Christmas Day routines – everyone’s got one!

Do you do stockings first thing in the morning, or do you wait until the family arrive? Do you spend your afternoon going for a wintery walk, or collapsing on the sofa? In this latest Bookends blog post six of our wonderful authors reveal all about their Christmas Day routines!

Louise O’Neill, author of Asking For It

Myself and my sister wake up embarrassingly early and go down stairs where Santa has left his presents in our over-sized stockings. (Yes, we are in our thirties.) My parents go to Mass while my sister and I go for a run. We have lots of family and neighbours to the house for drinks at around noon, and we usually wouldn’t have our Christmas dinner until after 5. The evening is spent playing games or reading, I don’t think the television is ever turned on in our house on Christmas Day which I know is a bit unusual.

Jo Thomas, author of The Honey Farm on the Hill

Christmas starts with a tradition I picked up in Iceland. Everyone gets a present on Christmas Eve, just one; a book, wrapped and waiting at the dinner table for everyone to go to bed with that night.

On Christmas morning, the turkey goes into the oven, the tea is made, the dogs are fed and then it’s stockings in Mum and Dad’s bed before the day begins, even though the kids are all now teenagers. Santa will have left new pants, socks, a chocolate orange, hairbrushes, that kind of thing. Then we dress in our new pants and socks and it’s time to walk the dogs. I love a Christmas morning dog walk through the lanes. The crisper the morning, the better. Everyone you meet is in such good spirits, wishing each other happy Christmas. And there’s a lovely hush over the village. The sort of hush you get on snow days when the cars have abandoned the roads. Then it’s back home for prepping vegetables, a glass of fizz and Radio 2. My brother and I always cook together and love singing along to carols whilst peeling the sprouts and taking time to remember our lovely Dad on Christmas morning.

When the veggies are prepped, we open Christmas presents from under the tree that we’ve bought each other, with champagne and nibbles. The tree is one from the farm that we’ve chosen and cut down, and it’s covered in decorations from all the places we’ve ever visited. This year I’ll be adding a small china windmill from Amsterdam and a reindeer from Sweden.

Then it’s lunch, always with a turkey, smoked ham and pigs–in-blankets. After lunch it’s catching up by the fire, cuddling up, putting on new pyjamas and dressing gowns, giving out any fun little presents nestled in the branches of the tree and watching a film, preferably a comedy! And finally, before bed, there has to be the turkey sandwich, breast meat on white bread, with butter and a sprinkling of good sea salt before the Christmas traditions are finally complete.

Laurie Graham, author of The Early Birds

Stockings, church a Sea Breeze or two, presents, a very late lunch, a new board game someone has figured out before we start playing.

Rebecca Tinnelly, author of Never Go There

It all revolves around the children. We usually have Christmas at my parents’ house and the day starts, as it must do with young children, by tearing open the presents, exploring the bounty at the bottom of our stockings and having the first mouthfuls of delicious Christmas food. Breakfast consists of a thick slice of homemade stolen (my German grandmother’s recipe) smothered with Brandy butter. After the opening of the presents we lazily begin to get ready, trying on any new clothes we may have received, and then walk the dogs around the river in the cold, crisp December air.

My dad cooks Christmas dinner and he’s a fantastic cook; we’re normally spoilt for choice when it comes to loading our plates with dinner, served at around three o’clock. Turkey is a must, usually accompanied by roast beef and all the trimmings. Sprouts, parsnips, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, loads of green veg, several flavours of stuffing and, of course, the vital braised red cabbage. I’m a bit of a sauce fiend, so I like to have gravy, cheese sauce, bread sauce and cranberry sauce.

After dinner we play with the children or relax in front of the fire and talk. Once the children are in bed I sit with my folks and we watch whichever Bond film is on, though we usually talk all the way through it.

Rosanna Ley, author of The Little Theatre By The Sea

1- Open the stocking filled for me by my two daughters Alexa and Ana

2 – Marvel over everyone else’s stockings

3 – Breakfast

4 – Lunch prep

5 – Fizz and presents

6 – Christmas lunch and lots of red wine

7 – Walk (if capable of)

8 – TV and/or games

9 – Eat more food

10 – Exhausted and to bed

Helen Wallen, author of Baby Boom

Well it’s changed a bit the last few years since I’ve had children as it’s a lot more about them, but it begins with the big ‘OMG FATHER CHRISTMAS HAS BEEN WOW I WASN’T EXPECTING THAT’ present-reveal.

Then we have to do shifts guarding the gifts to stop them from ripping into too many before the rest of the family arrives in the afternoon. We always have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on English muffins with bucks fizz to start the day. (Breakfast alcohol is always a great start to the day isn’t it?!) Then once the folks have arrived it’s presents, champagne and the lumpy-black-canapés I mentioned before while dinner cooks, followed by a sit down meal complete with cracker pulling, paper hats and terrible jokes. After that we drink port and play charades and board games while the children go feral, until everyone starts singing badly and eventually passes out in a pile with Michael Buble blasting out in the corner… And that’s about it. Then we do it all again on Boxing Day in our pyjamas, but with left overs and far more cheese.