What is your opinion?

I am afraid when I read poems like this. I just feel queasy and reach for an sea sick tablet.

Now now Oldbatty

Oh spanking.......oh its a kitchen you're talking about.

Our DD is hosting Christmas day in her spanking new huge kitchen. Our SIL often cooks the dinner and lovely it is to. I haven't had to do it for years now and the GC get tons of presents which will take hours to open as opened one at a time. Our son will be there along with SILs dad and partner and brother so 10 all together.
We've stopped buying presents for the adults. We put all names in hat and draw one out then spend £50 on a present for that person and that's it. Takes all the stress and expense out of it.
I was an only child and things at home weren't great so I never look back in fond rememberance and treat Christmas as something to be dealt with in an organised fashion.

Years ago when the children were small I had a friend who worked in a large store that started the sales on Boxing Day. She always told her family she had to work. Not true, it was optional. She just wanted to get out of the house, away from the in-laws and their smelly dog. Christmas of yesteryear!

My DF was an army officer so was always 'working' for several hours on Christmas Day serving Christmas lunch to the soldiers in barracks.

We didn't get our lunch until he returned.

Our old family Christmas consisted of Mum getting really hot and bothered and angry in the kitchen, BUT never accepting offers of help. Then she'd dish up the dinner with not a scrap of care or attention, so the meal always looked as if the food had been thrown onto the plates. Then she'd sit and criticise everyone's table manners. Then I'd escape to read in my bedroom.

Thank heavens that everything is different now ! We have a casual meal where we all contribute something, and everyone has a happy day.

Sometimes the old days were not the good days.

We are a family immersed in tech, nearly everyone worked/works in I.T. Even the 3 month old gets excited by In the Night Garden as soon as she hears it. However, it never puts in an appearance on Christmas Day (except for FaceTiming abroad and one teenager)

We don't do family games but we usually have a holiday jigsaw set up so anyone can have a go!

There are many, many workers who have to or choose to work on Christmas Day. Not just the expected emergency services. DD is having a work free Christmas for the first time in 12 years. She was a television subtitler. Disability access legislation requires 95% of all television output to be subtitled so subtitlers work through the Christmas bank holidays.

She usually managed to get most Christmas days off because she was willing to work until midnight or later on Christmas Eve. She has also worked every New Years Eve and New Years day for 11 years.

This year she made a major job change and now works for one of those companies that close down from Christmas Eve to the 2 January. She intends to enjoy every second of it.

We've always had big family Christmases, all ages. Lots of eating, drinking and playing games. Everyone mucking in to help. Lots of laughter. Sometimes a little technology creeps in but never takes over. We just all love spending time together. Uncles, aunts, cousins, brothers, sisters, grandparents, grandchildren, and a few others besides!

Christmas Day in Scotland only became a public holiday in 1958, and Boxing Day in 1974.
So my sources tell me!

It would be 1940's I think?

Oldbatty My family (grandparent's generation) worked either at Clydeside (John Browns) or Singers.

My Gran held the big family Christmas dinner, I don't remember any family members working Christmas day (60s,70s).

Does any GNer remember when Christmas day in Scotland became a public holiday?

My Grandfather worked in Clydeside on Christmas Day. Nothing special really for all concerned that day.
Strange isn't it?

My Dad worked on Christmas morning when we were weeMarydoll it wasn't retail or hospitality so I think it was normal for offices and factories to be working.
Never worked on Ne'erday as far as I remember.It was always a cooked meal at midnight to"soak up the drink" laughable really as two pints and Dad was a goner and if Mum had a "wee sherry" that was her limit.Granny did like her claret though and told great stories after a couple of glasses .

In Scotland newspapers were published and sold on Christmas Day in my childhood but not on Ne'erday (New Year's Day) which was and is a public holiday in Scotland. Christmas Day wasn't in the 1950s, I don't remember when that changed.

When our son and family comes for a visit we have to insist on no phones, ipads or computers at meal-times, otherwise all three of them would be glued to a screen all day and half of the night.

