If you eat late afternoon/early evening...

[lechatnoir]

Do you just have normal breakfast and then bits & bobs to keep you going or a later brunch? And presumably there's no evening meal which I'm a bit sad about as I love a buffet (although my waistline will be thankful!) My DS is working until 4pm this year so our usual 2pm lunch is going to be nearer 5pm by the time he's back and opened pressies. I can't get my head around what we will eat and when so can you share your timings please.

Our usual routine is:
Breakfast 9ish - bucks fizz, scrambled eggs &/or croissants,
Morning dog walk, presents, cooking.
Drinks & canapes from around 12:30pm until lunch
Christmas Lunch 2-4pm
Evening buffet: 9pm - ham, cold turkey, cheese & chocolate log.

Pass out in a food coma around midnight.

Wow!! I’d be in a good coma too!! I’ve only ever had Christmas dinner in the evening. We have:
Coffee, open some presents, chocolate coins from the stockings
Smoked salmon and eggs at 10ish
Walk, might pop for a drink in the pub
Champagne, seafood canapés 1300
Presents and drinks for those that arrive later
Christmas dinner 1800
Games, drinks
Cheese for anyone who wants it 2200

We normally don’t eat until 4pm and then no other meals until next day (but lots of snacks!)

Our day tends to look like this-

open gifts 7am-9am
breakfast 9.30am, scrambled eggs, beans, toast, fruit and croissants (don’t tend to eat the croissants)

lots of baileys coffees, Prosecco, chocolate, -and mince pies 11am-3pm

Roast turkey 4pm

kids have warm milk, in bed by 8pm and then my husband and I continue to graze until we fall asleep. Disgusting how much we consume to be honest 🫣

We eat around 6 - breakfast of bacon rolls, seafood for lunch - prawn cocktails tempura smoked salmon calamari salad etc. we don't then have a starter for supper

Buffet for Boxing Day.

We do:

Breakfast around 9, croissants, cinnamon buns etc
Late morning nibbles, olives, crisps, chocolate, that sort of thing, not full canapes
DInner 3.30ish - no starter, it’s too much, just main course which is huge.
Pudding a few hours after dinner, maybe 7ish for anyone that wants it, or mince pies, ice cream available
Crackers and cheese for anyone who wants it later.

We're not big breakfast eaters so just have coffee (with Baileys) in the morning. Maybe a mince pie.

At midday we have brunch; bacon & eggs, toast & marmalade with fizz. Open the chocolates.

Coffee and posh biscuits mid afternoon after the walk.

Full roast between 6 & 7pm. Lots of wine and chocolates.

We have a light breakfast, maybe cinnamon buns if I can be arsed, probably not this year as Dd2 has gone gluten free. Then canapés and fizz at about 12/12:30 and dinner around 6. So much more relaxed, avoids food coma and we do the turkey sandwiches etc on Boxing Day.

We usually have something light, boiled eggs and toast or small bowl of blueberry cinnamon porridge

And then starve until main meal (about 3pm)

Then everyone can fend for themselves

Christmas pudding
Trifle

That’s a helluva lot of food OP! Breakfast as and when it’s wanted, but just usual breakfast. Lunch mid afternoon and not really any need for anything before bed.

One year SIL was working until 3ish. We did normal, small breakfast at home then 12:30ish brunch of scrambled eggs and smoked salmon then 5ish dinner. This fitted in with small children's usual routines. Can you have a Boxing Day buffet? Or for Christmas lunch but that might be ott.

Move your buffet to Boxing Day! I love my grub but I'd be up all night with indigestion polishing off a buffet that late at night after a full day of food.

We normally do pastries at about 9, Xmas dinner about 2/3. Hold off on pudding until about 5 then maybe some cheese and crackers in the evening in front of the tv if we are still peckish.

We normally do breakfast around 9 smoked salmon & scrambled eggs. Starter around 2 then main meal an hour or two later. DH will probably have a sandwich around 10 pm.

Small breakfast (maybe just fruit) before 9. Picky lunch (cheese & crackers, chutney, fruit, salami), then main meal at 5 or 6, works for me.

We tend to eat one full meal throughout the day so will have the starter at about 12:00, main at about 17:00, dessert at 19:00 and then the cheese course at 20:00 ish

We have a fry up around 10/11 then dinner around 4.30ish. None of us get hungry in between. We tend to all not want dessert after starter and main so will usually play games then have dessert an hour or so later then wel get cheese/biscuits/crisps and dips etc out later on.

