Kaffy Mintcake

We do stockings first with coffee, then have breakfast, then open the remaining presents. We open presents in rounds, one person goes under the tree and picks up one item for each person, this repeats until the presents are gone.

Poppy girl

Not often we disagree my friend but I love Christmas in the US equally so much so I try and have a double whammie and split it so christmas day in the UK and then fly back here for the rest of Christmas week and New Year.

For me Christmas starts on TG day,thats the start of 5 weeks of Festivities Tree goes up day after TG day as well

Juswus

Drinking champagne from the moment I got to my parents house until I passed out later that night in their spare room.

My Mum's turkey roast with all the trimmings....best EVER.

Drowning the xmas pudding in brandy then setting light to it, then Dad turning down the lights while Mum walks in with it and we all go "oooohhhhh"

Playing charades in the evening. One of my uncles would always end up using rude hand gestures at some point in the game!!

Making turkey sarnies late in the evening with the leftovers. Thcik white bread, loads of butter, and Colmans English mustard.

Going to my uncle and aunts house on boxing day and doing the same thing all over again but with cold turkey and bubble and squeak



and now i am totally homesick and sad

AmerLisa

Yeah, that's pretty much how it is for us as well. With the exception of having the tree up that early....I'd have it down before Christmas if it went up that early.... But I make the hubs put up all the outside decorations and I want to start listening to Christmas music, watch all the Christmas shows, bake, have parties with friends. Its all pretty fun, with the exception that none of our family live anywhere close enough to celebrate with. It very much puts a damper on things.....but with an 8 year old in the house we make it all very happy.

Englishtart

We try to make our Christmas day the same here as it was in the UK. Christmas eve night, peel the veg and put them in pans ready to cook, make the pies, usually mincemeat, throughout the day, I have been adding layers to the trifle. Before we go to bed, we stuff the turkey, cover it completely with streaky Danish bacon, and pork sausages (ordered through online Brit shop) cover with foil and set the oven to cook starting around 4am. Set up bread maker to cook bread ready for 8:30am.

Christmas morning, we wake to the yummy smell of delicious fresh bread and the cooked turkey, after everyone is up, we make sandwiches of bacon, sausage and stuffing (tradition every year) Yummy!

After everyone is stuffed from breakfast, we hand out the pressies in front of the roaring fire and Dad gets out the video camcorder...After cleaning up and 'trying out' all the new stuff, we relax until around 3pm...table set with Christmas crackers and all the traditional fare, noone is allowed to eat until they have their hats on. Christmas songs playing in the background. I loooooove it.

Only thing we miss about being here are the silly pantomimes and the tv shows. I have the chestnuts already and will have a few roasted occasionally before the Christmas lot. This will most likely be our last Christmas with both our kids, so we have to make it extra special, we will probably be alone next year and may start a new tradition (thinking about cruises) Always keep the decorations up until the 12th night. Another thing I miss is the visiting family on boxing day, we used to do that every year when I was home, the family is shrinking year by year, but hopefully we will get back there for the Season sooner rather than later

Poppy girl

Tune into your local radio station back in the UK, its great when you are decorating if you miss home.

joto

When sis and I were small, we went downstairs (don't know what time) in the morning and brought the stockings and as many presents as we could carry up to our parents room to unwrap, and then get into their bed to empty the stockings. There was usually a tangerine, a bag of chocolate coins and some nuts. Lunch was usually a big bit of roast beef and then Christmas pud with brandy butter. Us kids usually had a little sip of sherry with lunch.