You can’t look back you can only look forwards
I think you can look back and feel nostalgic but in fact the reality was probably different to our perception of it.

Whatever you're doing I hope you have a lovely Christmas Maywalk and that you get well looked after

Christmas is what you make it. It is entirely up to you whether it is commercialised or not.

I have been fortunate to have had family Christmases for most of my life and yes, it has changed, we can spend more on gifts, and the food on Christmas day is the best quality I can afford but, overall we eat and drink less than we did in the past.

There will be no phones on the table at mealtimes. Neither children nor adults will be glued to electronic devices for most of the holiday. We will even watch very little television. (The schedules published so far look rubbish anyway). We will sit around and talk a lot, There will be bitter fight-to-the-death games of Scrabble.

We will go to the panto, go for long country walks, some in the dark. DGS will be doing Lego with his Grandpa and DGD will do a lot of sewing (she is getting a sewing machine for Xmas).

All told it will be our family Christmas, spent the way we want to spend it.

I remember when the shipyards first closed for Christmas Day and my dad didn't have to go to work.

Does that make me very very old?

Our Christmas will be traditional in the sense of what our family has done for the last 47 years. Nothing much will change although we will use technology to Skype distant relations. I very much doubt anyone will spend much time on their phones, we will all be making the most of our time together and getting to know a guest that most of us have never met. DS has a colleague who can't get home so invited him to join us all. Quite proud that he didn't feel he needed to ask us, just assumed it was OK.

annodomini .In the words of the late Maurice Chevalier
'O yes I remember it well'.
However myself, like many, grateful for technology. Without it I would not be able to keep in touch with my family, twenty four seven and watch how they are spending xmas day on their side of the world.So for anyone bemoaning the fact xmas isn't what it used to be count your blessings if fortunate to have your family around you regardless of whether they want party games or glued to ipads /tv.

i will be at my daughters for christmas day this year .we usually play board games after lunch or anything else the children want to do. i will try and persuade my daughter to put her mobile way. that will be her christmas present to me. i want to see if she can do it.christmas wont be a very happy affair but we persevere for the gc. as my daughter husband passed away age 37 last sept. its been a really trying year (ss )have been hard on her to clear her home of clutter (for want of a better word.)and the threat that if she doesnt her c will be taken into care.so we/church people have been helping and removing tons of clutter.and d been having counselling for grief and hoarding .slowly we are making progress with ss breathing down our necks .told ss it would be a tragedy to remove c as they been though so much.so hopefully by christmas things will be ????? .still so sad at the way sil died ....my d is an angel and has coped oh so well....so technology doesnt really matter does it ,more thought to family and friends. maybe set aside an hour for technology after christmas dinner/lunch and then some games.

Your poem brought a tear to my eye, Maywalk! Mostly over the years we have been fortunate to have “family Christmases” This year, my first without DH, half the family will be at my eldest daughter’s farm and the others will be there for New Year! My son and family with me will be there all the time. Very special as at New Year we shall have my first great grandson (6weeks old!) also my eldest grandson back from a year teaching in China!
Happy Christmas everyone!

i am like you. i told my daughter off at sunday lunch last week for looking at her mobile. she said she put something on facebook for sale.i said so what ,having a mobile at the lunch table is bad manners ,.i said ok can gc have the ipad at the table .asnd she said of course not .!!! so i said but thats just what you are doing only its a mobile. red faced daughter put it on the arm of the sofa....me yes i'm old fashioned. told my brother off for putting his arms on the table too!! ..call me old fashioned..but there are certain things that should be respected. like gc sitting on the chairs at the table not kneeling up.they are high enough to reach the table sitting down .my daughter said to me she didnt know how she would cope without her mobile phone.??? ok i know they are handy to have to contact someone. but not to look at 24/7..another crazy word. (all hours /every day.)when i go out i admit i do take my mobile when i remember it (haha)!! say a visit to a seaside resort i take it and turn it to silent or even off.i want a day away from technology..