What are you doing for Christmas this year?

Toast4532

Hi

I was inspired by the thread in food and drink (schedule of food/drink/goodies) and decided to make this thread, as I couldn't see one like it and I think it'd be nice to see what others are doing on Xmas, how they are spending it etc. It could lead to new ideas for some of us next year

I'll start off.

What I do and when I do it depends on where I'm spending Xmas day, this year I will be spending it with my boyfriend, just the two of us for a change as we've never spent a full Xmas day together, so it will be nice to do it this year.

We'll get up about 9-10am, and do presents (he has to do them first thing, the suspense kills him lol), then we’ll make breakfast, and then shower, then we’ll spend a bit of time lazing around and watching TV, then we’ll make lunch, and then some more lazing around and then we’ll have dinner and settle down with drinks and a movie. A totally chilled out day and we can’t wait.

I remember the first Christmas we spent together he woke up about 7am and called me and asked could we do the presents and I said in a while and he was disappointed and I knew the suspense was killing him so we did the presents at 7am lol and then we fell asleep for a while and then had breakfast, then we came over to my house and stayed here for a while and then he went off to his aunties (his family usually go to hers for dinner at Xmas).

Last year I was at my dad's house, which started with breakfast in bed, then getting ready for the day, then my sister, her fiance and my brother came over in the afternoon, then my dads friend and her daughter came over too for dinner, then spending the rest of the evening doing nothing.

Most of Christmas day last year was spent in my room alone as my dad's girlfriend was causing a bit of hassle, so it was best to avoid her, even my dad said so. It was honestly the worst Christmas I've had, and I don't mean that in a bad way, but she was rude and snappy with everyone and it really put a dampener on the day, and everyone noticed it, even my brother who usually wouldn't notice.

So what are you doing for Xmas? And are you looking forward to it?

As usual, am going to go back to my parents' house in Wexford, with one or both brothers too. But it's great fun. Board games and heavy drinking Christmas Eve, and card games and heavy drinking Christmas Day; then sleeping in front of Christmas movies on Stephen's Day, and me and the brothers vacate on the 27th. It's a great annual routine.

I live in a houseshare with five others. Not sure what the Lithuanian guy is doing, the Spanish guy has family in England so heading there, the others all have family around so going that way. We plan to have a big dinner here before, get three chickens and two hams, a bag of potatoes, loads of veggies, get the guests to bring drinks and desserts, and have a big housemate and friends party before we go away for Christmas. We reckon we could have twenty good friends, family, housemates, boyfriends, girlfriends, and three dogs to clean up the mess after!!

Not sure my friends would be into it, but my and my housemates are! We'll set up tables and all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpZ8lEAMCkE&feature=share

Cunning Stunt

We will spend Christmas this year with my OH's family. They/we are in Denmark, and so it's a lot different to the Irish Christmas.

They have the Christmas dinner on Christmas eve, and it will be duck, not turkey and ham. It is a nice dinner but I would be lying if I said I won't be dreaming about my Mammy's Christmas dinner this year!

After dinner, everyone gathers in the living room and the candles are lit on the tree (yep, real candles - I like that bit ). Then the Danes have a funny ritual of walking around the tree all together, singing Christmas carols. After that it's gift giving time.

Then its relaxing for the evening, with all the beer / sweets /junk food etc. that Christmas offers.

But my favorite thing of all this year is that my husband and I will have a new little baby to celebrate Christmas with. I am scheduled for a c-section in two days time and I cannot wait! Our own little Christmas present. We have kept the gender as a Christmas surprise so am dying to know what it is! This is gonna be the best Christmas ever

miss no stars

Suppose the same thing we do every Christmas. Up around 8 (it's as long as I can wait, I get terribly excited) and do presents, then a spot of breakfast (unlike the rest of the year we actually eat this together, at the table) and hopefully we will have those croissants from a can (anyone know if they're in stock anywhere?).

My mum and I will clean up while my dad and brother trot off down to mass, where they'll get invitations to various drinks that are going on. They'll come back and no doubt try to get my mum to go to them, completely ignoring that the dinner needs to be done. My mum and I will make the dinner and get dressed and ready and set the table all nice.

My granny and granduncle will arrive and my mum and I will keep them occupied. About ten minutes before dinner, my dad and brother will arrive in from their drinks asking if we need a hand with anything :rolleyes:. Then we will have dinner. This year we will be setting an extra place at the table. One of our traditions at christmas time is we put up pictures of any close relatives who aren't with us anymore. The group of pictures is getting sadly big. Both granddads, my cousin, uncle and our dog. This will be our first Christmas without my uncle (and the dog) who only died two months ago, so I don't think my mum wants to set a table for only 6 people.

