How important is alcohol to you on Christmas Day?

Not that important that I'd rely on lifts.

I have in the past got drunk by dinner and IMO it ruins the day. I didn't fancy any food and fell asleep most of the evening.

Not that important to me, as for the last few years we have driven between the parents' houses in the early evening of Christmas day, so Mr Caterpillar has tended not to drink. We don't drink that much anyway, and my parents don't really drink at all.

It is important that I have one alcoholic drink though, as if I don't drink at all you can see my MiL getting all excited with thoughts of grandchildren...

I think I'd want a glass of something with my Christmas dinner so from that point of view, I can completely understand why your sister would want to organise transport. Come on - it's Chriiiiiiiiistmaaaaas! ?

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Oh god, yes! You don't want those discussions over the dinner table! I think that raised eyebrows a few years back when I didn't drink on Christmas Day and I had to explain it was because I had had more than enough the night before? While I wasn't hungover I really didn't need to add more alcohol to the mix!

I like a drink on Christmas Day but if I were in that scenario I would drive and have a tipple when I got home. Surely it means someone giving her lifts can't drink as I doubt they'll be many taxis around!

I drove to my sister's & back one year which was a 140 mile round trip and a bit of a pain in the ass but they don't have enough room for us and my Mum to stay whereas we do.

I would have a glass and drive though I think. Generally you are ok with two glasses of wine I think and still under the limit, although I normally stop at one, just in case!

To me, it's pretty important. As a child, with family at Christmas, we always had champagne arond 11am, wine with lunch and supper etc. This year, I'll be having two champagne breakfasts, a lunchtime meet in a local bar for drinks which probably will go on for a long time and an evening meal with wine! I'll be very happy and drunk, I think. I also think as a child, we were lucky enough to have relations with massive houses nearby, so we always stayed over, no one worried about driving. The rest of my family will be gathering in Yorkshire for this at my Aunt's house.

I'd like wine with my dinner too etc but not if it meant someone else being sober and having to do extra driving so they can give me lifts. I think that's pretty unreasonable actually. It's not as if you can easily call a cab on Christmas day.

I was reading an article in Glamour magazine that went through how many units were in drinks and I was shocked to discover that one 175ml glass of 12% alcohol wine was 2.1 units and could therefore put you over the limit. This is the now usual small glass of wine measure and average alcohol content of new world wines like australian chardonnay!

We used to but now we have LO we don't so drink on christmas day.

Errm well were going to my Mums this year and they will lay on lots of booze weather we drink it or not, they have space at there house for us all to stay and my brother, sister and there partners will be there so yes we will drink this year - why not?

H's parents do not drink so will be probably not drink next year.

Wow - I wasn't aware of that so it is good to know. Thanks.

I'm sure that's not right? I wouldn't drive on more than 1 small glass of wine definitely - I know I'm a lightweight though. I understand your sister's reticence to drive - I'd want to drink with my meal, maybe 2 glasses or so and a Champagne before the meal, so that would definitely put a dampener on the Christmas lunch if I had to drive. I wouldn't bother drinking when I got home after the meal.

I've got the parentals AND the in laws coming for Christmas dinner this year, so it's VERY important to me ?

I never drink as I tend to get a bad reaction and go all hot and blotchy! I hadn't tried alcahol in a year, definately didn't drink last xmas. But I went out with a friend and tried a bacardi with lots of coke and found that I could just about drink that without getting too uncomfortable, so I may have a drink xmas day.

Is it just me, but I don't really like the taste of most alcahol, I'd prefer juice or fizz, basically something kids would drink. At parties I'm always at the kids drinks table stealing their squash or coke!

She may just find it more relaxing not having to worry about driving too. So she also has the option to drink if she likes.

I'm normally hungover from Christmas eve as I go 'home' and catch up with lots of people. I do like a drink on Christmas day and try and get mum tipsy as it's the only day she tends to drink.

However if I was going out for lunch for a couple of hours and the easiest option was to drive, I wouldn't find it a great hardship. If she's going to leave at 3ish there's still plenty of the day to sit on the sofa and drink sherry ?

Not at all really. I don't drink at all through the rest of the year and it doesn't mean that I don't enjoy myself on evenings out. Normally on Christmas Day I'll have a couple of drinks as my H doesn't like drinking on his own. For me, alcohol just puts me to sleep anyway, so I rarely see the point of it. Plus am on clomid this Christmas and feel lousy enough anyway. ?

However, I have a few friends who wouldn't enjoy Christmas Day at all without a lot to drink, which I find a little bit sad, but would never say anything.

If i had to drive on christmas day i wouldnt even have one glass. not much point really. i think its really dangerous when people say "youre ok with 2 glasses of wine" because two glasses of wine poured at home tend to be pretty large, and could easily put you over the limit depending on your size and frame etc.

other than that, yes, to me the wine with the meal is really important, and i spend ages choosing it. ditto other alcohol but we never get shitfaced unlike a lot of people it seems. i just have to watch for madam drinking too many lychee martinis and getting emotional and hugging everyone and telling them that she loves them before passing out ?

I wonder if I am getting 2 glasses of wine mixed up with 2 units? Quite possible. Not really an issue for me as the most I have ever had when driving is 1 glass - if that.

Even 2 units can put some people over the limit. there is no "safe" amount, apart from none - he says, sounding like a public service message. true though.

our normal wine glasses when half full take a third of a bottle, so if someone comes to us and just has one glass, they d most likely be over anyway.

But that is quite an important public service message!

