Christmas Day Plan

[XmasGifting]

I was just looking to see what others have as their Christmas Day plan on web and came across this on Matalan’s website “UK’s perfect Christmas Day” how’s it align with yours?

For me seems reasonable except the walk have long one on Boxing Day to make up for fact don’t leave the house on Christmas Day, and I’m done before 11pm!!!

Will probably get up around 8am (just two adults this year). DH will have his breakfast, while I feed cats. Open presents. Shower, then food prep. Coffee and Xmas cake 10-10.30am and I leave around 11.10am to collect my Mum. Lunch around 1.15pm, my Mum talks throughout so takes her until 3pm to eat two courses, but she will have finished by then as she wants to watch Kings Speech. Wash up. May go for a walk, ideally we'd play a game but my Mum never wants to - think this year we will though! Probably phone my Auntie between 4-6pm and a video call with DD sometimes in the day. Mum will want tea before she watches the soaps. If she wasn't with us, we'd probably have supper instead around 8.30pm and not have the soaps on.

Sounds a bit similar to our day but we don’t have pets or under 18s. We don’t do alcoholic drinks at 12 and dinner is more towards 3 pm, there is always a walk after dinner.
Supper around 7 pm.

First year we're not hosting anyone and so are completely on our own timetable.

So this is how I anticipate it going

7-8 DH and I get up & dressed, sort animals, turn on Christmas lights etc and enjoy a quiet cup of coffee
9.30-10ish - get fed up of waiting for the teenagers to get up so blast loud music on the Alexas in their rooms to tempt them down.
10-10.30 teens opening their stockings (downstairs in front of the fire)
10.30ish -Brunch of smoked salmon, scrambled eggs with lots of bucks fizz.
11.30 - Whole family for walk with the dog
12.30 -Start dinner prep, open presents, more bucks fizz (or just fizz!), generally chat and chill whilst cooking.
4-5 Christmas dinner
5-6 Solve a Murder
6pm onwards - Chill, chat, watch any Christmas things (Gavin and Stacey!), drink wine, crack open cheeseboard, drink port or liquers.
11ish -bed.

All timings are approximate.

7am wake, breakfast etc
10am visit family
12.00 pub with friends
1.30pm Home and open presents
3pm Christmas dinner at home then let the men clear up
5.30pm Go to the airport
10pm Fly to Thailand and hopefully sleep all the way 😅

@MaltipooMama my day is very similar to your day! Also the first Christmas my youngest will really get to experience as she was too tiny last year. Sympathies on the non alcoholic Prosecco but congrats on expecting again.

Who the hell is waiting until noon to have an alcoholic drink? And who the hell stops at one?! 🤣 I've got parents and in-laws staying for a week at Christmas this year, so it sure as buggery won't be me!

@kitchenplans who is getting murdered?

We do
7 up, Santa and stockings.
9 feed cattle and walk dogs.
11 head to sil house next door.

1230 lunch
Everyone walk dogs and feed up

4 presents
Games and films and drinks

Kids then do other presents like friends and god parents Boxing Day

God absoloutly not for us. That sounds very adult centric which is my idea of hell, shy of the house burning down I am not going outside in the miserable cold. Hate mince pies, no urge to be getting pissed and whats the point of napping the day away.

For us:

• get up (when ever the kids do)
• downstairs to see the presents put on oven & cook party nibble breakfast
• open present (take it in turns, with 5 of us it takes a while)
• kids play, tidy up mess, relax, build things, install batteries etc...
• cook dinner while kids play
• sit down and eat dinner
• crackers & a family game
• kids open their santa sacks
• look through the stockings
• bed
• We relax and watch tv amid the chaos of toys

I don't see any need for set scheduled of times, that just seems stressful. Everything flows in a natural pattern as it is ready to not via the clock.

Ugh, at the idea of a schedule. Dinner is loosely scheduled, everything is else is played by ear

@Stickthatupyourdojo ah I bet you're excited for your youngest to have a lovely Christmas! We're treating this one as our boy's "first proper" Christmas so doing the stocking, Christmas films, and little Christmassy bits and bobs that we didn't get to do for him last year. Thank you very much 🥰 hope you have a wonderful day!

@MissyB1 We have a cold case file advent calendar. Obviously, only a few days in, but so far, so good. I've set up a WhatsApp so our children who are at Uni can join in. The big solve will be on Christmas Day.

