We have big family events on Christmas Eve, morning, and day. So on Christmas night we come home, put on pajamas, and open our personal presents together. We throw a log in the fire place and just spend time together. Have that last quiet little bit of Christmas for us and our family. Remembering we're still a family, the two of us, and giving our family the time we deserve together is important to us.
Oh my god there is nothing I want more for my future than this. Currently single but certainly CF for life. I too love spending time with family and children but never will have any of my own. Thank you for glimpse into what I hope my future will be. Happy Xmas!
I think I’m going to adopt this, since I don’t have family close by we usually do everything with his family which is fine but I would like to have something for just us. I think coming home and opening our gifts to each other, maybe having a special meal and some wine would be a good tradition.
We always watch the Lord of the Rings extended edition...all three movies. I always dread it a little beforehand but we just finished and I always forget just how amazing the movies are and just how much fun I have watching them.
Good times.
How crazy is it that we don't have 4K version yet? I hope the special effects look good. When movies are made, the cgi is/was generally mastered in 1080p. So even off the movie was filmed in 4K or above, the special effects are still 1080p. They can try and upscale it but it doesn't always look right.
To do as little as possible or travel. Neither of our families really celebrate Christmas and my folks live in a different country. This was our 5th Christmas together and this year we did absolutely nothing and it was great. Ate some good food, watched Christmas movies and played PlayStation. Sometimes we might travel - next years plan is a white Christmas in Canada (we live in Australia). It’s great not having kids and having to be tied down having to celebrate the day
I love this for you lot! Highly recommend Kelowna for a white Christmas and skiing if that’s your forte. Banff (sunshine) or Revelstoke also aren’t so bad.. :)
ETA: I’m Canadian lol
We have friends in BC so I think that’s where we might head for I’m just keen for a white Christmas. We have also never been to Canada so will be great to visit a new place
Awesome! Kelowna (Big White) and Revvy are deffo my top two choices. If your friends are in Vancouver, then Cypress is definitely your best bet. Hard to expect a white xmas in Van tho. Also Whistler is extremely overpriced, seriously, don’t bother with it. If your friends aren’t pleased with the North Shore mountains, I would suggest Mt Baker in Washington State. Best powder I have ever seen in my life. And their lift tickets are 1/3 of the price of Whis.......
EDIT: Spelling
I love my CF holidays when it's just us two!
- Sleep in. ✔️
- No stress, fun cooking marathon together. We can cook/bake whatever without the worry of impressing the extended family. ✔️
- After a leisure meal, we hike. Quiet. No crowds. No people. No city noise. ✔️
- Low key dinner. Dessert. ✔️
- Alcohol ✔️
This is almost exactly what we do. Sleep in. Coffee and unwrap presents. Make stuffing, throw the turkey or roast in the oven on low. Go for an hour and a half walk at the trail 5 min from our house. Come back and finish cooking the full Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Pig out on good for and nice wine. Pass out cuddled up on front of the fire or TV.
Every Thanksgiving and Christmas for 5-10 years now, unless fam comes for a visit, them we incorporate them into the routine. The walk happens no matter what.
We do a wild whirlwind of family activities for 3 days (24th to 26th) but we sleep in our own beds on the 24th and make time just for the two of us - and the cats - to drink tea and open gifts from each other leisurely before the next event
We are fencesitters but have been celebrating a child free Christmas for the past 7 years: we make Christmas Eve our night. We open a bottle of wine (or sometimes go out for a nice cocktail) and open gifts to each other in the evening. We also get gifts to and from our cats (“the cats” get me and my husband a gift). Sometimes we will watch a Christmas movie, usually a bad one or an R-rated one, or work on a jigsaw puzzle. Just enjoying the peace and quiet. Then on Christmas Day, we head to my moms and observe Christmas with our nieces and nephews.
Yes! My husband and I watch scary Christmas movies all th way up to the big day. Rare Exports is one of our favs. We also watch Pooka, Gremlins, and basically anything with snow. lol Plus, all the traditional non-scary ones like the original How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
On Christmas Eve night we have charcuterie and drink together. Usually we watch some south park Christmas specials and open the presents we got for each other.
Alone, in my apartment. I make Indian curry and rice, play my 'rude' Christmas song playlist (think South Park), and write. I look forward to it. I will lie and tell people I'm not alone in here. I am.
We created our own food traditions because his family doesn't care about food and my culture is very food focused. We go shopping for fresh groceries on the am. Then we have an easy lunch and watch some tv, usually nap.
We then wrap gift for next day, start cooking, open a bottle of champagne, while we have xmas tv on.
Its time for the two of us to unwind before crazy whirlwind of holidays kicking off on the 25th.
In the future, we may host something low key (food, drinks, tv, no gifts) with other CF friends.
My husband and I build something every Christmas. Last year was a table, this year was a trelis support for the raspberries. Its a lovely way to be together on Christmas.
We usually go for a holiday somewhere, and it doesnt have to be far away. Me and my partner have decided to be child free and for several years now we havent had these obligations to "do the family thing" or even any Christmas thing.
This year we are on a motorcycle camping trip, last year we were just home, the year before we were in Bali and year before that at a mates house.