After dinner we do presents with my nanny. Relax and chat for a while before the turkey&stuffing and ham sandwiches. Relatives go home and the 4 of us flake out for the evening.

Pumpkinseeds

For the first time in about 12 years my husband and I will get to have Christmas dinner on our own. We've always had to go to either his parents or mine for Christmas dinner. We'll go to my parents for drinks on Christmas night though.

I'll cook the turkey crown and do any other food prep on Christmas eve, we usually go to the supermarket early on Christmas eve morning for things like milk and bread. I'm really looking forward to making champagne/gin cocktails this year. We've got 2 more cats that we adopted over the past 6 months and a kitten that we're fostering so it'll be lovely to spoil them rotten and treat them to some warm turkey too:)

Toast4532

Cunning Stunt wrote: »

But my favorite thing of all this year is that my husband and I will have a new little baby to celebrate Christmas with. I am scheduled for a c-section in two days time and I cannot wait! Our own little Christmas present. We have kept the gender as a Christmas surprise so am dying to know what it is! This is gonna be the best Christmas ever

Congratulations, and good luck. I hope everything goes well for you and you have a wonderful Christmas with your new baby. Your Christmases will get a lot more magical too, the excitement on their little faces when Santa has brought them new toys, presents etc.

After seeing your post myself and my bf might do duck for Christmas this year instead of a four bird roast, we love duck and don't have it often, so it would be nice to have it on Xmas. Shall suggest it to him and see what he says.

gidget

We usually get up around 10ish that morning. No breakfast cause we usually eat dinner around 1.30/2pm. Walk the dog. Open the pressies when I get home & give the dog his pressie. Then we head up to the graveyard with bouquets & wreaths to visit the graves of my family members & I light a little candle & put it on the graves & wish them a Happy Christmas in our own way.

Head up to my nana's at around 1pm for our Christmas dinner, exchange gifts with her. My dad will be given a prawn cocktail for a starter, he's the only one that will get a starter. Main dinner of Turkey, Ham, Roast potatoes, Buttery Mashed potatoes & gravy. I'm not a veggie eater at all so the others will take the sprouts etc. After that the goodies come out which she's been stocking up on for the last couple of months, tins of chocolates, biscuits, Jelly with cream, numerous tea or wine, my nana will buy in a bottle of West Coast Cooler for me especially, cause she knows I like it. My aunt will arrive in then with her brood for a while. The men will then usually sit in the sitting room watching a movie or whatever's on the telly, & us women will enjoy a sit down around my nana's table having a good ol chat & a few laughs, which I love cause those are the moments that you remember forever, especially while my nana is still around, as she's the only one left in my grandparents & I cherish those moments most.

Head home about 4/4.30 & hop into my pj's & then chill out in front of the telly for the night with turkey sandwiches & a lot of goodies.

SusieBlue

My boyfriend and I are spending Christmas with my parents this year, which I'm very excited about.

On Christmas eve we get our Christmas Eve packs from my parents. This includes new pjs, new bed linen, a new Christmassy mug, luxury bubble bath and sometimes a Christmas movie. After that my mom, my sisters and I will head into town to have breakfast and a stroll round town. The afternoon is spent helping my mother chop vegetable with the frank sinatra christmas album blaring. After that, we go to an early mass, then to my aunties for drinks, and home in time for the Father Ted Christmas special.

We'll get up at about 8am on Christmas day, and open presents. After they are opened we'll sit around the kitchen table and light the candles on the home made cake we'll have made together during the week, and sing happy birthday to Jesus. We're not religious but this is a tradition going back several generations so we continue with it because its been going on so long.

We then have breakfast, and are finished in time for the annual Harry Potter movies to start on the telly. We watch these, and have visitors calling throughout the day until about 4pm when we have dinner. The phone goes off the hook at that point for the rest of the night, phones away and we eat dinner in peace. Its bliss.

After that we play a few board games while watching Christmas movies while drinking endless amounts of wine/tea/food. Its the food I look forward to most! As someone who seems to spend her whole life on a diet I can't wait to eat myself into a food coma and not feel a bit guilty about it

sparkle_23

This is my first Christmas away from Ireland! My boyfriend and I are having Christmas Day together! We will visit his Mom and her husband on Christmas Eve and exchange presents. His moms stepsons will be there on Xmas day and they are... Well not desirable people to be around! So we will have dinner in our apartment with our cat Pepper! We want to try make some Christmassy traditions of our own, maybe a special breakfast or champagne with dinner! We will see what the day brings!