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!

Dc not allowed to wake us before 7. There are 4 of them and we hear them outside for a while. They are allowed to open one stocking present without us.
At 7 they all pile into our room and we open stockings.
We then go downstairs. They are not allowed in the sitting room until we say so we string it out a bit - animals need feeding, I make coffee, dh lights fire etc..
They all wait at the door together until we allow them to go in and see if "he" has left any presents.
Present opening until about 9 30. Everyone dressed. In laws arrive about half ten when we have brunch of scrambled eggs, toast, smoked salmon and champagne.
In laws leave and I do some dinner prep. Kids play with their stuff or watch TV.
We take the dogs out for a walk and then head to BIL and SIL (we take turns each year).
We have dinner about 6 and then open family presents. Evening is spent drinking, playing games and watching TV.
We love Christmas in this house. It is so set in its rituals. We have two teens (15 and 13) who still love it too.

Kids usually aren't allowed to wake us until 630 but I'll let them off on xmas day as long as it's after 530.

Stockings and presents in our bed. Cups of tea.

Present carnage (we always had to wait till the afternoon and I hated it)

A walk with hot sausage rolls and mulled wine

Dinner prep, TV, playing

Probably dinner about 4 or 5

Early night for the kids and probably for us

DS (2.5) is a terrible sleeper and a very early riser! We have already said we are not bringing him down before 6 so I will give him his stocking upstairs in the hope he can occupy himself in his bedroom until at least 6.

So then it will be
6 - presents/play with presents
7:30 -breakfast
8 - showered and get ready
9:30 - play with presents again and DS will have a nap (if we can get him to settle)
11 - go to my parents where we will open more presents
12 - DB and family will come and open more presents
1 - set table
1:30 - starter
2 - main course
3:30 - will sit on sofa with a drink while the kids play and we will watch a film
4:30 - pudding
5:30 - leave for home
7pm - DS bed

Me and DP will probably just veg out watch the soaps with a drink and chocolate!

Wake up 6/7am (we have DS aged 4)
Stocking opened in our bed with Christmas music on
Breakfast in our bed
I have a super quick shower (while DS plays with stocking toys)
Living room door is wrapped over with wrapping paper so DS can’t peek (in our house Father Christmas brings the stocking and then one present that is unwrapped in-front of the Xmas tree) so we go into the living room.
Open presents (one at a time taking turns)
DS plays with toys for a good while - just have a relaxed morning
Early afternoon we go for a walk,
Christmas dinner at around 3.30pm,
After dinner we collapse and watch some tv or a film (dh usually has a nap on the sofa)
We have some cheese and crackers/snacky bits in the evening.

And then when DS has gone to bed me and dh have the bizzare tradition of playing house of the dead, donkey Kong and tennis on the wii and then doing some sort of pub quiz on YouTube or a board game.

Christmas schedule changes every other year due to Sharing custody with ex so we take turns.

Schedule when DC are with us.
8am - no one usually wakes up before 8 on non school days, even on Christmas. Everyone go downstairs to open big gifts from santa, bucks fizz and I stick breakfast in the oven.
9am -1pm-breakfast then change for the day. DP will visit with his DM while I get xmas dinner ready and try and gain some control over our living room after santa gifts. Me and DC will go and see my DM.
1pm- set the table. DP will be back by this time so we'll have our meal.
2pm-3pm- after lunch we'll sit down and open under the tree gifts with some wine or soda. Have some christmas music going.
4pm- DC go to their DF for the night and me and DP will tidy, do the dishes and will do whatever the hell we want with the rest of our evening 😄 usually plenty of wine and christmas specials.

Schedule without DC.

10am - we will never get up before 10am when we're DC free. Will have a very leisurely morning, breakfast in bed. Try and be showered and changed by midday.
12.30- we'll have lunch with DP's DM or my DM.
3pm- try and be home by this time for when DC come back. Get everything ready.
4pm- DC come home and open santa gifts. My DM and her DH will he at mind watching DC open santa gifts.
6pm- DM and her DH usually leave at this time and we'll usually have Turkey sandwiches, chocolates and wine while we open under the tree gifts.

DC are 11 & (almost) 6.

6.30-7. Get up, come downstairs and open Santa sacks.
7.30. Breakfast of cereal and fruit. Coffee for us.

1. Open some more presents from under tree. Get dressed. Call family to thank for presents.

10. Have pastries, fruit juice and champagne for us. Start cooking lunch. 1pm. Lunch. We don’t have starters. Straight into main course. Then pudding. 2.30. Tidy up, dishwasher on.

1. Chill out in living room, watch the film, eat chocolate.
2. If hungry DC can have pizza.

7.30-8. DD goes to bed.

1. If hungry we’ll have cheese and crackers.

9 onwards DS goes to bed. I’ll have a baileys hot chocolate. Depending on how I feeling I may have a shower otherwise leave it until morning. 11. Go to bed.