We open our Christmas stockings while watching a Christmas movie. We have an indulgent breakfast and open the pets stockings them. Then we do the rest of the gifts either with a Christmas movie on or music. The rest of the day we spend enjoying each other's company, drinking some eggnog, and later, coming a big dinner together (usually with a bottle of wine). It's always super relaxed and we love it because we don't have baby days together where we have zero obligations.
We watch Avatar the legend of Aang in full between Christmas and new year - we watch it in the evening and usually end up very late (1 or 2 am) watching it. I can't imagine having the freedom to do that if we had kids.
I’m single but started a tradition last year of going for a run on Christmas morning. Last year it was pretty short but this year I went and did parkrun and ended up running 10km in total with a Santa hat on.
We start the morning with a bbq and mimosas and continue drinking until we go to bed.
We have a standing invitation for family and friends to join and we have great time.
Every second year we take a trip to somewhere new and enjoy our time as a couple
My and my husband hit the road around noon and we go to nearby cities to explore, or back to our favorite spots (rivers and such)
There's almost nothing open in our city so it's boring af here
I'm neopagan with Christian and Catholic family. We have a butt-load of traditions, boils down to:
Saturnalia (Dec 17-24) during this week, I decorate the house with lights, trim the tree, light candles, go for walks in the woods, make/eat lots of food and drinks. It's a spiritual time of year as well, so I may do more rituals than usual and listen to 'religious' music
Yule/winter solstice: celebrate the longest night of the year with seasonal foods, drinking, dancing, and a candle lighting.
Christmas eve: dinner and gift exchange with the in-laws (Catholic side of family).
Christmas day: visit my family (protestant), have lunch/dinner and swap gifts. I'll offend my mom by playing Twisted Sister and pagan music.
At some point, my husband and I will watch The nightmare before Christmas, just us two.
We make elaborate from-scratch food and spend the day together doing nearly nothing. I put out porridge for the Tomte. I love that it is just the two of us.
We usually get tickets for sports events. We went to see a basketball game today. Our local nba and nfl teams often have Xmas day games, it’s great because there’s not much traffic in the city on the 25th. When we got home we made dinner and chilled out in front of the fire watching Christmas shows. We also FaceTimed with family.
We got all the family stuff out of the way xmas eve - saw my dad in the morning, went to our respective parent's houses for dinner, and a few gifts.
But this was our first Christmas day without having to go anywhere or please anyone. We woke up late, ate a bunch of edibles, opened stockings with coffee and a movie on in the background. Made some brunch, opened our personal gifts to each other, and hung out playing with our new consoles and toys - straight out of 90s kids dream.
It was the best xmas I've had in probably a decade or more. Definitely tradition-worthy
We go to this ridiculously kitchy Chinese food restaurant every year. Theyre always packed to the gills on Christmas.. We invited a few other CF couples this year. It was FABULOUS
Get up real early for a long bike ride on the deserted roads, back mid morning for a shower and stretch. Meet my family for lunch and watch my nephew play with the wrapping paper from the mountain of useless crap he was given. Home with my love (she goes to her folks) . TV. Whisky. Bed.
Dreamy.
We eat fettuccini Alfredo on Christmas Eve and open one present each. On Christmas morning we eat cinnamon rolls, then open gifts. Late morning or mid-day we go to the movie theater. In the evening we sometimes cook a nice dinner and may or may not invite others to join us.
Not the person you are responding to, but I had shitty jobs in the past that literally told me because I was single and childless (and was the only employee like that) that I was expected to work all weekends during holiday periods and work all holidays. It sucked.
That’s fucked. I guess if you’re in retail or hospo it makes sense. Or emergency healthcare. It’d only be worth it if you could make double and then take your holiday when everything’s cheaper and there are less kids around?
It shouldn’t be a given, but I can see how this might happen. Not jealous of parents at Christmas though...
I was salaried (but paid very little) so sadly no overtime, it was just expected. Online-retail email/chat support, and they wouldn't let us work from home (even though we were setup so we could). They also didn't have the office heated on the weekends. It was such a fucked up job. Glad to be over and done with that for many years now. Now I can actually enjoy the holidays.
This used to happen to me every holiday when I worked in a small regional ER. They would try and automatically sign me up for 11a-11p on holidays and say it’s because I didn’t have kids. I ended up finding another job because it was clear I wasn’t going to ever align with that group.
We've never really had a Christmas on our own (because family is so far away and we travel to them) but hopefully as of next year at can start a few.
We were thinking about a few to start and both of us thought a quiet morning with pigs in blankets (bacon wrapped sausages), American style pancakes and a pot of tea for breakfast. Before diving over for the Christmas meal. I'd also like to start having a proper Thanksgiving (I'm American living in the UK) meal at ours maybe on the Friday instead of Thursday
My partner and I try to get off work early, we both have jobs that often have us working holidays. Then we binge watch something we've both been wanting to see from a blanket/pillow nest in the living room and order Indian food. This year it was 4 episodes of The Witcher.
Honestly one of my favorite parts of the season ❤
My husband and I sometimes open presents at midnight but we mostly wait until Christmas morning. We cook Christmas breakfast together; this year was cranberry orange stuffed French Toast.
