Monday Musing: What does your ideal Xmas day look like?

[MoeFOH]

So, family plans for the day have been circulating on group chats in my household, with an already due sense of exhaustion and dread on my part  ... there already seems to be a lot going on... menus, timeframes, various locations, extended family... already I feel like a nap 

Don't get me wrong, I like Xmas day quite a lot when it's a low key and casual affair. But loads of prep and schedules, etc... not so much. 

Ideal day for me: If I could order a huge banquet of Chinese takeaway, have a few drinks, then a few more drinks, some board games with the family and a good chuckle, more drinks... then I'm 100% on board - year after year, lock it in! 

Prep time: 10mins

Ingredients: Close family. 

Done! 

How will your Xmas day roll this year? Is it the same deal for you / your family each year? What's your ideal Xmas day look like? 

[ha_banos]

It's usually the same routine year in, year out. The wife won't leave her parents side so occasionally I'll have Xmas dinner at my parents then go over to see them. 

But my ideal would involve being able to go outside for a cigar when charades begins, to be quite honest.

[Ford2112]

Fishing, food, and a stogie. And family.

[Lucas Buck]

It’s all about my immediate family in the morning for presents, special breakfast and goodies. Afternoon and evening extended family with adult beverages then hopefully a cigar or two after the kiddo is in bed. 

[CaptainQuintero]

Cheese coma by 1pm at the latest, as per tradition, Bailey's fueled recovery until 5pm then swiftly into a trifle coma.

Dad's Army on when my blood pressure recovers and get into the After Eight mints until it's left over toasties time.

[MoeFOH]

2 hours ago, CaptainQuintero said:

Cheese coma by 1pm at the latest, as per tradition, Bailey's fueled recovery until 5pm then swiftly into a trifle coma.

Dad's Army on when my blood pressure recovers and get into the After Eight mints until it's left over toasties time.

Time to upgrade my ideal day to this. 

[03Hemi]

Getting my new pair of socks!

[Chibearsv]

Thankfully, I don’t have to think about it. My wife will have a 3 day plan which will include an abundance of food, driving, and “fun” activies…which I will agree to.😁

Three certainties: Our parents and daughters will be at our house overnight on Christmas Eve, we’ll all go to my sisters house Christmas Day, and we will drive to central Illinois to visit her brother and his family. 

[Fuzz AI]

20 hours ago, MoeFOH said:

Ideal day for me: If I could order a huge banquet of Chinese takeaway, have a few drinks, then a few more drinks, some board games with the family and a good chuckle, more drinks... then I'm 100% on board - year after year, lock it in! 

I did that one year. Ordered a banquet from my favourite Malaysian restaurant 2 weeks before hand, all to be delivered Xmas morning. Everybody enjoyed the meal but I ended up eating left overs for 4 days straight. Still, better than eating a Xmas ham over the next month.

[Chibearsv]

7 hours ago, 03Hemi said:

Getting my new pair of socks!

I've got a nephew that gives me one set of SmartWool socks as a stocking stuffer every year. Always makes me happy.

[Ruggerpgh99]

We have a big family breakfast - egg bake, Bacon, fruit salad, french toast casserole. We share a few presents and watch movies. The breakfast is usually enough to take us to dinner time, some sort of roast beast with all the sides you could ever ask for. I like to sneak a CC in with my brother on the porch at some point. 

[Cmoore4099]

Just hanging out with my wife and dog and cooking all day. Watching movies or tv with little else to do. Drinking wine. 

[BG318]

1. No travel. Christmas Eve is a busy work day and I'm shot. All who know me know this.

2. I have a variety of pre made food. Seafood salad, peking duck or prime rib, bacalao, spaghetti and meatballs, house smoked salmon and blini. Boiling pasta is the most culinary thing I do. 

Breakfast and gifts with wife and son. One or two texts.

3. Watch the Godfather trilogy in order. Eat food during and in between in unorganized courses, except trying to match up the spaghetti with the spaghetti scene in Godfather.

4. One nice cigar.

[griller]

No travel anymore, which is FANTASTIC! Kids are now 21 & 16 so we sleep in on Christmas morning now. Another bonus, I'm no longer up until 2am on the Eve putting together Santa's gifts, LOL. Great memories of those days...

