What time do you sit down to eat Christmas dinner?

[KiwiDollar]

Just a quick lighthearted question! I want to serve around 5pm so it’s not such a rush in the morning to get everything done for midday. My mum always did this as it felt more Christmassy in the evening with all the candles, lights and fire on etc. What time do you usually aim for?

I aim for starters with the Kings speech and hopefully dinner for 4 - 4:30

Mum will have her usual breakfast. Me and DH tend to hold out , although we do munch on the crispy streaky bacon Ive used to protect the turkey breast - reminds us of frazzles

Mostly we dont do dessert, there's mince pies sat there and ice cream in the freezer, there may or may not be a cake

If by any chance we are peckish later, the stilton gets tucked into but usually baileys and choccies see us through

We love a roast dinner here and whilst ours is nothing elaborate , I do go all out - proper gravy, goose fat crunchy potatoes, a couple of different stuffings so its much richer then what we would usually eat so finding room for supper or picky bits is rare

Plus we are old :)

I aim to serve it about 1-130. No starters, I really hate long drawn out meals.
Everything cleared away by about 3 ISH and I can relax for another year.
My in laws spread lunch out for about 5 hours- it's torture!

We eat around 5 ish which has always been normal for us! Never understood the sitting down to a huge dinner at lunch time! I know some people do it on a Sunday with a roast too but we never have!

We eat some time between 6 and 7, which is dinnertime on a normal day.

People who can eat a full meal in the middle of the day are better men than I am, Gunga Din.

We have brunch between 10 and 11 and pick at leftovers from the festive meal the night before as a snack.

5.30/ 6 after I've been to sort out my horse for the night. I need to drive to the yard and I want wine with my Christmas dinner. DC are adults so DS1 and his partner come over after visiting her parents (not from UK and don't really celebrate Christmas).

5.30/6.00. Morning I walk the dogs, open presents and do some preparation, smoked salmon sandwiches for lunch, then eat early evening. Much less rushed .

At 12!

It's partly middle aged remnants of teen defiance precisely because my mum always served mid to late afternoon but wouldn't let anyone eat anything after 7:30am compulsory family breakfast/ 9am compulsory church (labelling any attempt to eat so much as an apple "ungrateful" - although she did always want us to help prepare and then micromanage "helpers" to such an extent that it would have been far quicker not to have any help...).

I prefer to do everything myself, I do three courses but nothing excessively faffy (eg. I buy a ready made or pre prepared or quick cold starter, do duck, roast potatoes, sprouts with bacon and roasted carrots and of course gravy as a main, and a ready made or quick to prepare desert).

It's really important to me to serve on time, but probably because I have "issues" 😝 After lunch there are unlimited mince pies and other Christmas snacks available all afternoon and anyone can make themselves anything they want to eat but I don't cook or prepare anything else, so it's also good to have it out of the way.

I really, really hated the meal hanging over the day when I went to my parents (as you can probably tell) but I think that as long as you are clear in advance and let people eat lunch it's ok to serve late - I must say I don't understand serving at 5 personally - why not serve as an actual evening dinner at 6 or 6:30 if you want to serve later? 5 is an odd time to serve a meal to anyone over 5 and under 85, to me.