Christmas 'lunch'

I grew up having breakfast, dinner, tea and supper. We always have our main meal at "lunch time", therefore it is our dinner. Christmas dinner is usually at 1.00pm. This year it's a goose with all the usual accompaniments.

What you choose to call "dinner" (and all other meals) is still a real give away as to your social class origins.

When I was at school in London in the 60s (a girls' grammar school) it was always school "dinner" at midday.
On leaving school and working in a Central London office (only three miles from my school) it was definitely only ever "lunch" at midday.
Was that a class thing? Possibly.
When I first read this thread neither my husband or I could think what we actually call the Christmas meal. Lunch or dinner - it's always a delicious and happy family meal.

Where I come from it was always breakfast, lunch, dinner and supper. Up north where I live now dinner is at lunchtime! which irritates me no end....each to their own...it will always be lunch to me.

We tend to say 'come for a meal at x o'clock' just to be clear!

Like I say living room to avoid the lounge/drawing room / sitting room dilemma and loo to avoid deciding between toilet, lavatory and several other words, some vulgar and some twee. Trying to be class neutral but probably failing.

I'm a northern peasant like patricageegee. Dinner at lunchtime, tea at tea-time. We don't have lunch. But in the last few years when I've mentioned getting the dinner ready I've had to clarify by saying that 'we're northerners. We have our dinner at lunchtime'. I invited a foreign friend for 'Sunday dinner' and she thought it would be in the evening, turned out she was busy at 'lunchtime' so we had to re-schedule the invitation.

'First, it's a class thing.'

You're right grumppa, but it's regional too and I think there are people like me who have had a reasonable education but have no desire to conform to someone else's patterns. I tend to 'lunch' now though because that's what's most people call their midday meal. I know raucous ladies who lunch with very little decorum so class might not be such a factor any longer. I think that phrase is well known now so even I become a lady who 'lunches' every now and then.

I am going to start a 'Dames Who Dine' tradition I think, just to be awkward. It would confuse quite a few if the Dames who did Dinner came into a restaurant at lunch time!

Three thoughts.

First, it's a class thing. Look at the difference between school dinner ladies and ladies who lunch.

Second, ignore the dying words of Henry King, who died of eating bits of string:-

"Breakfast, dinner, lunch and tea
Are the human frame requires..."

Third, I think of supper only in the context of The Last Supper, but that's not very Christmassy.

A few years ago when I was still living in Darlington before moving to New Zealand, we had a friend from London staying with us and also invited some Danish guests, temporarily living in Darlington, plus some of their visiting family for snacks and drinks on Christmas morning. Time went on and we were all enjoying ourselves so we rather lost track. By the time our Danish guests left we were far too full of the endless supply of nibbles – and the wine and beer we had drunk – even to contemplate a roast dinner. Consequently, we ate our Christmas dinner – roast goose – on Boxing Day evening. Does it really matter what you call it?

I am one who was brought up with breakfast, dinner, tea and then supper was a small snack before bed, like hot milk and a biscuit.

Now people call their evening meal supper, which I have always thought a bit pretentious. And ever since I have worked (and I started my first proper job down south) colleagues have referred to the midday meal as lunch. I felt all warm and tingly the other day when my daughter asked her little one "What shall we have for tea?" Folk here still tend to refer to the evening meal as tea, whereas my Mother saw tea, sandwiches and fancy cakes as tea, but she had spent her formative years in service.

I haven't really given the Christmas dinner quandry much thought before. Good question. We have Christmas dinner at about 3pm.

And when you live in Wales the evening meal is Supper!

LOL VAMPIRE QUEEN. ....- it's nearly as bad as trying to explain the Rules of playing Cricket !!

In our house Christmas dinner is served at 3.15pm, immediately after the Queen's speech. After the main course we go back to thd living room to play party games for an hour or so before returning to thd table for puddings. The vegan, gluten free Xmas pudding I make contains a lot of money.