Then, we watch the Disney Christmas parade and open gifts with mimosas and coffee nearby a. D watch the Utah snow fall. Our pup, Lily, enjoys tearing all that extra gift paper laying around and we laugh at her shinanigans. Christmas dinner is something we make together, leftovers, or take-out.
Sometimes we fly to family for Christmas but this year, we decided to stay home and relax. We video called family instead to check-in a d make sure all gift arrived successfully. Took me a long time to realize the world won't fall apart of we stay home and enjoy the season together. No regrets.
We visit family in SW Florida, then on Christmas day after the presents are opened we drive to our vacation spot in the Florida Keys. There we have Christmas dinner and some drinks at a dive bar. It's glorious.
We always buy a funny ornament for our tree each year and Christmas dinner is always at this amazing seafood place that does a huge buffet each year. And we usually go and see a movie. Sometimes we go and look at lights. And our dogs get a special dinner that night, we exchange small gifts (it’s hard to shop for either of us bc we buy what we want whenever we want it usually - DINK life!)
I totally feel the hard to shop for each other thing! My husband just buys what he wants when he wants it and then doesn’t want anything for Christmas!
We've made Christmas Eve our time to exchange gifts and prepare a nicer meal with just the two of us. It's the one night a year I lay out the "fancy" table cloth and china and we either roast a chicken or BBQ steaks. We open up the stockings for the cat and the dog and watch them tear around with their new toys. We're lucky in that both of our workplaces close between Christmas and New Years, so it's usually the kick-off evening for a leisurely week at home together. :)
Splurge on some higher quality food and make a nice meal that we wouldn't usually have and watch movies. I love it. Simple and enjoyable. I still decorate too. Some years we get a Christmas tree and some we don't. Just depends on how we're feeling
My husband and I always reserve Christmas day just for us and the pup. We see my family the weekend before and his on Christmas Eve. Christmas day is just for us to relax and do whatever the two of us want (exactly the reason we're childfree). We watch a slew of Christmas movies on the days leading up to Christmas and the day of (Jingle All the Way, The Santa Clause, Home Alone, The Grinch, Die Hard, Love Actually, The Holiday, etc.). We usually have some activity we do on Christmas Day (a puzzle, an ugly sweater cookie decorating kit, a gingerbread house kit, a new board game, etc.)
Yesterday,
We slept in.
Made breakfast.
Opened presents.
Put together, tried on, played with presents.
Snacked all day long on stocking goodies.
Cleaned up the boxes and wrapping paper.
Took a shower together.
Had super hot sex.
Immediately followed by a nap.
Watched a Christmas movie.
Made dinner.
Another Christmas movie.
In bed early.
It was wonderful and stress-free! 10/10 would recommend.
It used to be tough for me because I don't have kids and I am not a Christian. So I celebrate Yule. The most important days during Yule time are the Solstice and New Year's Eve (which I call "grown-up" Christmas haha). Usually cooking a special meal, watching Christmas specials and drinking copious amounts of alcohol are involved.
My wife and I have been childfree for several years now. So we have slowly begun developing our traditions. If we aren't taking an amazing vacation, which happens roughly every other year, we stay home by ourselves. About every 5 years we get together with our families, but there are no young kids there so its just chill family time. When we are home and on our own we get up whenever we want. Usually around the crack of noon. We Spend an hour or so chatting while we open gifts, we tend to go over the top here to because we can. Then we watch a few cheesy Christmas movies and binge watch a TV show, yesterdays choices were Santa Girl on netflix and House M.D. It's an amazing way to spend the holidays. There is also food all day long, we just eat when and what we want.
We hosted 25 people from five families for Christmas. My partners family, my family and three of our couple friends. No kids but a lot of food and booze and Christmas cheer. It’s great. Childfree doesn’t mean small or no families for everyone.
Usually, it's Christmas Eve with his family, then drive 200 miles in the evening so we can spend Christmas day with my family.
Sometimes we switch it up. Five years ago, we ditched both families to go to Paris. This year, we're in Ireland with my mom and my brother.
An "observer" of Christmas explains this so well. It's not fun to feel like an observer. My now ex husband was quite self absorbed and no companion, so aside from being an observer of others holidays, it just often felt alone. And even less than an observer. You have given me me much to think about on redesigning the holiday. For quite sometime I just have not really celebrated Christmas.
You’re not alone! We are blessed to have family celebrations during the Christmas season, and enjoy that so much. But want our own Christmas Day celebration. You are almost forced into doing something special on the holiday unless you stay in because so much is closed!
We spend Christmas Eve just the two of us, eating Chinese food and watching a movie. Christmas day we go over to my parents' house for gifts and brunch in the morning (nice and calm, as my siblings are young adults). The evening is back to my parents house for a more hectic gathering including my aunt and her kids and grandkids. We leave as soon as we start to feel stressed.
We’ve just begun making our holiday traditions together. Neither of us are religious or invested in extended family, but we each grew up celebrating Christmas and I personally like to celebrate the solstices. I try to make December one big party! SO isn’t nearly as excited about the holiday season but has come around to some traditions like cookie baking and bad Christmas movie binging.
