So, how did you spend Christmas Day..?

[Master Ray]

So... after six years of working every Christmas Day for the NHS (quite happily, I hasten to add, I always gave up my Christmas Day for people who had kids) I finally had the day off... and I had nowhere to go!  My folks went abroad, I don't have siblings, so it was just me, all alone in my flat (cue the violins...) 

...and you know what?  I've had a great day!  Plenty of good food and booze in my fridge, cooked up a nice meal, watched a couple movies I'd been meaning to watch, got stuck into a book I was dying to read, had a lovely afternoon snooze, enjoyed Doctor Who and now sipping away on Jack Daniels whilst scanning the various forums I am active on and responding to messages from friends...

Those stupid TV adverts about how it's not Christmas unless you have massive decorations and a huge family playing boardgames or some such silly stuff... bullshit!

I hope your Christmas was as nice as mine... what did you lot do?

[Rusco]

Well, I'm still in the Lappland. 40 centimeters of snow everywhere and it's the time of year we don't see sun in few months at all - as normally. There's eight of us here near to the small mountains where it's possible to do all the winter sports, whether by ski'ing or by snowboarding. We had a day off on Christmas eve and had to go outside on Christmas Day. The weather became a bit bad so we decided to have barbecue which was a nice idea too. I made 3 kilos of seitan (the vegan wheat meat) which was marinated in chipottle spices. *yum*. My wife's not so fit now, and she has some fever... But everything's fine now and we're gonna travel back on Sat. That means 14 hours in a car again.

[Wessexy Witch]

My boys are with their Dad over Christmas.
I sat on my arse and watched telly, cooked for me and Mark, ate, then sat on my arse in front of the telly again.
Bliss.

 

[Knievel]

hey Ray - good to hear your story! I ALWAYS spend Christmas alone - it's a good time to get a lot of work done - Christmas eve eve I dropped a ceiling - I lived in choking filth for four days and four o clock this afternoon the skips full and I'm finished with work for maybe sixteen hours - just opened an Irish Stout; Murphy's if we're allowed to advertise here...And far better than Guinness if we're allowed to slander here...And VEGAN too - I know animal's rights is ok here. (Thanks Rusco:))

And I agree - there seems to be a pressure to gather at Christmas and as much as I love the gathering - I love an excuse to put on my suit and visit family or just good folk - I love that - but I do love that we can also say 'not right now - bad timing Sister' even if that timing is Christmas Eve.

Anyway I don't know - I'm swaying about a bit - I love that this time of year gives us an excuse to just say 'hello - I remember you - you mean a lot to me' because the truth is I let those niceties slip throughout the year - good friends can be on my mind but I don't post an e mail of a cat doing something stupid like I should.  And then Christmas comes and it's all  good - I'll send a blessed Christmas greeting to folk that mean something to me - it's good but it's got to also be good if none of that happens - if we can just live our lives without the pressure of having to Christmasise this month.

Yeah - in a way your day went by like mine - indulging and enjoying what you wanted - Good to hear it.

[Ron B]

 Basically I did the same thing as you Master Ray. I got up early 4am to cook Dinner made a great Prime Rib Roast with 4 cheese mash potatoes and green peas My brother made an angel food cake and I also had chocolate Ice Cream and I ate and drank a few brews watched Basketball on TV check  e mails called a few friends to wish them a Merry Christmas and chilled out. I could not do to much drinking as I had to work today.

[Master Ray]

Loved hearing back from you guys!  There are many ways to have a nice day, Christmas or otherwise...

I just hope that others who, for one reason or another are, on their own on Christmas Day don't get dragged down by the relentless pressure of the conventional ideals and that they found their own way to have a nice Christmas period...

As a side note, another plus of this festive season, for me, is that I see my Mum when she gets back, so I've still got a nice Christmas dinner to look forward to on New Years Day... and I get to buy all my Christmas presents in the post-Christmas sales!  Bonus! 

[Amandistan]

I visited family for a while in the morning, then had to work. I hear in the uk basically everything is shut down for one day. That sounds really weird to me but I guess it's just a the difference in our cultures.

[blossom]

Mine was spent with my husband and our little. Boy. Watching him open presents and seeing his face is priceless. Then just cooked and ate far to much lol 

[DannySan]

With the girlfriend and her kids. My two were with their mum this year. Didn't do much and came down with some sort of illness Christmas morning that is still with me.

I am not a big fan of doing anything on Christmas Day. I just like to relax and chill out.

[Bunny]

I went to the good ladies parents for dinner. Then mopped up baby vomit on the evening. The usual