (Asperger's).
8am and we all go downstairs. Presents open

10am as everything is prepped and doing itself from yesterday, we have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs with crusty bread. DS has pate instead (fish allergy)
We then have the TV on, lots of phone calls
Starter at 3pm- usually prawn cocktail but this year we are having cheeses and deli meats instead (due to the fish allergy).
4.30pm is the main event (will probably be earlier this year though due to lack of pub).
Then the evening is spent stuffed, with occasional requests later in the evening for snacks or cake. Usually there's a film on or a doctor who special.
DS is knackered by 9pm and takes himself to bed. DD will carry on until 10pm then she goes too.
DP and I then sit up listening to music and drinking the last of the wine until about midnight.

DCs up at 6am, DH to go downstairs and let the dog out and make a coffee. (Actually this but is no different to any other day of the year )
DCs open stockings on our bed while we drink coffee trying to wake up a bit.
All go downstairs together because I like to see their reaction to the pile of presents under the tree.

Breakfast around 8:30, wash up (purely because we want to make the day/ presents last longer)
Open tree presents, we do one at a time, the kids pass them out. This can take a couple of hours.
Upstairs for showers/ get dressed while the kids play with their new stuff.
Get lunch cooking, my dad is joining us this year (first Xmas since parents divorce).
Prob eat around 2:30ish. Then just crash out for the rest of the day on the sofa, drink cider, watch Xmas tv, eat chocolate etc til bedtime.

Vague plan is:
Up at?? Probably about 6am. My dc are 2 and 4.
See if he's been
Open all gifts immediately

7ish - have a wash and get dressed, then coffee and breakfast
Kids play

After breakfast - I cook the turkey and do a bit of other prep

10ish - my parents come over. More gifts.

11/12 - parents leave, I go full on dinner prep.

1ish - Christmas lunch (traditional roast turkey)

2ish Pudding in front of a film or with
Board games

4ish Walk with new torches

6-7 ish Bath and bed for kids

Then we have a more grown up film with booze and chocolates.

This is so lovely reading everyone’s Christmas Day traditions ☺️ I’m getting so excited for this year, just me and DH and our DD’s second Christmas. Very special times and I can’t wait to make our own traditions each year. Merry Christmas everyone! xx

We don’t really have a schedule as such, get up, have breakfast, open gifts, go out for a walk, DH has Christmas dinner ready at about 5pm. Very similar to a usual Sunday, but with gifts. Our DS’ are 19 & 17, so we aren’t up at the crack of dawn anymore! Enjoy.

This year we are staying at home due to covid but I’m looking forward to not dragging the kids ever where.

I imagine our time will be similar to a normal day in terms of getting up and nap times. We are having Christmas dinner on Boxing Day so I can play with the kids all day.

We normally spend Christmas Day rushing around so it’ll be nice this year to no do that. Although we have a tradition of all meeting at my grandparents on Christmas morning and obviously we can’t do that this year :(

But this years plans is:
Wake up, hopefully ds will stay asleep till about 7/8
Parents come over to watch ds open his gifts/ have breakfast
Exchange gifts with parents
Go to vist dp’s sister and husband/nieces
Back to ours to exchange gifts from eachother (feel awkward doing it in front of my parents 😂)
Drive to parents for dinner
Stay there for the afternoon, maybe take ds on a walk on his new scooter
Walk home wrapped up warm, put ds to bed and collapse on the sofa drinking baileys!

Can’t wait! Merry Christmas everyone 🎄

6am stockings and cuppa
6.30 main presents
7.30 breakfast
8am get turkey out of fridge
9am turkey in oven, comes out at 12ish
9.15 I shower and do make up
10am play/check dinner
Guess we'll walk dog? Didn't have her last year
12 turkey out
12.15 starters
1.45 main
3pm pudding
Play/TV etc
7-8pm kids go to bed, turkey sandwiches
Can't wait!

Dd (11) has a nightmare every Christmas morning anytime from 3am- 5.30am so I will get a phone call from her bedroom (shes too scared to get out of bed and get me) I'll go in, turn her light on, put her TV on tuck her back in and go back to sleep.

7ish dd does her treasure hunt, lots of puzzles to solve and clues to find.

7.30am get up and have breakfast, just probably cereal or toast.

8am get my mum bin bag ready and open presents.

Maybe watch a film

11am get lunch ready. We are having gamon this year I can't wait.

12.30pm starter of melon

1pm main course

2pm wash up 🙄

4pm walk to my mums round the corner and more present opening.

7pm party tea

Gets slowly more tipsy as the night goes on

Roll to bed about midnight

Kids are teens now but ones a early riser (she has ASD and doesn't need much sleep).

Dd2 will wake at 6am and open her stocking, she's not allowed downstairs until I say so, usually when its light outside.

Wake dd1 up at 7/7.30 so she can open her stocking.

Go downstairs at 8am ish for breakfast.

8.30/9am we start opening tree presents but we do it slowly and I do a few things in between, prep a few things, wash up breakfast things.

Dinner anywhere between 1pm and 2pm

Probably a visit from my dad in the afternoon with more present opening.