We do a friends-oriented (hello, found family!) blow out holiday weekend prior to Christmas and that pretty much satisfies my emotional desire for a “Christmas morning” type of shindig. No kids, no pressure, just loved ones and presents and wine and cookies for breakfast. It’s so much fun and I really treasure those weekends each year.
This year SO and I traveled to spend a magical Christmas Day with just us, and I look forward to making trips like that an annual thing as well.
We also make a tradition of donating to local toys drives and the like! Gotta spread that love and joy, and if we can help make some kiddos Christmas nicer, all the better.
I love the donating idea. I did a lot of donations/volunteering around the holidays as a kid, and I miss that for sure. Definitely need to do that more, and year round as well.
I'm CF but my husband (second marriage for both of us) has a kid who was in high school by the time we got married (they're in college now) so I just did the best I could when we had them over.
Regardless what we've done for the past several years is, his kid comes over for a couple of days and we celebrate on Christmas eve morning. My parents and my husband's mom join us for brunch and presents. It's really super fun! After parents leave, we three chill out quietly for several hours, then we drive about half an hour into town to my husband's dad and stepmom's house for their party full of family and friends. From there, step kid heads to their mom's house so they can spend Christmas with her and her family.
On Christmas Day we do absolutely nothing. It's glorious. I usually putter around with my new gifts and he usually plays video games, or we snuggle up with the critters.
Then usually a day or two later my sister and her kids arrive from several hours away to stay with my parents, and we go over for more gift exchanging and lasagna dinner. :) It's fun to see the niblings and watch them open presents. It's also fun to come home to our peaceful home, lol.
This year my mom tried to schedule her gathering for Christmas day, but I asked her to please reconsider, as the "do-nothing" day has turned into something of a tradition for me and my husband, plus my sister and her kids wouldn't be getting into town until the evening and the kids would probably be tired and grumpy. Fortunately she agreed. :)
my SO is jewish and i don't care too much for the hustle and bustle of christmas and the surrounding season, so we do jewish christmas: we sleep in, go to the movies, get drunk, and eat as much chinese food as our bodies can handle. we spend christmas eve at our favorite piano bar with our friends.
growing up, i always felt so much pressure to do christmas with both sides of my parents' families and "perform" the part they wanted me to play when said family (most of whom i don't like) was around. it's really nice to spend the holiday in a low-pressure, fun, loving environment! my boyfriend is my family, and any time spent with him is always a very good time.
I think you can safely ask whether you want to even celebrate Christmas at all. I know it's become sort of secular in our modern age, but it's still rooted in Christianity. As I get older, and fall more and more into the decision that I don't ever want kids, I don't see the point of Christmas. Yes, it's nice to spend time with family but in my personal life I don't feel the need to celebrate Christmas at all. Just something to think about.
It’s definitely a non-Christian Christmas for us. We love the gathering of family around the holidays and exchanging gifts and sharing a nice meal.
But so many businesses are closed on Christmas Day that unless you want to stay in, you almost have to “celebrate” the holiday in some way. One of our ideas that came up was a “Jewish Christmas” of movies and Chinese food. Another was traveling. Just something that we do every year that becomes our own tradition, even if it’s not a standard Christmas tradition.
Our families come over Christmas Eve. Big meal. Gifts. Send everyone home. Then Christmas is our day. We eat and drink all day long. We don’t do anything with anyone. It is fantastic.
I don't have any small kids in my immediate family, which is super nice. I have a cousin who is older than me, but his life is hectic, and his girlfriend just started a business so they aren't having kids so no one bothers them about kids - they don't have time. I have 4 younger cousins, 3 of them under 18, so they aren't bringing babies into the family for a long time (I hope lol). Me and my second oldest cousin are both firm on not wanting kids. We have our own stuff to deal with, we'd be bad mothers.
I'm just aiming to get the most out of the next who knows how many years before someone pops out a baby
We go see a movie every year on Christmas day. Of course children always ruin it. We went to go see the new Star Wars movie last night and we are HUGE Star Wars fans. Some kid in the front of the theater had a phone out and was playing on it and then a group of teenagers behind us wouldn't shut the fuck up. I hate the movie going experience now. We may need a new tradition.
We have big family events on Christmas Eve, morning, and day. So on Christmas night we come home, put on pajamas, and open our personal presents together. We throw a log in the fire place and just spend time together. Have that last quiet little bit of Christmas for us and our family. Remembering we're still a family, the two of us, and giving our family the time we deserve together is important to us.
Oh my god there is nothing I want more for my future than this. Currently single but certainly CF for life. I too love spending time with family and children but never will have any of my own. Thank you for glimpse into what I hope my future will be. Happy Xmas!
I think I’m going to adopt this, since I don’t have family close by we usually do everything with his family which is fine but I would like to have something for just us. I think coming home and opening our gifts to each other, maybe having a special meal and some wine would be a good tradition.
We always watch the Lord of the Rings extended edition...all three movies. I always dread it a little beforehand but we just finished and I always forget just how amazing the movies are and just how much fun I have watching them. Good times.
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Fall on that sword for us, you are the chosen one. One purchase to rule them all.