We have salt fish fritters mid morning which is plenty to keep us going along with any chocolate the dc want (they are older now not small but we’ve always done it like this). Guests come at about 2pm, we have crisps and nuts etc out. We aim to sit down for 4pm, no starter as the main is enormous. Pudding for 6 then everything cleared away and cleaned up ready for our evening visitors. At about 8/9 the cold cuts, cheeseboard and homemade sausage rolls and patties go out. This is mainly for the benefit of the evening guests as most of them probably eat their main meal early in the afternoon. None of the rest of us even want to look at the evening buffet 😂
We have a lot of people to cater for and this works best for them all.
All day there are bowls of treats out so no one is hungry unless they want to save themselves for their Christmas dinner!

We have bacon butties around 10:30am, starter about 3:30-4pm and then dinner between 4:30-5:30pm. Dessert is usually about 8:30pm 😂. More than enough food for us.

bacon sarnies by the time we’ve finish3d present opening at about 9am, then Christmas dinner at about 2.30ish, then nuts, crisps, cheese and crackers, chocs or leftovers about 8/9ish in the evening if wanted.

We have chocolate for breakfast.

Then starters about 2pm, main meal about 4pm and pudding at 6pm.

Anyone then anyone who wants cheese and biscuits.

We do breakfast of coffee, pastries, berries etc around 11am.
Canapes and drinks 2.30/3pm.
Main served for 5pm followed by dessert.
Cheeseboard, crisps, nuts, mince pies, chocolate etc 8.30pm ish.

Breakfast around 10 ish (choice of full English or pancakes) snacks during the day, main meal at 5:30, cheese course around 9:30

We used to eat about 2 ish till dc came along and then 5pm ish suited better. So now we have pancakes/bacon or bacon/slice/black pudding rolls for breakfast with selection boxes! Then grazing daytime! Seafood starters early then main meal at 5.

Firstly I want to say that's no "loads" or a "hell of a lot " of food op- and if it is- it's Christmas please do not feel judged by competive under eating for Christmas Day!

We go

7- 8- salmon or bacon bagels

12-2 "starters" soup or pate

5-7 Christmas dinner- she's a feast make no mistake

8-9- the roses are out. There's cheese too if you fancy

10-11- the children retire and we enjoy the leftovers sandwiches(turkey stuffing squashed roast potato cranberry Brie and gravy ! )

Boxing Day is essentially a day long buffet

We're all adults, so don't get up very early on Christmas day. Come down in pyjamas for coffee and something such as avocado toast or an almond croissant, orange juice, more coffee.
Open presents.
Lounge around a bit enjoying gifts and drinking tea or first boozy drink of the day.
Get dressed etc. Go for walk while the cook gets cooking.
Some light snacks or nibbles during the day - stilton and crackers or stollen, lebkuchen, nuts. More drinks.
No starter, full Christmas dinner at around 5pm.
Christmas pud/mince pie/ brandy cream for anyone who wants it at around 8pm. Assorted crisps/ nuts and more drinks.

'normal' breakfast in this house so tea and toast for me.
No 'lunch' but nibbles and chocolates on tap
The main event around 3:30 pm- no starters though too much food.
Pudding maybe 5/6 pm
We are down to only 4 adults these days so v small - turkey and stuffing sandwiches/pork pie/cheese at 7/8 pm.
Elderly mum, DH, adult DS and me. All done at mums house but me doing all of the prep/cook and buying it all to take with us.
DH/DS on clean up duty. We walk home- under 10 mins and then chill. There are copious glasses of fizz/gin all day though from lunchtime- it gets me through the day. Normally slumped in PJ's from 9ish stuffed with food and dare I say it a bit drunk!
Very different as no young children- we all have a lie in probably set the alarm for 10am! the mornings we have spent in the past with DS getting up at 5 am are distant now- thankfully He is way more likely to come home at 5am!

10ish We have Nutella filled croissants and orange juice for breakfast.

snack on some chocolate

1pm (or there about) we have either cheese, crackers, fruit and lebkuchen /or a panini with a few picky buffet bits or /cream cheese and bacon bagels with a few buffet bits.

In the afternoon we snack on more chocolate

5/6pm we have our Christmas dinner

in the evening we will have some crisps/nuts/chocolate to snack on