From childhood and teens ... Christmas Eve was when my Mum would get ahead with as much food prep as she could for Christmas Day, and get lots of washing done. So we would head down to the nearest fish and chip shop to bring back lunch. My Dad would come home in the evening totally exhausted (he managed a large Marks & Spencer store) but with all sorts of unexpected food extras (sold off to staff at the end of the day) and generally a hamper as a present from one of his suppliers which would contain black cherry jam as well as other goodies.   In the evening in our teens we would head off to a pub in the countryside (now a pub entirely given over to food provision, sadly) where they would hand out carol sheets and party hats and we would sing around the fire.
As children we would wake up on Christmas Day with a rustling pillowcase at the end of our beds (oh, no, not stockings for us!), in one corner of which there would be an apple, and the other corner was a clementine and somewhere there would be chocolate coins as well as a sugar pig as well as the presents. One year we were puzzled at why I had some toy cars and one of my brothers had a doll, but we now know this was when Santa had had a few too many celebratory sherries....As we grew older we developed a different tradition whereby one of the soft toys made by my Mum would act as Santa for both parents, and be placed quietly outside their bedroom door with a selection of small presents and a mis-spelled note.
Full English breakfast (cooked by Dad) and then presents. And then lunch - turkey and all the trimmings, but no Christmas pud until Boxing Day. Instead we'd have jelly and custard and mince pies.   The afternoon was a gentle blur of games and adults falling asleep, until it was time to make turkey and ham sandwiches with mustard or chutney and have a slice of Christmas cake.
Boxing Day lunch was always my favourite - cold cuts with jacket potatoes, pickled onions, beetroot and salad, followed by Christmas pudding.
Somewhere along the way would be the Christmas row, as my Dad was so very tired and had to take it all out on someone ...sometimes it would be politics (as we grew older) but sometimes the lack of something vital, like bread sauce or the wrong kind of fruit bowl.

But these days it's various small gatherings of the big family clan, and this year it will be the two of us with my parents (now in their eighties), and trying to join my sister and her kids for tea later on. It's not at all the same thing!

Anne
feeling nostalgic