Get up
Eat birthday cake
Open birthday presents
Eat more cake

My kids are teens but I reckon the younger two will be up and about by 7am.

7am kids open stockings in our room
7.30am open presents, feed cats
8-9am put turkey on, clean up and get dressed
10am-12pm await arrival of family and drink prosecco
1pm xmas dinner
2pm tidy xmas dinner
3pm try to entertain family whilst wanting to fall asleep on sofa
4pm family members leave
5pm-9pm nibbles & tv
9pm bed coz I'm shattered!!

Mine is more like -

7.30 - 8.30 - Stockings in bed
8.30 - 10.30 - Opening/playing with main presents / breakfast as we go.
10.30 - 11.30 - Get dressed, phone family
11.30 - 1.00 - Setting up toys, etc
1.00 - 2.00 - Lunch - cheese, crackers, fruit, salami, etc. (sort of the starter and cheese course, from our xmas dinner)
2.00 - 3.30 - Playing with toys, or maybe a board game or new video games. Would be the point we'd go for a walk, if we could be arsed. One day.
3.30 - 5.00 - Start cooking, film on.
5.00 - 6.00 - Xmas dinner (main course)
6.00 - 7.00 - Clearing up
7.00 - 9.00 - Board games, etc. Pudding, if anyone wants it.
9.00 - Kids bed.

Dinner cooks itself on this list yeah?

Nothing like our Christmas Day!

8-9am get up.
9-10am open 'santas' presents and Facetime family.
10am- bacon rolls and a cup of tea.
10.50(ish)- get dressed.
12pm- head on over to have large family christmas get together.
4pm- Christmas dinner together.
5pm-5.30pm clear up.
6-6.30pm- all family open gifts to each other.
7pm-watch a film and have pudding.
9pm-10pm play games.
11pm head home.
12pm bed for all.
(In between daily activities, Kids are feral!)

We save stockings for Boxing day, Relax, watch christmas films and have a christmas dinner at home whilst kids play.

We open presents throughout the day usually still some under tree boxing day

It's a day of time together, games, play,food, drink, feel good tv and we're lucky if we don't need to go A&E!

Interesting, we do stockings before bed on xmas day and honestly thought we must be the only people in the world no to tear into them instantly on xmas morning. I'm sure we have done them on boxing day once or twice too when we forgot.

We've never opened presents until the afternoon both through my childhood and DD14s. Stocking in the morning but that's it.

I like lunch at lunch time, followed by a walk

Wake up around 7-8 am, now that DDs are adults I have a coffee in peace. Then when everyone else wakes up we do breakfast and open the presents.

This year I will cook turkey on Christmas Eve.

we don't have a normal Xmas day as usually one or both of us is working. This year we are both off for the first time in our whole relationship so we are having a nice day at home.
it will be:
8am get home from work (night shift 24/12) and do a bit of lunch prep
10ish breakfast and stocking and finish lunch
midday parents arrive and eat lunch
3pm kings speech, presents then parents go home before it gets too dark
rest of day chilling and watching spy movies such as kingsman, Austin powers and playing board games.
around 9pm go to bed as will have been up over 24hrs by this point

Of course day started earlier when kids were little! Now at 19 and 21 they are sleeping in til a reasonable hour. So by 10am I'd say we will be down stairs, not dressed, to open presents and have breakfast of french toast and bacon. Then son will get dressed and take dog out for walk and I'll start getting things prepped. We don't need usually eat til 4pm or later but my son is leaving late morning Boxing Day for a footie match and then back to his home as working the next day so thinking of moving our Boxing day roast to the evening (not that we will eat a full roast, just cook the meat then me and DD can have all the trimming next day), so our Christmas meal might be closer to 2.
Then games, then we may retreat for a bit of down time then it's evening movie and turkey leftovers (or the roast pork and leftovers). Can't wait!

Completely agree! Ours is more like:

5am: woken by dcs
6.30am: give in to dcs and go downstairs
7am strong coffee & Christmas chocolate for breakfast, or pastries in living room if I'm organised enough to bung them in oven first!
9-10am: opening toys, finding batteries, binbagging wrapping paper
12/1pm Christmas lunch & dessert (usually this isn't on schedule.
After this lazing around infront of the TV feeling abit sick
Christmas nibbles later on
Ready for bed at the same time as the kids, but stay awake as long as possible because "it's Christmas." Zzzzzzzzz