what time is Christmas dinner?

livinginhope

We normally have ours around 4pm,when everyone gets back from work,both my mother and brother work on christmas day,as did I before I had to stop working.They get back about 2,then I will cook the meal for about 4 ish,but the time isn't set in stone,basically when it's done.

monty100

When I was young (many moons ago!) it always had to be eaten in time fto be over for The Queen's Speech - my brother and I used to sneak away and leave the grown-ups to that delight!

Once I was married and we had kids of our own we decided to move the main meal to 4 - 5 pm. This meant that after the pressies we could ALL go out for a walk while it was still light, the kids got to let off some steam, and once we had eaten there was nothing else to do but find something good on the tellie.

Even now the kids are older teenagers we still stick to this - they have become addicted to smoked salmon and cream cheese for brunch, and since they seem to get up later now, this brunch has become lunch, so we don't want to eat till 5.00ish. And we can still go for a walk. (If we can walk in a straight line after brunch - bucks fizz for the grown-ups!)

jenk_3

I aim for 2pm but it always ends up being seved at 3pm!

thriftlady_2

We eat the big meal at about 1-2 pm.

I remember one Christmas my aunt (the most inconsiderate person in the world) decided that Christmas lunch was much too filling and heavy to eat in the middle of the day, and therefore we should have it at teatime (6-7 ish). All well and good except she wasn't the one cooking, it was and always was my mum. Mum bowed to pressure and it completely ruined her day. First she had to come up with lunch which was an extra meal to prepare as there wasn't any leftover turkey like you have for Christmas tea, then she had to spend the afternoon cooking. She couldn't go on the bracing walk my aunt had planned because of all the meal prep she had to do.

The cook never washes up btw;)

Trow

We usually have ours about 3pm, so its lunch and dinner in one....!! (kind of laziness on our part.

We usually have pudding an hour or so after we finish, cos we can't face it straight away!

Maybe have a sandwich later on.

Hay_2

We always start cooking really early but end up eating late!:o Too many distractions in our house and I'm rubbish getting timings right.
PLUS I figure the more alcoholic drink consumed pre my cooking the better :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :beer:

AMIE399

WE TRY TO AIM FOR 3ish

sophiesmum_2

We usually eat around 2pm. Don't bother much with breakfast usually bacon on toast or something when hubby comes home from work at 7am, then just pick at chocs etc until xmas lunch. Lunch at 2 gives us plenty of time to recover for a buffet supper later in the evening.:D

sophiesmum

LJD1_2

We let my dad argue with the queen at three and then we have our christmas dinner straight after that. He's always the entertainment factor as he gets so hot and bothered!

Kelinik

Brekkie is croissants and fruit (melon this year methinks) at about 8 am
Special biscuits for nibbling during the morning (tree pressie opening)
Turkey with all the trimmings around 1 - 1.30 (we save our stockings until after dinner)
Tea is a large finger buffet that gets laid out around 5.30 and eaten as and when people want it.

This year I have 5 for breakfast and dinner/lunch and 9 for tea, really looking forward to it.