Always dinner as main meal in the evening but somehow still refer to Christmas dinner which we eat at lunchtime or thereabouts.

Oh, we are getting tetchy. Must be the Christmas spirit. just eat and enjoy whatever time of day, and whatever it is called.

I am out to lunch for tomorrow
What will I be eating?
Christmas dinner

Think I remember a similar discussion last year

Totally agree with you. It’s Christmas dinner. No you’re not being opinionated.

In addition to all the the other names for meals mentioned here, I grew up with main meal at lunch time at weekends and in the evening we had high tea which was something like egg on toast with cakes afterwards. High tea was not usual where I lived in the south but normal with our northern relatives. Some people (I think quite middle class) also call their main evening meal supper, whereas supper to me (and I think most) is a light snack late evening.

Henetha that’s so funny ?you think of it as lunch as you ‘eat it at lunchtime’ I think of it as dinner as I ‘eat it at dinner time’ that’s the whole point of the thread depending on age, class status, or country area we all have a different take on whether lunch or dinner is at 12-1 pm
My maternal grandparents who would have set the guidelines were from Leicester so I m now wondering if it’s a north south divide I came from working class families on both sides who had never heard of ‘lunch ‘
So is it generational, class or county thing or a bit of all three ?

Christmas Dinner not 'lunch'.
Merry Xmas

For me it's straightforward 'Christmas meal' as the time varies from year to year depending on arrival of consumers and the lateness of breakfast and the various excited states of the children. Flexibility works for us.

Legs55....shows again how things are different depending where you live in this country. A cream tea is served on a two or three tier plate stand. There are a variety of posh sandwiches (crustless rectangles with fillings like smoked salmon, prawns, beef and horseradish), at least one cream scone and two or three smaller buns or cakes. I've even had one that included strawberries and cream.

No wonder may friend in South Africa doesn't understand our meals. They change depending where you are in the country .

Dinner = main meal for me, whenever it is.

When I was at primary school we lived on the outskirts of town, my father cycled home from work for dinner at one and I cycled home from school (on my own - those were the days).

By the time I was at secondary school we had moved to the country; I went to school by bus & took sandwiches for lunch, my father still cycled to work most of the time but also took sandwiches, we all had dinner in the evening.

As an adult I've always eaten dinner in the evening because it suits my body clock as much as my lifestyle. On Christmas Day we eat about four o'clock - as did my parents.

I think VampireQueen has got it right!

Christmas dinner is Christmas dinner, irrespective of what time of day we eat it, in my opinion. To me Christmas lunch sounds like the left overs eaten on Boxing Day or the day after!

On all other days of the year when I was a child we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner at home, in that order, but my paternal grandparents and most of their generation still ate their main meal in the middle of the day and called it dinner. The meal we ate at school was quite definitely called dinner and was two cooked courses every day.

In the West of Scotland it was anyone's guess what the elder generation called the last meal of the day. Some called it tea, some high tea and a small minority supper.

My parents supplemented this list with morning coffee at about 10 a.m. and afternoon coffee at about 3 p.m. both timed to coincide with Daddy finishing his surgeries and getting ready to go out on his rounds again. (He was a G.P.)
Evening coffee was drunk, without anything edible to accompany it about 9 p.m. A time of day where my father's generation of doctors and vets were wondering whether if they took their outdoor shoes off the phone would immediately ring with some dire emergency.

Old council estate kid here..... it was always breakfast...dinner ( school dinners) and tea about 5-6pm. Older kids who stayed up later got supper 8-9 ish..usually consisting of toast/ crumpets and ovaltine /cocoa! Since becoming adult ( or is it cos I’m no longer council tenant) ...it’s become breakfast , lunch, dinner.Its now that for my kuds, and grandkids came home from school the other day saying they had had their Christmas Lunch. !! So is it just a ‘social movement’ thingy. I think so. But I’m no snob about it and will go along with whatever people call it...as long as they’re cooking!