What Will Christmas Day Be Like In Your House?

Whoever gets up first lights all the candles and little lights so that it is lovely to come down to. Makes a pot of coffee.

We always have Buck's Fizz and croissants for breakfast. Rashers and eggs too.

Rest of the day - Mass with carols, present opening with family, gin and tonic, the best dinner of the year, and always parlour games of an evening: charades, board games, songs.

I perfectly love Christmas Day. :-) Can't wait!

lawred2 wrote: »

Well we have two young lads under 5 who aren't always the easiest to manage so the last few Christmas Days have just been relatively stressful... Certainly not relaxing. It's not like their behavior is going to be different just because it's Christmas Day and everyone is expecting happy families like an M&S ad.

I'm hoping the weather is good as I'll be getting them out of the house down to Portmarnock Strand for an hour or so in the morning..

Usually I go to great lengths doing dinner with all the trimmings but the last few times dinner have ended up being eaten amidst a general atmosphere of exhaustion and disappointment.

We'll keep trying though but to be honest I'm not overly optimistic.

That all sounds dreadfully sad

lawred2 wrote: »

Well we have two young lads under 5 who aren't always the easiest to manage so the last few Christmas Days have just been relatively stressful... Certainly not relaxing. It's not like their behavior is going to be different just because it's Christmas Day and everyone is expecting happy families like an M&S ad.

I'm hoping the weather is good as I'll be getting them out of the house down to Portmarnock Strand for an hour or so in the morning..

Usually I go to great lengths doing dinner with all the trimmings but the last few times dinner have ended up being eaten amidst a general atmosphere of exhaustion and disappointment.

We'll keep trying though but to be honest I'm not overly optimistic.

Kindly-meant advice from a veteran: don't over-do it with preparations, it just leads to disappointment and exhaustion, and who benefits?
Instead, bung a frozen turkey or large chicken into the freezer right now: pudding from Tesco, your family favourite ice-creams, box of chocs...etc - the minimum of work for the most fun.
And do the stuff you enjoy most. Christmas celebrates the birth of a child, not some attempt to live up to any image. Leave out anything that is too much trouble; cheerful and simple is perfectly fine.
Best of luck this year!

I've a young family so no such thing as a "typical" Xmas yet, hasn't been for 6 or 7 years at this stage. We're getting there though, creating our own family traditions is fun.

We'll get up whenever the kids wake up, probably between 7am and 8am, do the Santa thing for an hour or so. Then I'll cook up a big dirty veggie fry for everyone while the kids are running around like loonies.

Then get showered and dressed before the in-laws come over for an hour or two, to see the kids. After that I'll likely be making the dinner. where we'll be joined by my parents. Probably stick on a movie for the kids while they're waiting. Parents will probably stick around till 8 or 9, get the kids to bed and then collapse on the couch ourselves with some mince pies and wine, where we'll tell ourselves we're going to watch a movie but we'll probably end up watching a Xmas episode of Friends or something because it's 11 o'clock at night.

Xmas with small kids is relatively hard, my youngest is still a toddler, and there's no chance to relax. She's not going to suddenly become an angel for one day. So being able to sit on my hole in front of the TV and relax is a couple of years away yet, but it's still fun.

seamus wrote: »

I've a young family so no such thing as a "typical" Xmas yet, hasn't been for 6 or 7 years at this stage. We're getting there though, creating our own family traditions is fun.

We'll get up whenever the kids wake up, probably between 7am and 8am, do the Santa thing for an hour or so. Then I'll cook up a big dirty veggie fry for everyone while the kids are running around like loonies.

Then get showered and dressed before the in-laws come over for an hour or two, to see the kids. After that I'll likely be making the dinner. where we'll be joined by my parents. Probably stick on a movie for the kids while they're waiting. Parents will probably stick around till 8 or 9, get the kids to bed and then collapse on the couch ourselves with some mince pies and wine, where we'll tell ourselves we're going to watch a movie but we'll probably end up watching a Xmas episode of Friends or something because it's 11 o'clock at night.

Xmas with small kids is relatively hard, my youngest is still a toddler, and there's no chance to relax. She's not going to suddenly become an angel for one day. So being able to sit on my hole in front of the TV and relax is a couple of years away yet, but it's still fun.

perfect summation

GoneHome wrote: »

That all sounds dreadfully sad

I do get what lawred is saying here. You have these memories of Xmas gone by where you chilled out, had a laugh, watched a movie. After dinner, you'd all sit around playing games and chatting.

When the kids come along you go into Xmas expecting to still be able to do those things, but in reality you get snippets of "old" Christmas in between spending the entire day wiping hands, faces and arses. Sitting down for a chat for more than 3 minutes without being interrupted? Forget about it.

We made the same mistake, twice, of spending the kids' first Xmases staying overnight in the in-laws. Of course, in our heads we'd stick the baby up to bed at 8 o'clock and all the adults would then be able to have a bit of craic. In reality, both times the kids wouldn't settle, we spent the evening tag-teaming who go to go up and rock the baby to sleep, and got a sum total of 4 hours' sleep. Disaster.

It's not sad, you just had unrealistic expectations of what the day was going to be like.

Now that lawred has done it a couple of times and knows what to expect, he'll probably enjoy himself more.

My wife, little girl and I moved back in with my folks for a few months while our house is being built. Our girl will be 18 months on Christmas day so she'll still be too young for most of it register with her. Still, we've already bought her a few little presents. My wife is a nurse, will be working late Christmas eve, off on the 25th and then back on again for the rest of the week so we won't be heading up the country to see her folks. I expect it will be a quiet day: up at 7am (baby's usual time), feed the cattle, back in for Christmas pancakes, mass at 10.00, then back home for the dinner prep. The big feed will be around 3pm. Check the cattle and lock up yard at 6pm. Then chill out until Tiny's bedtime.

Up before 9. Waffles or pancakes and pastries for breakfast, and a mimosa or 3 for me. Presents with my husband and then over to the in-laws. Drinks in one house and dinner in another. They tend to sit around the table for a looooonnnng time but this year we're starting a new tradition and moving to the couch whether they like it or not. :pac: Lots of lounging around, chatting and a few more drinks. Maybe some TV but usually not. It's quite a relaxing day in the in-laws.

We've two smallies so will get up with them whenever they wake. Our eldest is 4 this year & more aware of Santy so might be up a bit earlier. Last year, she was very sick over Christmas & we didn't really have the excitement of Santy coming so I'm hoping for a better Christmas on the health front. Then we'll have a normal breakfast, head out to mass (if we don't go on Christmas Eve). We'll head over to my parents, then back & maybe have a quick cuppa with his (they live next door so we can't escape), then home and have the dinner just the 4 of us. Then chill out.

As others have said, our kids are quite small & kids will be kids so am still anticipating a relatively normally day of them killing each other while I try to pretend it's all going swimmingly We're making memories lol :pac::pac:

This is our first Christmas with our newborn twins : )

We're going to brazil so i expect everything to be served to me... work starts Christmas 2019

@Eggs for Dinner, be kind to yourself over the season. Things can be hard for some people for many reasons and I hope you and others have a peaceful time.

Thanks everyone. I'll leave this forum to those of you who derive happiness out of the season. Have a good one everybody