Christmas Day

[Xraymark]

So. This forum is made up of members from all over the world. What kind of christmas will you have?

Growing up my Christmas used to be go to mass. Then open all the presents. Have Christmas dinner about 1pm and then veg in front of the TV. A bit of a royal family affair.

Since being married I've been sucked into my in-laws Christmas which is a lot more refined. We all meet with the neighbors for a few drinks around 11am. Venue changes from year to year. It's my house this year which is 2 min walk from in-laws. Presents are opened before dinner around 3pm. With secret presents opened through out the day as friends of family pop by. The diner it self lasts for hours with loads of courses with too much alcohol. It's an absolutely brilliant day. Then it seems happen all over again on boxing day.

It should be a we bit special this year as our daughter(Megan) will be 21 months.

Interested to hear how other people will be enjoying Christmas and hope it's as good/better than mine.

 

[mike455555]

wake up open pressys with family. eat xmas meal about 3-5ish then watch a film or something

 

[Cazgar]

My Christmases for the last 15 years have been pretty low key as I was caring for my elderly mother who had Alzheimer's.
She passed away a year ago yesterday, so this Christmas will be the first proper one without her (last year's was a non event)
I'm going to my daughter's, first Christmas ever away from home & I'm really looking forward to it.
Son in law is cooking dinner, with a little help from Jamie Oliver, it better be good or else lol

 

[Fintastic!]

Pure madness. Everyone comes to us. In-laws, out-laws, everyone! The usual- kids getting too many pressies and the grown-ups eating and drinking too much but having a laugh but bloody glad when it's over.

My condolences Cazgar. My mother has vascular dementia. Hard going. I need my fish to help destress!

Xraymark, I like your very festive pic!

 

[Xraymark]

<br />My Christmases for the last 15 years have been pretty low key as I was caring for my elderly mother who had Alzheimer's.<br />She passed away a year ago yesterday, so this Christmas will be the first proper one without her (last year's was a non event)<br />I'm going to my daughter's, first Christmas ever away from home &amp; I'm really looking forward to it.<br />Son in law is cooking dinner, with a little help from Jamie Oliver, it better be good or else lol<br />

<br /><br /><br />

Sounds good. Put your feet up and get spoilt.

 

[minnnt]

Seemingly visiting every member of the family which takes hours... and all i want to do is sleep as the missus is always up at like 4am! Visit my lot in the morning then go to her lot for dinner, then home, then her aunties and cousins who get the face on if you dare leave before you have been there for 8 hours!!

Boxing day is more my kind of day... Nice and chilled. lol.

 

[Xraymark]

Well fintastic, you got to make an effort.

 

[Fishy friend2]

Pure madness. Everyone comes to us. In-laws, out-laws, everyone! The usual- kids getting too many pressies and the grown-ups eating and drinking too much but having a laugh but bloody glad when it's over.

My condolences Cazgar. My mother has vascular dementia. Hard going. I need my fish to help destress!

Xraymark, I like your very festive pic!

My grandma just died from this horrible, horrible disease

 

[Cazgar]

It is a horrible disease, but luckily she always recognised me & my daughter.
My father passed away on New Year's eve 35 years ago, so this time of year will always be hard, but I'm determined to have some fun.
Give me good food, a few drinks & all will be good, & hopefully I can make my son in law blush at some point lol

 

[nicky b]

on xmas day my mom wakes up around 7am feeds and lets the horses out comes back around 8am then i wake up around 9am have something to eat open my presents then around 11am i go in the shower, then 1pm i go down the pub with my bro and dad to have a drink or 2 come back about 2pm have xmas dinner then watch a film for a bit then me my girlfiend and my bro will go out to one of our mates house and get drunk and party till around 5 6 am then go to bed

 

[Ps3Steveo]

