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.

I am morbidly obese and this seem like a lot of food...

Im another who has only ever had Christmas dinner in the evening. Christmas lunch has always seemed far too early for me, especially if there is a lot of visiting to be done.
We have a light breakfast like toast or cereal when we are first up (early, since we have a dd!) and then a brunch later around 11am- my mum normally makes rolls and bacon when we go round there to swap pressies. Then we go back to mine, I make dinner which is served between 4-5pm. This year it might even be a bit later as we are waiting till my sister has finished her nursing shift at 5. I don’t eat much between brunch and dinner as busy cooking but I’m usually nagging everyone else not to ‘graze’ too much on chocolates and other goodies so they don’t spoil their dinner!

Quite embarrassed how much we normally eat - a later meal is sounding much better and will can quite happily shift the buffet to Boxing Day so one less meal to prepare! I like the idea of splitting starter and main meal so might see how this is received by the rest of the family. Thanks all

We used to do a light breakfast 8/9am, smoked salmon 12 then dinner at 4pm. However this will be the 3rd year that we are doing Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve instead. Still at 4pm but the it means we have “brunch” on Christmas Day with some leftovers and then just help ourselves to whatever, whenever the rest of the day so it keeps it relaxed. It means our son can enjoy opening his presents and can play with them straight away because the table is free and we’re free from cooking.

Surely everyone picks all day so meal times don't matter too much?

But we tend to get up about 9. Open some presents.

Breakfast is mid morning ish - eggs and salmon and Buck's Fizz . Then we get washed and dressed and then think about starting dinner.

All the snacks are out so people pick at those, and drink more. I do the same while cooking.

Dinner usually ends up being served about 4/5.

We tend to have a break for pudding and we open the rest of the presents.

And then more snacking.

Then bed.

Breakfast is large and protein heavy. I make casseroles in advance so I can just pop them in the oven and they are ready when we finish opening presents.

there are light snacks available during the day. Raw vegetables, nuts, olives, maybe some cheese. Little snacky things that are easy to set out.

then a late lunch/ early dinner.

Breakfast - Toast after present opening about 9ish

Full meal - Starter and then 3 meat roast about 2pm ish

Pudding about an hour or two later once everything is tidied away

Then if anyone wants anything throughout the evening, they can have mince pies, nuts, chocolate, Cheese and Crackers etc

2pm isn't late afternoon/early evening?

And your point is?

Its a public forum if i want to reply to a post i will or are you the mumsnet police ? 😂🌵

We always have Christmas dinner in the evening. Dinner time.

Breakfast: pannetone / croissant/ clementines
Lunch: smoked salmon, brown bread, mince pies , maybe meringue Christmas tree.
Christmas dinner - traditional spread

Drinks and chocolates on demand

Brunch about 10
Christmas meal around 2:30-3
Cheesboard comes out about 6
Snacls through the day available EXCEPT the bits for Cheesboard. Very much "don't touch" situation with these being in "don't you dare" box in fridge,😂

We normally eat dinner at 5pm and we have very young children so we stick to routine. Breakfast, lunch and dinner about the same time as usual. 7:30, 12 and 5.

Due to it just being us and them being little we keep it simple. Croissants for breakfast, a nice soup for lunch maybe a sandwich for the kids and then we'll do Christmas dinner with dessert.

Cooked breakfast about10:30-11, dinner with all the trimmings about 5, pudding/sandwich/whatever you want about 9. None of us like chocolate and so we're not really nibblers in between.

We have brunch with Buck’s Fizz at 11am ish
Main meal starts between 4 and 5pm

I have a habit of picking and not enjoying my main meal, so going to try not to do too much of that this year 🤣

Our Christmas Day routine for the past few years (with a now 5yo) has typically been:

7-8am: Wake up, open presents
8-9am: Breakfast (pastries, Buck's Fizz)
10-12: Long walk with the dogs
12-1pm:Lunch (something light, like soup)
1-5pm: Playing with/setting up new toys
5-7pm: Christmas dinner
7-9pm: Films, board games etc.

I hate a huge cooked lunch in the afternoon, I am overly hungry or not at all because I snack all the time. So we always do it as dinner.

Breakfast - croissants, egg benedict, stollen, cake, chocolate
Lunch - ready to bake baguette with charcuterie and cheese boards.
Maybe more cake, chocolate or biscuits if anyone really fancies it in the afternoon
Dinner at 6pm

We are only 3 people so I don't cook so much that there are tons of leftovers and this year we are away from the 26th - 29th so I have to be careful anyway.

We have sausage sandwiches mid morning and then dinner late afternoon. There are dishes of nuts and chocolates to graze from if needed,

We usually do:

Breakfast around 10pm:
Coffee, bucks fizz and smoked salmon or scrambled egg bagels

Lunch around 2pm:
Cheeseboard and salads, fruit bowl, chocolates and mince pies

Dinner around 7-8pm: (Used to be 6pm when Dc were little but they are all adults now)
Home made soup (trad family Christmas recipe)
Turkey Roast Christmas Dinner with vegan wellington option for veggies
Christmas Pudding or Yule Log
Then despite everyone saying they are stuffed, they usually want the cheeseboard back out again.

I love doing it this way because you don't feel bloated too early on. Everyone still has energy to go for walks and play games during the day, and I don't have to get up before dawn to get the turkey cooked (I do get up before dawn but it's lovely to have the house to myself to potter until everyone else wakes up, instead of being wrist deep in turkey gizzards when they all come downstairs.