What does your Christmas Day look like?

[bramleyapples418]

From when you open presents to what you have for breakfast, I'm interested to see what other people do?

We wake up at a normal-ish time and have eggs and salmon for breakfast. Open presents after breakfast.

Then Christmas dinner at 2 or 3 ish. Not a fan of a starter on Christmas Day but usually Yule log or xmas pudding for dessert.

Evening just snack on what's in. Maybe a baileys.m

I am a lone parent with one at home and an adult child who has left and has her own home. She comes back for Xmas. I host every other year so this year is quiet and I can't wait. We will get up and make tea and open gifts. I will do a late brunch or sausage or bacon sandwiches and then have a nice leisurely bath and get ready. We will walk in the afternoon, weather permitting and then roast beef with all the trimmings at about 5. Wine and TV for the evening with snacks.

We’ve both had years and years of entertaining over Christmas and all that family Christmas’s entail. Now it’s just the two of us Christmas Day and it’s blissful. The lead up to it is stress free, Christmas morning we get up when we like, wear PJ’s all day, and our Christmas food all comes from M&S. we throughly indulge ourselves , relax and enjoy it.
Boxing Day we see family, as quests, so again, no stress.
We’ve earned it . 😂😂

Past few years I've had to wait for the DC and DH to get up but this year we have a 2yr old so everyone will be up by 6!

Always have bacon sandwiches for breakfast on Christmas while present opening. DC usually snack on selection boxes throughout day and we do dinner at 2ish. Never bother with starters but DC and DH will have desert.

Buffet snacks go on the table about 6 for them to pick.

Christmas is the one day that even the eldest 2 spend most of the time in the living room with us. Board games on the evening when youngest goes to bed. We do that anyway but it's normally me and 13yr old, but the older ones make an effort to be more social.

We won't see anyone Christmas day - my parents spend it out the UK with my sister and we've no other family near.

I’ll be up first. I love that. Heating on, Christmas lights all on and a coffee made. My kids are older so there is no longer a 5 am wake up call. They just get up when they are ready. In the morning it’s just 4 of us.

Presents opened and we will have some bacon rolls. Then it’s time for showers and freshen up. Usually then food prep starts as we eat at lunchtime. This year it’s a simplified version as we will be hospital visiting sadly. Once that’s done home for lunch, quick tidy round and then an open house for about 3.30 until about 9 pm. Loads of music, drinks, games, kids playing and folk in and out.

Another favourite part of the day is around 10 pm. DH and I have had a clean up, done the bins, dishwasher on, kids in their room and house is silent after everyone has left. We get the baileys and port out for a nightcap at the breakfast bar and just have a natter before bed.

I’m 35 and child free for context!

I go home to my parents house on Dec 23rd and my boyfriend comes too. We wake up there together on Christmas Eve and do presents and bits. Then him and I do something festive in my hometown, and he leaves around 3pm. My brother (37 and also child free- we are the youngest in my family, no cousins or anything!) comes round and the four of us have an M&S buffet and watch a festive horror film. We also open a couple of presents on Christmas Eve night, as on Christmas Day we all get up at different times/brother isn’t there in the morning, so it’s nice to do it as a four like we did when we were younger.

Brother goes home (he lives around the corner from parents) around 9pm.
Christmas Day, I have a nice lie in until 9ish. Breakfast is a chocolate orange and some pannetone!
Then the whole family goes to my grandmas around midday and we spent the day there. Christmas Dinner around 1pm, an aff of chatting and games and presents. Turkey and stuffing sandwiches in the evening, then home with my mum and dad watching Corrie and whatever else by about 9. Then my boyfriend comes back to my family home on Boxing Day and cooks me, mum and dad a nice meal.