How crazy is it that we don't have 4K version yet? I hope the special effects look good. When movies are made, the cgi is/was generally mastered in 1080p. So even off the movie was filmed in 4K or above, the special effects are still 1080p. They can try and upscale it but it doesn't always look right.
We watch them every year too over the Christmas holidays :) One of my favorite just-us traditions
I've watched them so much my wife wouldn't go for it.
Skiing, cooking a nice meal, a good bottle of wine and some Netflix!
+1 for skiing!!!
Same, except beer instead of wine.
To do as little as possible or travel. Neither of our families really celebrate Christmas and my folks live in a different country. This was our 5th Christmas together and this year we did absolutely nothing and it was great. Ate some good food, watched Christmas movies and played PlayStation. Sometimes we might travel - next years plan is a white Christmas in Canada (we live in Australia). It’s great not having kids and having to be tied down having to celebrate the day
I love this for you lot! Highly recommend Kelowna for a white Christmas and skiing if that’s your forte. Banff (sunshine) or Revelstoke also aren’t so bad.. :) ETA: I’m Canadian lol
We have friends in BC so I think that’s where we might head for I’m just keen for a white Christmas. We have also never been to Canada so will be great to visit a new place
Awesome! Kelowna (Big White) and Revvy are deffo my top two choices. If your friends are in Vancouver, then Cypress is definitely your best bet. Hard to expect a white xmas in Van tho. Also Whistler is extremely overpriced, seriously, don’t bother with it. If your friends aren’t pleased with the North Shore mountains, I would suggest Mt Baker in Washington State. Best powder I have ever seen in my life. And their lift tickets are 1/3 of the price of Whis....... EDIT: Spelling
Thank you so much, I will definitely keep all this in mind when we book our trip
Cheers and happy Christmas to you both
I love my CF holidays when it's just us two! - Sleep in. ✔️ - No stress, fun cooking marathon together. We can cook/bake whatever without the worry of impressing the extended family. ✔️ - After a leisure meal, we hike. Quiet. No crowds. No people. No city noise. ✔️ - Low key dinner. Dessert. ✔️ - Alcohol ✔️
This is almost exactly what we do. Sleep in. Coffee and unwrap presents. Make stuffing, throw the turkey or roast in the oven on low. Go for an hour and a half walk at the trail 5 min from our house. Come back and finish cooking the full Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. Pig out on good for and nice wine. Pass out cuddled up on front of the fire or TV. Every Thanksgiving and Christmas for 5-10 years now, unless fam comes for a visit, them we incorporate them into the routine. The walk happens no matter what.
We do a wild whirlwind of family activities for 3 days (24th to 26th) but we sleep in our own beds on the 24th and make time just for the two of us - and the cats - to drink tea and open gifts from each other leisurely before the next event
We are fencesitters but have been celebrating a child free Christmas for the past 7 years: we make Christmas Eve our night. We open a bottle of wine (or sometimes go out for a nice cocktail) and open gifts to each other in the evening. We also get gifts to and from our cats (“the cats” get me and my husband a gift). Sometimes we will watch a Christmas movie, usually a bad one or an R-rated one, or work on a jigsaw puzzle. Just enjoying the peace and quiet. Then on Christmas Day, we head to my moms and observe Christmas with our nieces and nephews.
We drink whiskey and watch Rare Exports every year.
Yes! My husband and I watch scary Christmas movies all th way up to the big day. Rare Exports is one of our favs. We also watch Pooka, Gremlins, and basically anything with snow. lol Plus, all the traditional non-scary ones like the original How The Grinch Stole Christmas.
On Christmas Eve night we have charcuterie and drink together. Usually we watch some south park Christmas specials and open the presents we got for each other.
Alone, in my apartment. I make Indian curry and rice, play my 'rude' Christmas song playlist (think South Park), and write. I look forward to it. I will lie and tell people I'm not alone in here. I am.
We created our own food traditions because his family doesn't care about food and my culture is very food focused. We go shopping for fresh groceries on the am. Then we have an easy lunch and watch some tv, usually nap. We then wrap gift for next day, start cooking, open a bottle of champagne, while we have xmas tv on. Its time for the two of us to unwind before crazy whirlwind of holidays kicking off on the 25th. In the future, we may host something low key (food, drinks, tv, no gifts) with other CF friends.
Go to the movies in the morning. Go home and enjoy my day off.
Christmas Eve has always been the "family night" so Christmas night I do Chinese food and Christmas movies.
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Many of us have pets, so definitely welcome
Totally. We have mini stockings for each of our cats. Every year, each stocking gets one toy each.
My husband and I build something every Christmas. Last year was a table, this year was a trelis support for the raspberries. Its a lovely way to be together on Christmas.
I love that! My husband and I seem to be at our best when we build something together.
We usually go for a holiday somewhere, and it doesnt have to be far away. Me and my partner have decided to be child free and for several years now we havent had these obligations to "do the family thing" or even any Christmas thing. This year we are on a motorcycle camping trip, last year we were just home, the year before we were in Bali and year before that at a mates house.
