So is Christmas women's work then?

[Katisha]

Following on from my thread here in which in would appear that left to their own deives most, (not all), men would hardly bother with Christmas at all, I would be interested to know why this is.

Is it because women do it all for them? Is it because only women want all the traditional food, decorations, visiting, card sending and frenzy of present buying?

Are women propping up some ridiculous commercial christmas industry and men are right to despise/ignore it?

Or what?

Bonsoir, I agree with you for the most part. However, I have no pressure from in-laws or friends of the heavy-partying sort, so maybe my view of things doesn't take into account the experience of women whose social circles have expectations that weigh on them. ANy pressure I feel comes from the DCs, who like Christmas to happen a certain way, like certain elements of dinner and dessert and the usual family routine and traditions.

I also love cooking and I don't have small children underfoot anymore so I get a clear run at it -- I appreciate the chance to get the whole meal together uninterrupted after years of basically being unable to finish a thought with little ones constantly chirping at me. I also love doing Christmas without being heckled by exH, but that's another story.

I find roasting a turkey and preparing trimmings to feed 7 much less challenging than thinking up delicious ways to serve turkey leftovers for a week afterwards.

Truckulent, your Christmas sounds much like mine except I posted cards (about twice as many as your total) and shopped in a few other places as well as online.

mathanxiety - we were 10 for Christmas lunch. I bought a capon (much nicer than a turkey) which we almost polished off. I boiled the leftovers and carcass up on Christmas afternoon and made stock - the only leftovers we have eaten are a couple of risotti!

We had basically two Christmas dinners in a row and then turkey tetrazzini, turkey tortilla casserole, a sort of spinach florentine pie with turkey, turkey and bean soup, and of course turkey sandwiches. I now have a freezer full of stock from my 16lb bird. Turkey is the gift that keeps on giving .