This will be my fifth Christmas with my boyfriend and we’ve always spent the day separately. My family is small ans has cosy Christmas vibes, whereas he has a huge family and their Christmas Day is very rowdy and boozy. We are both more than happy to stick with our own separate families as we see each other literally every other day of the year and do loads of nice festive things together through December 😊

All kids adults adult and have moved out
Always an open house on Christmas Day but we stay put.
4 of us this year.
Bacon butties for breakfast, bit of a walk / fresh air.
Lunch between 1 - 2
Kings Speech
Then it's present time.
Christmas film, while wine/chocolates, snacks are enjoyed.
(Hopefully catching dr who / call the midwife) in the evening.

I love Christmas! We are up earlyish and out with the dogs to the beach by about 7am to avoid the crowds. As long as it’s not raining, all dogs and humans present wear their matching Christmas jumpers 🥰 Everyone is always in a good mood, lots of “Merry Christmas” and happy faces.
Walk for about an hour, home and then dh makes breakfast (usually smoked Salmon and scrambled egg and bacon sandwiches - depends who is with us) while I do the dinner prep.
After breakfast dh makes his legendary Christmas cocktails (they are lethal!) then we do presents. And none of this “free for all” nonsense! Everyone opens one present each at a time. I spend so long choosing gifts for everyone, I want to see them open it!
Dh opens the champagne and we put on Christmas films or play games whilst I am in and out making dinner (always very traditional - turkey and all the trimmings. With Yorkshires, of course) no starters because no one can fit them in!
I always buy “nice” crackers and everyone wears their paper hat at the table. All dogs have a dog friendly Christmas dinner too. We eat around 5pm.
I always do a Harrods Christmas pudding, with cream and home made custard. No brandy butter because it is the devils sauce.
Dh clears up after dinner, then we all veg out in front of the TV and watch Christmas things, usually with a box of chocolates.
DH usually declares he is “hungry” at around 9pm. I keep a pork pie and piccalilli in for this, plus other things for a bit of a buffet if we have guests. Dh and/or guests eat (I don’t) and we go to bed around 11pm. Honestly one of my favourite days of the year 🥰

We always do Christmas Day as a nuclear family so it's just me, dh and ds.

We get up at a normal time. I'll do a cooked breakfast for dh and ds and I will have croissants and pastries etc. Ds will have orange juice while dh and I will have some fizz of some kind.

Then we open presents and lounge around watching crap TV and just enjoying ourselves. Lunch will be a normal lunch that we have every other day of the year and then dinner will be at 5. The last few years we've avoided Turkey dinners and have just had pizza, salads and fries etc with lots of different puddings. We enjoy it so much more than having meat and loads of trimmings.

Evening is more TV, games and just having fun.

It's nice and relaxing and we love it. Boxing Day and the run in to New Year is always busy as that's when we see relatives and we don't stop to well after the new year so to have Christmas to just us is a godsend. It's something I've always insisted on. Pure bliss!

It’s just been DH and I for the last 2 years since everyone flew the nest. DH has always been Christmas mad and I’m normally wakened around 7.30 with shouts of “Santa's been”. He’s always up before me and has the bucks fizz on the go for me going downstairs. Then it’s present opening (us and the dogs). We FaceTime family anywhere between 8am and 10am then it’s a long bath for me, DH walks the dogs. We go out for lunch which is 12.30 for 1.00 and we normally get home around 4 in time for a snooze. Champagne and a cheeseboard are normally involved along with Christmas tv for the rest of the evening. After years of hosting its BLISS! Family descend on us from 29th and it’s all systems go for meals and things until 3rd January so we love a really relaxing few days before the madness starts.

It's just us and (grown up) DC. Up at about 9, kettle goes on, Christmas music goes on and we open our presents.

Breakfast is toasted panettone and Buck's Fizz and then we make phone/video calls to the relatives to wish them Merry Christmas.

I'll set out things like pate, cheese and crackers and crisps & nuts for people to snack on at lunch as we eat our main meal in the evening. Everyone gets a new book or switch game so they usually disappear to read/play quietly for the afternoon.