For us we take turns every year, my way one year (quiet one just me, the missus and 4 kids). Up at about 5-6am as I'm a big kid at Christmas even tho I'm 29, switch all the Christmas lights on. Switch on the tank lights early and give the fishys their presents (live foods). Big fancy breakfast while trying to stop the kids and myself from choking on our fresh fruit, pancakes, waffles, poached eggs, streaky bacon, syrup and cereal as we're desperate to open the presents lol, I know it sounds like a lot but you gotta do the fancy breakfast. Open the presents, have a play, put the kids presents together, have more play time lol. Put Christmas telly on (The Snowman, Father Christmas or Christmas music), have a merry time by opening a bottle by about 10am . Have dinner about 2pm, usually goes on for couple of hours, get the puddings out and snacky foods and chill in front of some good old Christmas telly/movie or on singstar on the PS3 or messing about on the Wii while getting good and drunken lol. Only difference with this year being the missus year is we have family round too so bit madder and more people to cook for. There's more but its madness lol.

 

[Seed_Lord]

wake up, some bubbly and orange juice, presents, beer, dinner, beer, beer, beer, beer, beer, tv n then sleep, normal routine

 

[This Old Spouse]

So. This forum is made up of members from all over the world. What kind of christmas will you have?

Growing up my Christmas used to be go to mass. Then open all the presents. Have Christmas dinner about 1pm and then veg in front of the TV. A bit of a royal family affair.

Since being married I've been sucked into my in-laws Christmas which is a lot more refined. We all meet with the neighbors for a few drinks around 11am. Venue changes from year to year. It's my house this year which is 2 min walk from in-laws. Presents are opened before dinner around 3pm. With secret presents opened through out the day as friends of family pop by. The diner it self lasts for hours with loads of courses with too much alcohol. It's an absolutely brilliant day. Then it seems happen all over again on boxing day.

It should be a we bit special this year as our daughter(Megan) will be 21 months.

Interested to hear how other people will be enjoying Christmas and hope it's as good/better than mine.

May we come to your house for Christmas?

 

[Crossfire]

I'm a Roman Catholic German, so we do this:
(on christmas eve, not day)
Go to Church for an hour (boring!)
Come home, Mom cooks, rest go downstairs to basement to waste time
Someone rings a bell, to signal that St. Nicholaus has arrived!
PRESENTS!
Dinner~
Sleep~
Christmas Day:
Enjoy presents and be lazy!

 

[Baccus]

Ummmm, swelter, sweat, drive for hours and curse the heat, but we also swap Christmas days between different families. So one year it will be at the in-laws, then my parents, then my house and so on until somebody else wants to have everyone lob up at their place.
I do like going to the Midnight service (Uniting Church), and a friend who is Cathloic found out why it was a bad idea to take me to her church.... well I had never been to a Catholic service and I had plenty of questions....

It's too hot to bother with the traditional roasts etc so my Mum usually has stacks of nibblies and junk food and Dad often fires up the BBQ, once the meat etc is cooked it's then baught inside into the aircon where every sane person is hiding.
Depending on who's house Christmas is being spent with depends on what happens with the presents, that and how far everyone has travelled to get to the designated house.
Last year Christmas was at my sister-in-laws (8hr drive away) and because of all the flooding we had to cut the trip short and literally race flood waters all the way home, so we would at least be flooded in at home and not stuck either on the side of the road for a few days or if we were lucky in a hotel.
As kids my sister and I where allowed to go through our Santa sacks (which meant Mum and Dad got a bit of a sleep in) then we had to have breakfast before we were allowed to open presents. My sister and I cottoned on pretty quickly that if we made breakfast in bed for Mum and Dad, we could get to the presents sooner rather than have to wait for Mum to finally get up (for her 6:30am is a sleep in but as kids on Christmas morning anytime after sun up is too late ) and make what she deemed a proper breakfast and not just a small bowl of ceral or maybe a piece of toast.
We have even introduced Secret Santa gifts and the price limit is $5, I can tell you people get pretty inventive when they are only allowed to spend $5 and have no idea who might end up with the gift.

And after stuffing ourselves with food and trying to avoid the heat the afternoon/ evening is spent either watching storms roll in, racing home to avoid the approaching storms (complete with hail), or still picking at food and wishing the heat would finally disappear for the night.

Ahhh Christmas in Australia...nothing else like it .