Every year, my DH wakes up and thinks the shops/cafe are open on Christmas morning

[onlychildhamster]

This happened again this year. I tried to tell him, no darling, budgens and Caffe Nero wouldn't be open today. Its part of his daily routine- he likes to buy fresh bread and coffee in the morning. He was very insistent and petulant. I decided to humor him and said, go on then; if they are open, get me some cheese balls and a mint hot chocolate to go. :) He just called me, very crestfallen, saying that he has never been so wrong in his life. The only places that are open are a small french cafe and a couple of sports bars.

We don't celebrate Christmas so I guess thats maybe why details like Christmas opening hours escape his radar. But I would have thought living 31 years in the UK would have prepared him for this (though to be fair for most of his life, he was abroad during the christmas period).

Do any of you have husbands who are completely oblivious that Christmas is a major holiday which most people want to celebrate with family and therefore don't want to work!

Merry Christmas everyone and esp to all the essential workers who are working today! :)

Not really relevant to coffee shops or forgetful husbands... but in my city (a large city, in England) there are quite a number of 'new' churches- evangelical in nature- that are packed out every weekend (they have some Saturday services as a spillover from Sunday's which are full!) held in non-CofE buildings, mostly schools, and whose congregations are in the main foreign students, or people who have moved to Britain for work. (I appreciate it's hard to say who is British and when passing in the street, as plenty of British people speak another language when with close friends or family) I think, as you suggest, that finding friendship and kindred spirits in an unfamiliar place is one of the reasons for their popularity.

The local CofE churches are generally quite poorly attended, and the average age of parishioners increases every year...other than in churches attached to an outstanding Primary School

The only place I've lived that had bins emptied every day was central Paris, where they were collected even on Bank Holidays... unless there was a strike

Anyway, my local cafe put out its chairs and tables at 8:30 this morning. Despite the cold and the rain, I think they will have a good day today, as little else is open on BH here, but as most people are in work usually, BH is a rare, prized, day off!
Enjoy your BH!

How come you don't celebrate it if you live in Hong Kong?? It's a nice festivity. I thought anyone would be happy to have any reason to have extra celebrations/time off/with family. Even going to Chinese New Year celebrations in the UK it's great fun.

@hiya89 I have nothing against it and happily eat the seasonal foods or go and watch a lion dance, but it feels fake to me to put up decorations or give out red packets or do the other customs since we don't have any family heritage to link it to. And we have no relatives here to share a special meal with.

So in that sense we don't celebrate it in a personal way and aren't especially aware of which days are for which part of the festival and which days shops would be closed.

Could he not just Google opening hours instead of driving to the place? I don’t understand how he wouldn’t know places are closed on Christmas Day.

You mentioned he does this every year? Why? Presumably he’s found out they’re closed on Christmas Day over the previous years? At least ox’s?

He does this every year? Does he have any sort of additional needs?

I would take a photo of him looking sad and send it to him with the caption, ‘DH looking sad because nothing is open on Xmas Day’ and remind him of it.

@HikingforScenery we don't have a car and don't drive. Actually the places don't show Christmas opening hours esp budgens. I think Caffe Nero said on its site check branch locator but didn't show it...

@Redlocks28 lol no. He is very clever and had a master's degree in law from a RG university and one of Germany's too university. I guess cos he is just conditioned to consider Christmas on the same level as the spring bank holiday or something.

[quote onlychildhamster]@Redlocks28 lol no. He is very clever and had a master's degree in law from a RG university and one of Germany's too university. I guess cos he is just conditioned to consider Christmas on the same level as the spring bank holiday or something.[/quote]
Bizarre! I could understand it if he did it once, but to do it every year!

[quote onlychildhamster]@ItIsntWhatYouThinkItIs you know that scene in Shtisel where the patriarch gives his little son on his way to yeshiva his glasses so that he couldn't see the women on the bus and neither could he. My DH
went to a haredi primary school and his mum did try to be as religious as that when he was a little boy (she is more modern orthodox these days).
My DH was raised by his mum to not think christmas was a special day! He does give me a christmas present every year as he received them from his non Jewish grandparents. His mum called them 'winter presents'.

Incidentally, he spent his christmases in a european country where everything is closed for christmas too; but everything is also closed on Sunday as well. While in the UK, shops are open on sunday and the only day where public transport and everything else is shut seems to be Christmas.[/quote]
Oh FFS. He lives in the UK. How can he not know that all the major chains are closed? Is he still wearing those blinkered glasses?

[quote onlychildhamster]@Redlocks28 lol no. He is very clever and had a master's degree in law from a RG university and one of Germany's too university. I guess cos he is just conditioned to consider Christmas on the same level as the spring bank holiday or something.[/quote]
Yeah, he's not that clever.

The petulance about it would annoy me!

pubs are open briefly
cafes on the beach are often open