I cook a traditional turkey dinner and dish up whenever it's ready - the timescale is "start any time between it getting dark and finish before Dr Who starts". We'll sort the dishes between us all and then I'll sit with a glass of wine and probably watch a film with DH with just the tree lights on once everyone else goes up to bed.

Children will be with husbands family this year in another part of the country.
I will get up, go to work for 8.
Finish work go home and go to bed

We LOVE Christmas here and have 5 children. The kids are all up at 6am and then it's opening up stockings in our bedroom. We go downstairs and sit down to have breakfast at about 7:30am which is always banana pancakes shaped like reindeer (DH's special). Then we have a long, long time opening up all of the presents under the tree with Christmas music playing.

We always have Christmas dinner at about 1pm at mine or either of my two brothers' houses and we see the whole of my close family there. The kids and their cousins will do Christmas crafts while we chat and then we go home and get all cosy and we face time DH's mother, brother and his daughter who we don't see on the day.

All 5 (including the teens) will always do a gingerbread house each and we make it a competition as well as some hot chocolate! After that, we order in pizza. Might be untraditional but we love eating that with garlic bread and cookies while bingeing Christmas movies. We tend to literally just fall asleep in front of the TV until boxing day starts and it is back to some form of normality.

It's me, DH and my DD 24 and Christmas is a mix of what my DD has always known and some new traditions.

We'll have Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve and invite my mum and MIL, then Mum can take a dinner home for the big day.

Christmas Day, DH will get up, turn on the Christmas lights, start the log burner, make tea and put pasties in the oven. Then my DD hands out the presents. Then we'll get dressed and go out for a curry at 12. Afterwards DD will go to her Dad's and DH and I will go for a long walk. In the evening it'll be cheese and the first two Die Hard films.

I can't wait 😁

We wake up around 8am ish and even though the dc are 17 and 13, they still come and get into our bed and open their stockings. DH will be at work 7am-2pm this year so it'll just be me and the dc until then. We get up and we take turns to choose Christmas breakfast so I make whatever the person in question has chosen. DD this year so probably boiled egg and soldiers and fruit salad.

We listen to Junior Choice and start cooking together, playing with anything fun from stockings or reading new books in-between. We video call various family members as well. My parents, brother, nieces and Aunt arrive around midday and we all muck in with cooking. Starters are usually around 2pm and DH will get home soon after. Main meal is a ridiculous affair and I go all out with 3 stuffings and at least 8 veg choices, 3 meats, a veggie main and every trimming going. It's a gargantuan effort but easily the best bit of the day.

We squash into the snug for exchanging of presents and board games, card games, drinks, talking etc. We then have pudding (again, 3 choices) and more games, maybe a walk, cards.

In the evening, I do a buffet of cold meats and lots of Christmas goodies, plus cheese and biscuits and drinks.

Family leave between 9 and 10pm usually and we watch a film together and drink tea.

Best day of the year.

Ours has changed a bit in the last few years as dc are now adults and church has changed the service timings so we no longer go for 9am service. We still get up early though as all early risers.

Dc open stockings then breakfast of smoked salmon and scrambled eggs.
Church for 11am.
Walk to local pub 12-2 with family and friends and dogs.
Walk back home and Christmas dinner after King’s speech.
Play games around the table.

Spend evening drinking and eating chocolates!

On Christmas Eve I'll pick up a member of family from the train station, who stays at my house and my parents drive up to E Yorks to stay at my daughter's house. My parents are armed with lots of fresh seafood, oysters, scallops, crevettes etc to eat for that night.

Christmas morning my guest and I go round to my daughter's at about 8/9am for smoked salmon and eggs and then watch my grandchildren open their presents. We then open ours, taking turns so we can all see who got what. Christmas carols and fizz are the order of the morning.

Son-in-Law will be pottering in and out of the kitchen preparing goose, ham and all the trimmings.

We FaceTime my sons & families who both live abroad and play a family board game for an hour or more. Usually snacking on the left over seafood from the night before as my dad buys far too much.

Dogs are taken out for a walk in the park along with the children.