I haven't actually seen the local police around here doing any breath tests although I am sure they are. I think the danger time is actually the morning after a large drinking session though.

Well I have to agree with NickJ and Redbedhead -

The Police are increasingly catching people "the morning after" there are so many myths surrounding what's safe and what isn't safe. For example - many people think that a big meal will help you "sober up" but in actual fact, having all that food in your stomach as well, will in fact mean that you body will take LONGER to process the alcohol so if you're trying to calculate units/hours until sober, that can actually have a BIG impact - very often leaving people STILL over the limit the next morning.

To me, booze on Christmas Day is something that's nice to have if I can, but if not I'd just leave it. I wouldn't go arranging lifts/taxis etc just so I could have a glass of wine with my dinner. If I was having to drive I'd just have a soft drink and then have a couple of glasses of wine when I got home.

I'll be able to drink this year as Mr R is working then driving but in reality, I'm not expecting to drink that much - my tolerance for alcohol is still fecked given I only gave birth 6 weeks ago and getting plastered isn't conducive with having to take care of 2 small boys, one of whom obviously still wakes for a bottle in the middle of the night.

My mum and dad are the type who have to drink at every social occasion. My dad is the only one who drives (mum can, she just refuses to) and so if they have the car she gets plastered and he has to stay sober! We are going over to my sister's for Christmas Day dinner and if we just had the 1 child we'd pick them up and take them there but we don't have room in the car, so they've asked my sister to go and pick them up and take them home again so they can both drink - it's about a 40 min drive each way! I think it's a bit ridiculous actually but my sister has agreed on condition they babysit her kids overnight at the weekend!

I totally agree with NickJ et al. If I was going to be driving within 3 hours, I wouldn't drink alcohol.

If I was there all day, I'd perhaps have a couple of small glasses of wine with lunch and drive in the evening, but that's all.

There are too many variables that affect alcohol metabolism - eg, height, weight, gender, age, how much you've eaten, and the variant forms of genes you carry - for anyone to work out what their blood level is a few hours after drinking.

Studies have shown that people's driving skills are significantly impaired with even a small amount of alcohol, even if they are completely unaware of it.

H will drive within a few hours of a half pint of 4% beer and that's it, I wouldn't even do that.

Ahhh, Nick, so you are that elusive person (other than Nigella) who has that lychee liquer handy in their cabinet just in case you decide to make lychee martinis.

It tickled me that she pulled that bottle out as if we all have it to hand ?

As for me? i love to have wine with my dinner and tia maria in my coffee and the obligatory baileys, but can take it orleave it usually, but seeing as my first christmas (i am having 2 this year, i am greedy) is with the MIL, i will be needing as holio said.

If i'm at home then I'd enjoy some bubbly whilst making dinner, wine with my meal and a port or something afterwards but as i'm going to my parents and need to drive I won't have any but will look forward to getting home in the evening and putting my feet up with a glass of wine and some nibbles whilst watching the tv.

I don't drink Alcohol at all so it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

No ginge, i dont have lychee liquer. i just mak a dry vodka martini, put a splash of the syrup from the tin in which the lychees come from, and bung a lychee in it. probably a bit naff, and its not for me, but the girls like it. madam has like lychee martinis for far longer than annoying nigella has been boring us about them. gah, i cant bear nigella on the tv.

She stole your idea.

I tried a vodka martini just the once, i thought it would make me look sophisticated (or like james bond).

it made me look like neither, it made my mouth look like a cats bumhole, ick. Maybe the lychee syrup would make it more palatable, although i think i willstick to what i know, like good old GnT

Not just you, me too, but we certainly seem to be in a minority. I can't get my head around anyone drinking 'cos they like the taste (although that many people seem to, I concede it must be true!) and if you're not having enough to get drunk, there seems very little point.
We have Schloer or similar with lunch and H might have a port later on. We did buy a little bottle of welsh praline cream liquer from Lincoln this year though which tasted lovely, so we'll crack that out whilst watching telly.
We are planning a drunken version of our regular games evening on 27th and my current drink of choice is tia maria and coke with optional lime (tastes like chocolate limes ?) Other than that, I'm normally on the alcopops but the fizz bloats me quickly so 2 is about my limit.
Wine ? Can't say I've tried every one there is, but every one I have tried I've known will be grim as soon as I've smelt it.

Not that important although I'll usually have one or two. I'm not much of a drinker really. Doubt I'll drink much this Christmas as until I can eat more I'm not going to a) get myself drunk on an even smaller quantity of wine than usual or b) fill up valuable space in my stomach that could mean the difference between dessert and no dessert (I live in hope).

This will inevitably mean, as HC says, that there will be speculation about me from the inlaws. Ah well, let them speculate, gives them something to fill their lives ?

Integral to our Christmas day. As Nick says it's carefully chosen to compliment the meal.

Champagne and nibbles/canapes, white wine with starter, red with main & cheese, something with pudding, port/liquers. Then a drink in the evening. We don't get hammered though as it's an allday ongoing process. There was one year I didn't drink but that was when I was 8 months pregnant.

I am a lush?

Going back to units for a sec, I once measured out 125ml of wine (the standard measure that is roughly 1 unit, and is 50ml less than what most places serve now) and poured it into one of our wine glasses. It looked like a scarily small amount compared to what we usually pour ourselves...

To answer the OP though, H and I are home alone this year (bliss), and will drink or not as the mood takes us. However, if we were going to lunch elsewhere, one of us would be designated driver, it's no great hardship.