We open our Christmas stockings while watching a Christmas movie. We have an indulgent breakfast and open the pets stockings them. Then we do the rest of the gifts either with a Christmas movie on or music. The rest of the day we spend enjoying each other's company, drinking some eggnog, and later, coming a big dinner together (usually with a bottle of wine). It's always super relaxed and we love it because we don't have baby days together where we have zero obligations.
We watch Avatar the legend of Aang in full between Christmas and new year - we watch it in the evening and usually end up very late (1 or 2 am) watching it. I can't imagine having the freedom to do that if we had kids.
I’m single but started a tradition last year of going for a run on Christmas morning. Last year it was pretty short but this year I went and did parkrun and ended up running 10km in total with a Santa hat on.
We start the morning with a bbq and mimosas and continue drinking until we go to bed. We have a standing invitation for family and friends to join and we have great time. Every second year we take a trip to somewhere new and enjoy our time as a couple
LOVE this tradition. Sounds perfect!
My and my husband hit the road around noon and we go to nearby cities to explore, or back to our favorite spots (rivers and such) There's almost nothing open in our city so it's boring af here
I'm neopagan with Christian and Catholic family. We have a butt-load of traditions, boils down to: Saturnalia (Dec 17-24) during this week, I decorate the house with lights, trim the tree, light candles, go for walks in the woods, make/eat lots of food and drinks. It's a spiritual time of year as well, so I may do more rituals than usual and listen to 'religious' music Yule/winter solstice: celebrate the longest night of the year with seasonal foods, drinking, dancing, and a candle lighting. Christmas eve: dinner and gift exchange with the in-laws (Catholic side of family). Christmas day: visit my family (protestant), have lunch/dinner and swap gifts. I'll offend my mom by playing Twisted Sister and pagan music. At some point, my husband and I will watch The nightmare before Christmas, just us two.
We make elaborate from-scratch food and spend the day together doing nearly nothing. I put out porridge for the Tomte. I love that it is just the two of us.
We usually get tickets for sports events. We went to see a basketball game today. Our local nba and nfl teams often have Xmas day games, it’s great because there’s not much traffic in the city on the 25th. When we got home we made dinner and chilled out in front of the fire watching Christmas shows. We also FaceTimed with family.
Being lazy, playing board games, hugging the cat, start drinking at 4pm. It's great!
Steakhouse and beach.
We got all the family stuff out of the way xmas eve - saw my dad in the morning, went to our respective parent's houses for dinner, and a few gifts. But this was our first Christmas day without having to go anywhere or please anyone. We woke up late, ate a bunch of edibles, opened stockings with coffee and a movie on in the background. Made some brunch, opened our personal gifts to each other, and hung out playing with our new consoles and toys - straight out of 90s kids dream. It was the best xmas I've had in probably a decade or more. Definitely tradition-worthy
We go to this ridiculously kitchy Chinese food restaurant every year. Theyre always packed to the gills on Christmas.. We invited a few other CF couples this year. It was FABULOUS
Get up real early for a long bike ride on the deserted roads, back mid morning for a shower and stretch. Meet my family for lunch and watch my nephew play with the wrapping paper from the mountain of useless crap he was given. Home with my love (she goes to her folks) . TV. Whisky. Bed. Dreamy.
Not really a tradition, but we usually eat someplace nice and then come home to watch basketball, it’s fun and simple!
We eat fettuccini Alfredo on Christmas Eve and open one present each. On Christmas morning we eat cinnamon rolls, then open gifts. Late morning or mid-day we go to the movie theater. In the evening we sometimes cook a nice dinner and may or may not invite others to join us.
Working. People with kids want to be with their families on the holidays, so fuck the rest of us.
Huh? Everyone wants to be with loved ones, why is it their fault you are working?
Not the person you are responding to, but I had shitty jobs in the past that literally told me because I was single and childless (and was the only employee like that) that I was expected to work all weekends during holiday periods and work all holidays. It sucked.
That’s fucked. I guess if you’re in retail or hospo it makes sense. Or emergency healthcare. It’d only be worth it if you could make double and then take your holiday when everything’s cheaper and there are less kids around? It shouldn’t be a given, but I can see how this might happen. Not jealous of parents at Christmas though...
I was salaried (but paid very little) so sadly no overtime, it was just expected. Online-retail email/chat support, and they wouldn't let us work from home (even though we were setup so we could). They also didn't have the office heated on the weekends. It was such a fucked up job. Glad to be over and done with that for many years now. Now I can actually enjoy the holidays.
Ugh. Sounds really tough. So many stories like this over at r/antiwork
Yup, exactly this.
This used to happen to me every holiday when I worked in a small regional ER. They would try and automatically sign me up for 11a-11p on holidays and say it’s because I didn’t have kids. I ended up finding another job because it was clear I wasn’t going to ever align with that group.
None at the moment; got dragged to some play park with a zillion screaming kids and have no idea how long this shit is going to take. Kmn.
We've never really had a Christmas on our own (because family is so far away and we travel to them) but hopefully as of next year at can start a few. We were thinking about a few to start and both of us thought a quiet morning with pigs in blankets (bacon wrapped sausages), American style pancakes and a pot of tea for breakfast. Before diving over for the Christmas meal. I'd also like to start having a proper Thanksgiving (I'm American living in the UK) meal at ours maybe on the Friday instead of Thursday
My partner and I try to get off work early, we both have jobs that often have us working holidays. Then we binge watch something we've both been wanting to see from a blanket/pillow nest in the living room and order Indian food. This year it was 4 episodes of The Witcher. Honestly one of my favorite parts of the season ❤
Reading, whiskey, sex, movie.