King's speech on the radio at 3pm.

Dinner is served at around 4pm and we'll stuff ourselves silly with a traditional dinner and traditional puddings. More games will be played whilst drinking wine, baileys etc.

Kids go to bed for 6.30/7pm. An hour or more of chit chat and then my guest and I will go home (5 mins away).

I've ordered the goose, ham and pigs in blankets today from the local butchers.

A lovely day and I'm looking forward to it.

We have 3 children and even though 2 are teenagers we are always up at 6am! They open their stockings and then come into our room. We then open presents with Christmas music on in the background and have bacon sandwiches or pastries. I will have a nice relaxing bath. Christmas dinner is ready for about 1pm. My husband is an on call fireman so I like to do it early in case he gets called out. We will watch the Kings Speech, tea is anything out of the fridge. I don’t cook again. Then we play some board games and we watch Call the Midwife. We also watch The Snowman and Father Christmas during the day too.

This year I'm going to my adult DS. I'm paying for the food he will do the shopping and he'll be doing the cooking. We'll get up about 8am. All our sacks will be taken up to DS's house to open there. We'll have a cooked breakfast with sausage, bacon, scrambled eggs and hash browns then pack up the car. It's a 2 hour drive. We will eat Xmas lunch at about 3pm with champagne. Chocolates after Xmas lunch. Open gifts about 5pm. More drinking and music and maybe a Xmas film if anything decent. We'll stay overnight then on to visit my MiL for Boxing Day.

The routine is slightly different depending on if we have SD15 with us or not. We also normally have our friend spend the day with us.

Last year went completely to shit on the day as DD got in an over-excited state, didn't go to sleep until 5am and then I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep at 6am, so I went to my parents on 1 hour sleep, where my brother threw a tantrum over nothing and made my parents cry. Fun.

My hope for this year is that DD will come in to our room when she wakes up and open her stocking gifts, which are always a mixture of quiet independent activities and snacks so she can keep herself occupied whilst we snooze a bit.

Then we'll go downstairs for present opening, breakfast is never much due to the snacks in the stocking, then I'm making dinner at my parents as my Mum has just had surgery and won't be up to it, then at home DH keeps everyone's cocktails/prosecco glasses topped up, around 7pm when the Christmas dinner fullness wears off we eat cheese and biscuits or whatever else we can scavenge from the Christmas food fridge.

Reading all the replies has put me in such a festive mood!

We always wake up at home (DP, me, DS1 and DS2). DS1 has ODD/ADD so is prone to getting dysregulated and we’ve had a few tricky Christmases behaviour wise. Last couple of years he has been really good, saying that, and DS2 was trickier. They’re nearly 10 and 7 this year so I’m hoping for a less stressful time!

My parents are cooking lunch this year. We’ll be woken up early no doubt, DC open their stockings in our bed, head down to snowy footprints and half eaten mince pies and carrots. Try and force both DS to have a quick breakfast - nothing fancy, festive crumpets or cereal mostly as they’ll have eaten some chocolate from their stocking. Then the we all open tree presents. DH sometimes does us smoked salmon and scrambled eggs at some point, small glass of Buck’s Fizz as one of us will be driving.

SIL will pop over this year with my baby DNephew (single parent) before heading on to my PIL’s. We’ll head to my parents’ around midday who live around 45 minutes away, they do fizz and canapés. Small presents from them. My DB and DNs might be there this year too, the cousins will all play/fight. DH and I will hover to supervise as both DS’ can get overexcited or dysregulated, while my DB and his partner leave us to watch their DC who couldn’t possibly be responsible for any of the fall outs.

Lunch is a long drawn out adult affair which I loved pre DC, less so now as my DPs expect the DC to stay at the table. I do let them go and play between main course and dessert though! Games/TV/drinks/cheese and crackers then until we head home I expect around 6pm. DH and I have nibbles/leftovers from dinner/drinks in front of the TV then, Gavin and Stacey this year I imagine!