lunch/dinner/tea/supper

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I'm seeing lots of posts about when people eat their main meal on Christmas day. And everyone of course eats at different times, which is normal, but everyone also calls it something different (lunch, supper, tea, dinner, etc etc etc!). I've lived in the UK for more than two decades and I still can't make sense of what distinguishes these terms and meal times. Is it all down to regional differences, or is there a generational (or class?) aspects as to whether people call it dinner or supper? Please help me make sense of one of the last remaining enigmas of life in the UK!

I’m Irish living in the UK, I’d never call it Christmas lunch, it’s dinner and never have a Christmas dinner before 5pm.

This is similar to what I do. Main meal sometime between 5:30-7pm on Christmas day, and we call it dinner. I am desperate for someone born and raised in the UK (or several someones from various regions of the UK) to explain to me the cultural differences because I'm sure they are obvious to many people and I'm just missing it!

My family were very working class from London and they always called the meal after breakfast dinner, it was always the main meal of the day. The evening meal was more of a snack and referred to as tea. Christmas dinner was eaten very early when I was growing up at about 12.30pm only nibbles were available thereafter.
I generally call my first meal of the day lunch (I don’t eat breakfast ) but on Christmas Day it’s dinner and is usually served around 1.30pm.
We don’t have supper which I always thought was the snack posh people ate before going to the theatre presumably after having had their main meal earlier in the day though what they called that meal I do not know.

Midlands/North border.

The meal after breakfast is dinner or lunch. For me; Lunch is cold, Dinner is hot.

So if I had a cold lunch (or a simple hot lunch like soup) I would then have Dinner for my evening meal.

If I had a hot Dinner, I would have Tea for my evening meal (like afternoon tea or high tea - because i'd probably be having sandwiches or something).

Now, if i'm having two hot meals, then I have two Dinners :)

These are not hard and fast rules, just realisations I've come to over time in how I describe things.

Christmas Dinner is served at lunchtime for us (and called Dinner because it's hot).

I'm not posh enough for supper (nor do I eat late enough as Supper is a late Dinner). Supper was a pork pie eaten at 8pm for my Grandad!

Does it matter? This thread is done to death 😁 people call it different things, end of story.

Dinner is traditionally the main meal of the day, no matter when you have it, so ‘Christmas lunch’ always sounds so wrong to me - like people saying ‘Between you and I…’ thinking that is ‘correct’.

In some parts of the UK, esp. more northern areas, the evening meal is often called ‘tea’ - nowt wrong with that!

Historically in the North West /Lancashire
Dinner was the midday meal and often a more substantial one. Tea would be late afternoon maybe bread and butter, jam if they were lucky and tea to drink, hence the name. Supper would be a light snack before bed maybe some crackers, biscuits or cake.
Some people will use the terms now and others might say lunch and dinner. I’d say supper probably still means a late evening snack.

Dinner and lunch are probably interchangeable depending who I’m talking to! We would still call our early evening meal tea.
Interesting thread. You can find dialect/ area colour coded maps saying who uses what where! Not sure how accurate they are!
At Christmas we’d eat mid/ late afternoon and just say Christmas meal.

We have ours too late to call it lunch and too early to call it dinner - about 5pm. Then we’re still to full for any type of supper snacking.

Gosh I find all of this fascinating. Thanks to everyone who has shared. The hot/cold distinction between dinner/lunch resonates and makes sense to me. Doesn't really work for Christmas "lunch" but I guess that's maybe part of why they call them school "dinners" here?

I'll add that I've lived in several different parts of the UK but never in the true North and I'm aware how ignorant I am about cultural nuances north of the midlands!

Im in Scotland and for me it's breakfast then lunch then dinner. Supper is a bedtime snack. Tea is a drink

We have Christmas dinner in the evening

We have christmas lunch mid/late afternoon as it's getting dark.

In Manchester where I grew up and still live we have breakfast in the morning (obs) then at midday dinner but we go out for lunch, we don’t go out to dinner unless you’re in school then you go for dinner . From 5pm ish we have tea which can be anything from a full cooked meal to a snack then when we get peckish before bed its either a snack or if a child, supper which can be toast cereal or a sandwich , something like that .
hope this clarifies 😁

Honestly, this is perfect. My best friend is from Manchester and this is exactly how I would expect her to explain this to me. Clear as mud. ;-)

It's

Breakfast, bacon or sausage sandwich or yoghurt, fruit, nuts or eggs etc, any time from waking til 10am.

Elevenses/brunch, mid morning snack or a heartier meal if no breakfast or lunch.

Lunch, soup or sandwich or salad, 12.30-2.00

Afternoon snack, tea & biscuits etc, mid afternoon.

Dinner, main meal, 7.00-8.30.

Supper, toast or cheese & crackers etc, a snack before bed.

And Christmas dinner is Christmas dinner eaten anytime from 4.30 - 8.30

Yorkshire…It’s always Christmas dinner🤣
We have Breakfast, Dinner & Tea in that order.
Might say lunch if meeting a friend but otherwise it’s dinner regardless of if it’s a sandwich/soup or a full meal. Tea is always tea whether a full meal or sandwich.
Supper would be a snack before bed - toast or crackers.
Tea is obviously a drink too but we’d call it a brew.

We call it Christmas dinner and have it around 3pm.