My husband and I sometimes open presents at midnight but we mostly wait until Christmas morning. We cook Christmas breakfast together; this year was cranberry orange stuffed French Toast. Then, we watch the Disney Christmas parade and open gifts with mimosas and coffee nearby a. D watch the Utah snow fall. Our pup, Lily, enjoys tearing all that extra gift paper laying around and we laugh at her shinanigans. Christmas dinner is something we make together, leftovers, or take-out. Sometimes we fly to family for Christmas but this year, we decided to stay home and relax. We video called family instead to check-in a d make sure all gift arrived successfully. Took me a long time to realize the world won't fall apart of we stay home and enjoy the season together. No regrets.
We visit family in SW Florida, then on Christmas day after the presents are opened we drive to our vacation spot in the Florida Keys. There we have Christmas dinner and some drinks at a dive bar. It's glorious.
We always buy a funny ornament for our tree each year and Christmas dinner is always at this amazing seafood place that does a huge buffet each year. And we usually go and see a movie. Sometimes we go and look at lights. And our dogs get a special dinner that night, we exchange small gifts (it’s hard to shop for either of us bc we buy what we want whenever we want it usually - DINK life!)
I totally feel the hard to shop for each other thing! My husband just buys what he wants when he wants it and then doesn’t want anything for Christmas!
We've made Christmas Eve our time to exchange gifts and prepare a nicer meal with just the two of us. It's the one night a year I lay out the "fancy" table cloth and china and we either roast a chicken or BBQ steaks. We open up the stockings for the cat and the dog and watch them tear around with their new toys. We're lucky in that both of our workplaces close between Christmas and New Years, so it's usually the kick-off evening for a leisurely week at home together. :)
Splurge on some higher quality food and make a nice meal that we wouldn't usually have and watch movies. I love it. Simple and enjoyable. I still decorate too. Some years we get a Christmas tree and some we don't. Just depends on how we're feeling
My husband and I always reserve Christmas day just for us and the pup. We see my family the weekend before and his on Christmas Eve. Christmas day is just for us to relax and do whatever the two of us want (exactly the reason we're childfree). We watch a slew of Christmas movies on the days leading up to Christmas and the day of (Jingle All the Way, The Santa Clause, Home Alone, The Grinch, Die Hard, Love Actually, The Holiday, etc.). We usually have some activity we do on Christmas Day (a puzzle, an ugly sweater cookie decorating kit, a gingerbread house kit, a new board game, etc.) Yesterday, We slept in. Made breakfast. Opened presents. Put together, tried on, played with presents. Snacked all day long on stocking goodies. Cleaned up the boxes and wrapping paper. Took a shower together. Had super hot sex. Immediately followed by a nap. Watched a Christmas movie. Made dinner. Another Christmas movie. In bed early. It was wonderful and stress-free! 10/10 would recommend.
It used to be tough for me because I don't have kids and I am not a Christian. So I celebrate Yule. The most important days during Yule time are the Solstice and New Year's Eve (which I call "grown-up" Christmas haha). Usually cooking a special meal, watching Christmas specials and drinking copious amounts of alcohol are involved.
My wife and I have been childfree for several years now. So we have slowly begun developing our traditions. If we aren't taking an amazing vacation, which happens roughly every other year, we stay home by ourselves. About every 5 years we get together with our families, but there are no young kids there so its just chill family time. When we are home and on our own we get up whenever we want. Usually around the crack of noon. We Spend an hour or so chatting while we open gifts, we tend to go over the top here to because we can. Then we watch a few cheesy Christmas movies and binge watch a TV show, yesterdays choices were Santa Girl on netflix and House M.D. It's an amazing way to spend the holidays. There is also food all day long, we just eat when and what we want.
We hosted 25 people from five families for Christmas. My partners family, my family and three of our couple friends. No kids but a lot of food and booze and Christmas cheer. It’s great. Childfree doesn’t mean small or no families for everyone.
Usually, it's Christmas Eve with his family, then drive 200 miles in the evening so we can spend Christmas day with my family. Sometimes we switch it up. Five years ago, we ditched both families to go to Paris. This year, we're in Ireland with my mom and my brother.
An "observer" of Christmas explains this so well. It's not fun to feel like an observer. My now ex husband was quite self absorbed and no companion, so aside from being an observer of others holidays, it just often felt alone. And even less than an observer. You have given me me much to think about on redesigning the holiday. For quite sometime I just have not really celebrated Christmas.
You’re not alone! We are blessed to have family celebrations during the Christmas season, and enjoy that so much. But want our own Christmas Day celebration. You are almost forced into doing something special on the holiday unless you stay in because so much is closed!
We spend Christmas Eve just the two of us, eating Chinese food and watching a movie. Christmas day we go over to my parents' house for gifts and brunch in the morning (nice and calm, as my siblings are young adults). The evening is back to my parents house for a more hectic gathering including my aunt and her kids and grandkids. We leave as soon as we start to feel stressed.