The rest is all pretty relaxed and we just go with tue flow, we always spend Christmas at home due to dd2 having ASD, she gets too stressed visiting family and just wants to be at home with her new things (and often her old things).

My kids are teens so no pre dawn rush! Ill be up about 8.30 to get dogs out and feed rabbits. Kids may appear any time afterwards and we'll open gifts. Then brunch after - French toast and bacon. I'll start main meal prep which won't be til late afternoon so no hurry there. Dinner at 5,, maybe some games then a Christmas movie. My son may go off at some point during the day to see his girlfriend.
Not many people going to church I note, though I know there are tight restrictions. I might see if I can catch mass being streamed.

My little boy is only 19 months old so not established our own family traditions so I expect it will be something like

7.30 am wake up with stocking in bed while DH and I have a coffee
8.30 breakfast (toast/cereal/pastries)
9.30 walk the dogs
10.15 get showered and dressed, prep while others get ready
11.30 - tree presents
Playing with toys with TV/film on
1 - toddlers nap, rest of us cook dinner
2.30 lunch
4pm walk the dogs again
Playing/TV/film/games until bedtime

Getting excited now - writing down makes it seem more real after such an odd lead up to it this year.

Stockings at around 7am when they wake up
Breakfast at 9ish
Then open presents
Spend the next few hours putting toys together, sourcing batteries, trying out our gifts and prepping lunch
Eat at around 3 or 4pm
Watch TV and rub our over-filled tummies
Pudding at 7pm-ish
Kids put to bed
Adults snack on leftovers and watch TV

Wake up between 6 and 7 (2 and 5 year old!)
All open our stockings in bed together.
Breakfast around 8 - probably eggs and smoked salmon
Then get washed and dressed. Open presents from under the tree.
Let children play/watch tv whilst we get lunch going. Parents will arrive at some point with more gifts!
Eat around 1pm - hate having it later as you can't then enjoy a nibbly, buffet style tea! Plus the children will be hungry by then!
Open gifts from parents in the afternoon, go for a walk if the weathers nice.
Then tea around 6 with cheese, bread, pate etc.

Get kids in bed, wave off parents, then flop on the sofa.
We don't go anywhere and like to keep the day pretty relaxed. Normally, we'd have more visitors on Boxing Day and we do a big do for DH's side of the family in Twixmas. All the family and kids together, more presents exchanged, big pot of chill or pasta for everyone to help themselves to. Will miss that. It will mean lots more gifts on Xmas day instead so may spread them through the day a bit more.

Wake up - stockings in our bed
Santa presents
DH and I go back to bed for a bit
Up shower etc
Food faffing
Go to my sisters
Home bil arrives
more food faffing - eat about 2 ish
Lie in front of tv

Not sure how it will work this year! Pretty much the same except we're not going to my sisters.

It's changed every year for the last 3 years for me as that's how long I've been with DP. Routine this year will be:

? AM - me being excited so being the early riser, go downstairs, OJ in a Prosecco glass (pregnant), open presents

Then get ready

9 - 10 - parents popping over for breakfast

1 onwards - in laws over for dinner. As we're in the midst of redoing our kitchen (which desperately needs to be finalised by Tuesday!) we have outsourced some cooking so expect we may get a slightly earlier arrival from DP's sister to help prep.

3ish - sit down dinner. Probably around 30 mins in between starter and main. May leave dessert til later.

Later on - anyone peckish, I have emergency freezer buffet stuff.

Love reading these threads as we start a family in April and it makes me so excited for all the Christmasses to come. I remember how excited I used to be (and still am)!

Up until this year it was:

DD bringing us breakfast and my birthday presents in bed,
Get up, showered, dressed and open Christmas presents
Meet my sister, her DC and her DGC at my parents house, where my other sister would video call (she lives abroad), and we would open more presents.
Me and DD would go home to start lunch cooking and my parents would join us about an hour later (they lived in the next street so a 5 minute walk away), where we would have a quiet lunch, open my birthday presents from them. late afternoon we would have a cup of tea and a slice of birthday cake, before my DD would walk her GP's home (we did it together when she was a child).
Me, Oh and DD would then relax in front of the TV with a glass of something nice.
OH would be with us for the 1st part of the day then spend the rest of it with his dad (who was widowed a few years ago), and his brother. It was just how we liked it.

Forgot to add OH would come home around 4 in the afternoon.

Stockings opened on our bed.
Breakfast pancakes.
Walk the dog (small walk).
Showers and dressed, make s cup of tea.
Open tree gifts.
Light lunch of soup and fancy bread. (And Xmas present chocolates!).
Play with gifts.
Around 3-4 go to local beach and see giant festive sand sculptures, dog races about, child enjoys new outdoor gifts (scooter, remote controlled car etc).
Home by about 4.30.
Have a tidy up and start preparing dinner.
Eat at 7.
Watch Muppets.
Bed.

We usually wake at around 6/7 (but do this on normal days not just Christmas) and do stockings in bed.
Breakfast (bacon sandwiches) around 8/8.30.
Then presents around 9.
Take our dogs out for a run on a local field at around 10.30/11.
Then to my DH parents house for the rest of the day, MIL does dinner between 2&3. Then it's just games and food comas 😂