Sensible answer. For the last twenty years, my wife and I exchange gifts and have a lovely meal on Christmas eve. On Christmas Day, at the crack of dawn, we drive to the Lake District in our camper van, spend the day on the fells with a few other hardy souls. We sleep in the van and come home on Boxing Day.
Midnight service on Christmas Eve, I recall our then 9 years old wanting to come so we got her up, at her request, and she fell asleep in the pew. Bucks fizz, salmon and scrambled eggs for breakfast.
We always take a tipple for the evening, I'm very wary of the alcohol being in the system the next day. Anybody can join us Dave, The Lakes is a big place. We will probably be on Sykeside Camping. We see the same people every year.
We have a particular order of things, ie nibble and snacks and coffee (or booze for the ones who cant wait until lunch). Lunch. Then we have presents. Then it is either sleep or walk time.
The main traditions are the recipes. Some recipes have been handed down the family for several generations and are always used. And there is also some joshing over my mother's brandy butter. I have no idea how she manages to incorporate so much brandy without it splitting or going runny but it is a truly alcoholic concoction.
I know it’s not Christmas but I got sooo fed up of cooking roast dinners that when everyone wanted to come to ours on New Year’s Day I said yes that then served up egg and chips all round! With bread and butter and hp sauce of course. Everyone agreed that was a good new tradition.
I love Christmas OG, neither of us has any close family so we are on our own. We just love the quiet of the fells. New Year, we will have a house full of friends.
Wake up, open stockings, downstairs for breakfast and presents! Breakfast is always pain au chocolate, parma ham and melon, and then we get ready for the day! It's been like that since I was tiny and I'm now nearly 30 and keep the same tradition in my own home :-)