We usually asked the kids to wake us before they went downstairs incase they started ripping into other peoples gifts. We never got them a lot of crap things, just one or two decent things, so as they didn't come to expect a lot. Now the dogs get their own presents, but they seem to know which presents belong to each of them. It is funny when they start ripping the paper off.

choppi

Mince pies
Pulling crackers and then wearing the hat while you ate your dinner
Tin boxes of Roses
Top of the Pop special

...to name a few

Sally Redux

That list is exactly the same for me
Yes, it was so exciting. The TV is as crap as every other day over here

mayhemuk

We are heading to the UK for Xmas this year. First the wife has had for 3 years and 2 years for me.
Mum's cooking is going to be the centre peace. The traditional cold meats and pickled walnuts. And in more recent years a spiced beef.
Then after Xmas dinner the cold turkey aswell. I love sandwiches!!!
And if weather permits walks in chilly weather then back beside the fire for more sandwiches! :-)

nettlebed

That would be the German remake, right?

Anyway, to add some original content rather than just being a prat, for me THISwill be one of the things I remember about Xmas each year back in the UK for as long as I live:

=================================
Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall?
It’s the time that every Santa has a ball
Does he ride a red nosed reindeer?
Does he turn up on his sleigh?
Do the fairies keep him sober for a day?

So here it is,
Merry Christmas,
Everybody’s having fun,
Look to the future now
It’s only just begun.

Are you waiting for the family to arrive?
Are you sure you’ve got the room to spare inside?
Does your Granny always tell you
That the old songs are the best,
Then she’s up and rock ‘n’ rollin’ with the rest...

So here it is,
Merry Christmas,
Everybody’s having fun,
Look to the future now
It’s only just begun.

Are you hanging up a stocking on your wall?
Are you hoping that the snow will to start to fall?
Do you ride on down the hillside
In a bobby you have made?
When you land upon your head then you’ve been Slade.

So here it is,
Merry Christmas,
Everybody’s having fun,
Look to the future now
It’s only just begun.

Cat Whisperer

I remember this picture being taken when I was about 3 sometime in the early hours of Christmas morning, and I think it sums up a lot of early Christmas mornings that people are talking about I sooo loved this tea set - the box was so big and there were so many pieces to it!


I stole part of this from something I posted a while back:

"My hubby can't believe the stories of how big a deal special Christmas foods are, and that we eat them for the whole week until the New Year.

Money was really tight when I was a kid, and a whole chicken was a big deal. But Mum would start buying tins of cream and fruit and Quality Street etc months ahead of time. She had a deal with the butcher that lived next door - she would pay for and deliver the Sunday papers for him when she got her own, and then at Christmas he would supply us with the turkey, lamb, pork and a huge ham. And then a couple of days before Christmas we would get a taxi to the big hypermarket and do the biggest food shop known to mankind! All those wonderful Christmas goodies. It was exciting to really pack out the fridge, it was the only time we ever did it. Our dining room ( in the non centrally heated house) was so cold we could store all the meats in there.

Good memories, and I do miss all that grub at Christmas!"

Also the wonderful Christmas spirit (literally and figuratively speaking) At work being given nips of illicit whiskey by the shop floor guys. Our last day before breaking up for company shutdown was an absoulte scream.

Trying to get in as many pub turkey lunches/dinners during the season.

Yearning for a plain cheese sandwich by the New Year!

I've got no real family anymore even in England, and my US husband's family not only don't get Christmas, but are spread all over the place. I get a bit maudlin over the Christmas period here.

PepsiChic

my parents neevr let us just open all the presents at once, they always said we'd appreciate them more if we opened them throughout the day.

Me and my brother would wake up at 4-5am and go through the stocking fillers, colouring books and crayons, little puzzles, toy cars etc and an orange

we'd go downstairs and look at all the tags on the presents to see who got the most (it was always the same amount more or less)

We'd then go wake my older sister who'd groan about being up early (7am now) and finally get out of bed while my mum made bacon butties for us all and my dad tried desperatly to find some kind of sport on tv (tennis of football (soccer))

After breakfast present opening, followed by games, movies, more presents, lunch, more presents, more games, more presents and so forth right up tiill the end of the night and relatives had arrived.

chartreuse

That's in my head now, you git!

nettlebed

It was there all along: I just woke it up!

Here ya go!



BTW, I love Peelie's expression at 0:15.