Ok it seems like we’re in a minority of one opening our presents after dinner! DCs get quite a bit with their stocking including activity books, puzzles etc that keep them entertained, plus a larger gift ‘from Santa’ that they open in the morning. So they’ve not been pestering to open their tree presents any earlier. But as they get older I’m not sure keeping them waiting until the late afternoon is going to be feasible!

Up when dc wake up, though they usually open stockings in their rooms before waking us.
Coffee!
Downstairs for presents.
Faff around, think about having cooked breakfast.
Church.
Have aforementioned cooked breakfast for brunch after getting back from church having to have crammed down a bowl of cereal before due to aforementioned faffing..
Play with gifts etc.
2pm get ready/go to work
10pm home into a bucket of Baileys

Dh and the dc will be snacking on 'party food' throughout the day, then we'll have a roast on Boxing day because I'm off.

There's no particular routine, even pre Covid, an older teenager and divorce means things are very different anyway.

I'll be up early as always and feed animals.

Teenage DD will appear and her stocking will be opened then we'll have breakfast, toasted panettone and lashings of butter, more tea.

Then the rest of the presents.

We'll get dressed and DD will visit grandparents nearby, not sure how that will go but she'll stand in the doorway if necessary (bubbles are still under negotiation). I might go with her.

Late morning I'll start dinner prep in a very leisurely way.

DP will arrive with his DC early afternoon and there will be another round of presents.

Lunch around 2:30 - 3pm.

DP will take his DC to their Mother's early evening and come back for some fridge grazing and Christmas telly.

Bedtime.

In a normal year it’s something like:

Wake up, do stockings, open some presents, put meat in the oven, breakfast, get dressed up, go to church, home for sherry, take meat out to rest, put rest of dinner on to cook, open more gifts, phone families, eat lunch about 1pm, more gifts, watch Queen’s Speech, play a game, have tea consisting of Christmas cake, sandwiches and mince pies and cheese, then watch a TV special or film, maybe another game then bed.

All different this year as DS is 20 months and we probably won’t go to church because of Covid, so who knows how the day will pan out! We’re going to eat our starter at DS’s lunch time and our main course at dinner time with him (5pm which is when he’s hungry), so will have cake and cheeses etc once he’s in bed.

DH is always up incredibly early at Christmas so he’ll take the turkey out of the fridge and make sure there’s no random bits of washing up from the night before, then wake me up at 6am. Turkey will go in the oven and then we’ll do presents. We’ll skype and phone family in Wales then potter about in the kitchen prepping veg and listening to music. Dinner goes on about one-ish and we’ll eat whenever it’s ready. Board game or listening to music and having a laugh together in the afternoon. We’ll have picky bits at some point during the evening and probably put a film on dozing off with the fairy lights twinkling. I love it.

We don't think too deeply about it. Wake up open presents have breakfast then have dinner.

Get up, chores, breakfast, internet, lunch, tv bed.

Our children are 13, 10 and 6. The day will probably go something like this:

6am dcs wake up. Open stockings.
7:30 breakfast
8 shower
9 open presents under the tree
10 walk dog
11 in laws arrive for a drink (childcare bubble)
12 brother arrives (bubbled with us from the start for support)
2 lunch
4 walk dog
5 watch a film
6:30 get the nibbles out
8 start bedtime for youngest
10 probably thinking about going to bed ourselves

DD is only just 1 year old so we might have a whole new routine by Friday! But in my head:

6am - 7am DD wakes up. All downstairs for a cup of tea, Chuck pastries in the oven and present opening to start

7:30 breakfast

More present opening until DD gets bored

9 nap time for DD, shower & get ready for me and DH

10-11:00 DH get DD dressed and I cook veg

11 round to BIL & SIL for presents and lunch

2pm home for DD's nap

3:30 round to PIL's for presents with them (MIL has terminal cancer so hopeful she is still with us)

5 back home for DD to play with toys

6 Tea time

7 bath time for DD

8 bed time for DD, chocolates & alcohol for DH & me

10 bed

Usually we would all be at BIL's for lunch but with MIL being unwell, she doesn't want to leave the house or have much fuss so we've scheduled visits from the grandkids at separate times and it helps give FIL a break from caring (she also has severe short term memory loss)

Ours will probably go something like;

7am open presents
8am breakfast
9am showers & get dressed
10am go for a walk
12pm light lunch
1pm start cooking
2pm people start arriving
4pm starter
4.30pm main
5.30pm dessert
6pm clean up & people will probably start leaving
7pm DH will take dog for another walk and I'll get the 4yo to bed

We have a 4yo, a baby who will be 3 weeks old on Christmas Day and an adolescent puppy so it might not go as smoothly as that