What about the OTHER meals?

I cook the gammon on Christmas Eve, and we have some of it hot with jacket potatoes, veg and white sauce

Often we picnic - just take a flask of (leftovers) soup and some home-baked bread and get out of the house for a decent walk somewhere. Breakfast is the same as any other day and there's always enough cold food to make something out of it for other meals.

Lunch Christmas Eve, soup, crusty bread, cheese and biscuits?

Just whatever we would normally have for breakfast or lunch. I've had enough 'special' food by then anyway and it often a relief to get back to porridge and soup.

If there's plenty of food in the house, breakfast and lunch or tea will presumably happen the same as usual. Bread and butter for sandwiches or toast, porridge/muesli, frying pan for fry ups of leftovers. Sorted.

Not that I've decided what we're having for the main xmas meal yet. I quite fancy smoked salmon and parsley subs.

Christmas Eve evening will be something simple like salmon, new potatoes and rainbow salad, Boxing Day breakfast will be a get-your-own so croissants or scrambled eggs with smoked salmon. I'm pretty laid back about food and there will be plenty to choose from, as usual!

Years ago I used to worry about 'other meals' and plan all sorts of imaginative and varied fare for family and/or guests, only to find that in the run-up to Christmas there was little time for formal sit-down meals and after Christmas most folk would rather have turkey sandwiches and leftover pigs in blankets, so now I don't bother.

We've never been a family to stick to rigid timetables anyway - goodness, sometimes we don't even have 'lunch'

For a week over Christmas we are having ds, ddil and dgs plus their two labradors as the kennels were all booked up.
That will be interesting !!

Breakfasts - what we'd usually have.
Christmas Eve - haven't a clue - there will be lots of food so whatever we decide at the time.
Christmas Dinner is being hosted by another dil who is wonderful and the day will turn into a party.
Boxing Day - we will have a fresh turkey with stuffing, some trimmings. But with nice breads and salads. That will be dh and myself, our ds, ddil and dgs, and any other of our offspring and their families who can't be bothered to cook, feel like calling in .... there will be loads for anyone who wants to join us at whatever time they feel like.

There is a home shopping delivery arriving on Monday night with non perishables. The perishables we'll get in sometime.

There are a few steaks in the freezer, a lasagne, our local butcher's fabulous steak burgers, and I daresay there will be a turkey curry and a turkey stir fry.

I am determined not to get frazzled.

It has become a tradition chez nous not to bother with a Christmas Eve dinner in the normal sense. I cook up a lot of party food, to be ready around 2.00pm ish, and we all just snack on that for the rest of the day. Not just carbs, like sausage rolls and vol au vents (though they do feature!) but a bowl of salad, olives, guerkins and so on, with several dips.
Breakfast every day is just what we normally have. Lunches after the day itself are usually turkey sandwiches and salad - anything to be found in the fridge, basically on a help yourself basis

The food shops around here are open every day except Christmas Day, so I am not too worried.
Bubble & Squeak with bacon is usual Boxing Day Brunch using up leftovers. I am writing this while watching Greg Wallace and a family that throw away a lot of their Christmas food.

Christmas Eve, like Phoenix, we will have a cut off the just cooked gammon, and a salad. I am cooking Christmas lunch this year for DD, s-i-l and DGS. Boxing Day my son and his family will be arriving later in the day than usual, so it will be a joint of hot roast pork to cut, salad, potato wedges and whatever was left from the day before! They will stay overnight and always like a cooked breakfast before they head off home. I shall be very grateful to get back to culinary normality!

The only reason I will be cooking a fresh turkey on Boxing Day is because we get a gift of a free range farm turkey. Otherwise it would be leftovers.

I hadn't realised that some folks do a Christmas Eve special dinner.

We always start on our Christmas cake on Christmas Eve in the afternoon. There's so much food that "can't be eaten till Christmas Day" so we make a start on the cake when it can be more appreciated

On Christmas Eve we tend to stick to the Italian tradition and have tortellini. I might crack open the Almond topped Panetonne to have with a cup of tea in the afternoon.

Boxing Day onwards is normally turkey and ham sandwiches until the meat runs out. Breakfast is just the toast or cereal we normally have.

DH, my DinL and I have for Christmas Morning breakfast cold game pie, mustard, cranberry sauce, and a tiny glass of red wine followed by toast and marmalade and French coffee, scrummie.

We usually have a beef casserole on Christmas Eve because it can sit in the slow cooker for hours while we get on with the rest of the food prep. Jacket potatoes and some unChristmassy veg usually go down well.

Boxing Day is the great 'modge up'. Inventive ways of cooking left-overs might be discussed but nine times out of ten we'll do bubble and squeak with cold turkey and gammon. After that it's 'help yourself' to various cheeses, paté and calorie laden goodies.

Christmas Eve will probably be spag bol. Breakfast is the usual cereal or toast. I never cook on Boxing Day apart from maybe some oven chips to go with the cold meats and pickles if DH and DS ask for them. Any turkey left after that is made into a stew with lots of fresh veg.

Spag Bol sounds good ninathenana. Does anyone else find that by the time they have spent hours preparing Christmas dinner you are not at all hungry? I really enjoy the cold cuts on Boxing Day.

I know what you mean Alima I am usually run ragged by the time everyone sits down to Christmas dinner at mine. I rarely eat very much or enjoy it. I do look forward to that turkey and stuffing sandwich after everyone has gone home though. washed down with a glass or two of something nice

Bit like Yogagran here. When DC were small, I never used to plan a special meal for Christmas Eve, so we would cut the cake and enjoy it then. Bit like Sunday tea times, if they could find it, they could eat it, whatever. My young son's favourite was cheese sandwich with golden syrup.

Eat Well for Less had some good ideas. They cooked the Christmas Day veg.and trimmings in advance and froze them to finish off on day. It went down well. They also made party nibbles and used leftovers. I am trying the leftover veg scones this year.Recipes on the BBC website.

But, aren't we all going a bit mad?

I treat Christmas dinner, when it's my turn, as just an extra special Sunday dinner with starters and pudding. We eat up any leftovers on Boxing Day, in just the same way we'd use up left over Sunday lunch.

OK - we allow ourselves a bit more to drink and a few extra treats.

But I feel this is all getting out of hand. I'm not a Scrooge, and I like to indulge but all this over indulgence I find a bit hard to justify.

ducks for cover

Anyone else been watching James Martin in the afternoons ?
He's been cooking all sorts of fancy meals to cover the whole period. Far too much faff for me The section on historic menus is interesting

Exactly Anya