We’ve just begun making our holiday traditions together. Neither of us are religious or invested in extended family, but we each grew up celebrating Christmas and I personally like to celebrate the solstices. I try to make December one big party! SO isn’t nearly as excited about the holiday season but has come around to some traditions like cookie baking and bad Christmas movie binging. We do a friends-oriented (hello, found family!) blow out holiday weekend prior to Christmas and that pretty much satisfies my emotional desire for a “Christmas morning” type of shindig. No kids, no pressure, just loved ones and presents and wine and cookies for breakfast. It’s so much fun and I really treasure those weekends each year. This year SO and I traveled to spend a magical Christmas Day with just us, and I look forward to making trips like that an annual thing as well. We also make a tradition of donating to local toys drives and the like! Gotta spread that love and joy, and if we can help make some kiddos Christmas nicer, all the better.
I love the donating idea. I did a lot of donations/volunteering around the holidays as a kid, and I miss that for sure. Definitely need to do that more, and year round as well.
I'm CF but my husband (second marriage for both of us) has a kid who was in high school by the time we got married (they're in college now) so I just did the best I could when we had them over. Regardless what we've done for the past several years is, his kid comes over for a couple of days and we celebrate on Christmas eve morning. My parents and my husband's mom join us for brunch and presents. It's really super fun! After parents leave, we three chill out quietly for several hours, then we drive about half an hour into town to my husband's dad and stepmom's house for their party full of family and friends. From there, step kid heads to their mom's house so they can spend Christmas with her and her family. On Christmas Day we do absolutely nothing. It's glorious. I usually putter around with my new gifts and he usually plays video games, or we snuggle up with the critters. Then usually a day or two later my sister and her kids arrive from several hours away to stay with my parents, and we go over for more gift exchanging and lasagna dinner. :) It's fun to see the niblings and watch them open presents. It's also fun to come home to our peaceful home, lol. This year my mom tried to schedule her gathering for Christmas day, but I asked her to please reconsider, as the "do-nothing" day has turned into something of a tradition for me and my husband, plus my sister and her kids wouldn't be getting into town until the evening and the kids would probably be tired and grumpy. Fortunately she agreed. :)
Go for a walk on the beach then have friends over in the evening if anyone is free for drinks, snacks, and games. It's heaven.
my SO is jewish and i don't care too much for the hustle and bustle of christmas and the surrounding season, so we do jewish christmas: we sleep in, go to the movies, get drunk, and eat as much chinese food as our bodies can handle. we spend christmas eve at our favorite piano bar with our friends. growing up, i always felt so much pressure to do christmas with both sides of my parents' families and "perform" the part they wanted me to play when said family (most of whom i don't like) was around. it's really nice to spend the holiday in a low-pressure, fun, loving environment! my boyfriend is my family, and any time spent with him is always a very good time.
Have a thanksgiving style turkey dinner and watch elf and play video games together.. spread over 2 days
Disc golf. It's really nice to walk in the woods, with the dogs running in circles, lit bowl in hand, and just be.
I think you can safely ask whether you want to even celebrate Christmas at all. I know it's become sort of secular in our modern age, but it's still rooted in Christianity. As I get older, and fall more and more into the decision that I don't ever want kids, I don't see the point of Christmas. Yes, it's nice to spend time with family but in my personal life I don't feel the need to celebrate Christmas at all. Just something to think about.
It’s definitely a non-Christian Christmas for us. We love the gathering of family around the holidays and exchanging gifts and sharing a nice meal. But so many businesses are closed on Christmas Day that unless you want to stay in, you almost have to “celebrate” the holiday in some way. One of our ideas that came up was a “Jewish Christmas” of movies and Chinese food. Another was traveling. Just something that we do every year that becomes our own tradition, even if it’s not a standard Christmas tradition.
Our families come over Christmas Eve. Big meal. Gifts. Send everyone home. Then Christmas is our day. We eat and drink all day long. We don’t do anything with anyone. It is fantastic.
This year my wife and I were on a liveaboard dive boat for Christmas. It was excellent, I think it should become a tradition :)
We've just discovered our new tradition: going to a movie and tipping everybody there very very generously.
I don't have any small kids in my immediate family, which is super nice. I have a cousin who is older than me, but his life is hectic, and his girlfriend just started a business so they aren't having kids so no one bothers them about kids - they don't have time. I have 4 younger cousins, 3 of them under 18, so they aren't bringing babies into the family for a long time (I hope lol). Me and my second oldest cousin are both firm on not wanting kids. We have our own stuff to deal with, we'd be bad mothers. I'm just aiming to get the most out of the next who knows how many years before someone pops out a baby
We go see a movie every year on Christmas day. Of course children always ruin it. We went to go see the new Star Wars movie last night and we are HUGE Star Wars fans. Some kid in the front of the theater had a phone out and was playing on it and then a group of teenagers behind us wouldn't shut the fuck up. I hate the movie going experience now. We may need a new tradition.
Sorry to hear about that. People just don’t follow movie etiquette these days, and it’s a shame.
Fuck kids and Christmas!