On the big day, we'll keep the TV on TNT for part of the day & catch the A Christmas Story movie loop until early in the afternoon. By noon I'll whip up Bloody Mary's, Mimosas, or maybe even a Martini for the wife & I. Warms us up for my in-laws dropping in for afternoon lunch of traditional fare (honey baked ham, green bean casserole, other old school side dishes). There will be a nap on the couch at some point in the afternoon. If weather permits, definitely plan on lighting up a nice cigar before sunset. In-laws go home, then my kids will have friends over so we'll be chaperones over teenage drama with the girl & key holders for the 21 yr olds since I know they will get into the booze a bit. Fortunately we have a lot of space in the basement & have a stack of pillows and blankets for them to crash.

My family is definitely blessed & I love celebrating the season.  

[LizardGizmo]

A very quiet Christmas this year - thankfully. Family in the morning, good food and drink in the afternoon (thinking Elk Tenderloin this year) and three or four cigars at night. 

The less activities and hoopla, the better.

[joeypots]

Christmas is mostly for children, we think. And we don't have children. We'll head to a boutique hotel in the city. Two great restaurant reservations, a movie or show, and some shopping. Back home on Christmas day. We'll be busy socializing over the next week with family and friends.

 

[NYGuido]

Ours will be quiet this year, thankfully. Xmas eve with my parents and siblings, then we’re excited because our son just turned 2 and is finally amazed by the Xmas tree and such. So we’ll do morning presents with him and then we’re having a few friends over for dinner. 

Making homemade arancini, osso bucco ravioli, and a roasted duck, plus my wife is doing a cake and some cookies for dessert (and I may make Italian rainbow cookies and cannoli). Picking my Christmas cigar, but I’ve got a Cohiba 2017 Talisman that I dropped and had to repair the cap of, so I may dry box and smoke that. Or a Partagas 8-9-8. 

[BrightonCorgi]

Seeing this in the driveway would sum up an ideal Christmas day.

[BrightonCorgi]

4 hours ago, NYGuido said:

Ours will be quiet this year, thankfully. Xmas eve with my parents and siblings, then we’re excited because our son just turned 2 and is finally amazed by the Xmas tree and such. So we’ll do morning presents with him and then we’re having a few friends over for dinner. 

Making homemade arancini, osso bucco ravioli, and a roasted duck, plus my wife is doing a cake and some cookies for dessert (and I may make Italian rainbow cookies and cannoli). Picking my Christmas cigar, but I’ve got a Cohiba 2017 Talisman that I dropped and had to repair the cap of, so I may dry box and smoke that. Or a Partagas 8-9-8. 

You got some good grub on the menu!

[NYGuido]

21 minutes ago, BrightonCorgi said:

You got some good grub on the menu!

Thanks! I figure why not go all out, ya know?

[Boxer31]

Xmas Eve is the busy day, feast of the seven fishes (if I do all seven then more work for me so maybe just 5 this yr??). Wife will be doing the Italian cookies (leading up to it). And if it's too cold, it’s the one day I get to smoke in house next to open window with fan (don’t ask).

[NYGuido]

11 hours ago, Boxer31 said:

Xmas Eve is the busy day, feast of the seven fishes (if I do all seven then more work for me so maybe just 5 this yr??). Wife will be doing the Italian cookies (leading up to it). And if it's too cold, it’s the one day I get to smoke in house next to open window with fan (don’t ask). 

Seven fishes is SOOOO much work! One year, my wife and I did our own weird version. We used Swedish Fish, Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream, fish and chips, played Go Fish, listened to Schubert's Trout Quintet, and I will have to ask her what the other 2 were.

[Boxer31]

11 hours ago, NYGuido said:

Seven fishes is SOOOO much work! One year, my wife and I did our own weird version. We used Swedish Fish, Ben & Jerry's Phish Food ice cream, fish and chips, played Go Fish, listened to Schubert's Trout Quintet, and I will have to ask her what the other 2 were.

That is too funny. My grandmother and aunts used to start a week in advance (soaking/cleaning the eels and cod) as they were cooking for like 30. Don’t know how they did it. I cheat a little (most are already cleaned), but still fresh.