How Metro.co.uk staffers are spending Christmas this year

Why a nap on Christmas day feels so damn good/is such a good idea
Christmas is a time for gorging on food and snoozing, not jetting off to fancy destinations (Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

You may have seen some chatter on Twitter about a certain festive article on Vogue this week.

The article is a pretty simple concept: Vogue editors have shared their plans for Christmas Day, from what they’re wearing to where they’ll be.

As is expected of the fashion elite, these plots are highly relatable and down to earth.

The deputy editor of Vogue, for example, will be heading to the Cayman Islands, while the fashion features editor will have ‘a spell at Le Coucou in Méribel’, where she shall ski wearing a £1,825 jacket.

Other Vogue editors say they plan to spend the big day on seven-day detoxes, and hope to receive a £4,500 Leica camera.

Just your usual, standard Christmas stuff, really. Who amongst us hasn’t cooked up a turkey dinner while wearing ‘a Chopova Lowena dress with a pair of Grainne Morton’s one-of-a-kind earrings, which are made entirely from found objects and precious metals’.

We greatly enjoyed taking a peek inside the Vogue staffers’ festivities, so asked some of the Metro.co.uk to share what they’ll be up to on Christmas Day, to satisfy the curiosity of all other nosy people on the internet.

Here’s what we’ll be up to.

Chris Rickett, Head of Video

I will be voyaging to Le Officé this Christmas, snug and buried in a kitsch jumper and novelty Santa hat in a clear-and-desperate attempt to convince myself, and most importantly my colleagues, that it is anything but Just Another Wednesday.

Ho Ho No you don’t, Steve. We’re in this together and there’s no use pretending.

After a shift spent curating Christmas stories digitally, or hawking over social media updates from friends and loved ones who have oh-so-clearly forgotten me, I will venture back to my abode to oven warm a delectable dish of pre-packaged takeaway-style supermarket duck (sans hoi-sin or pancakes) and then serve with impatiently-watched roasties and the zest of a stocking orange. *chef’s kiss*.

It truly is the most magical of days.

 

Ellen Scott, Lifestyle Editor

I will be spending Christmas Day right here, in the office, because all I want for Christmas is to create online content.

I’ll enjoy a lie-in – usually I arrive at work for 6am, but on this special day I’m going to do an 8-5 shift – then get driven over the office, likely wearing the finest festive wares of tights with an extremely stretching waistband and a large sack-like dress.

I already have the day’s food (the most important part of Christmas) planned. In the morning I’ll enjoy Christmas morning muffins that I’ve made on Christmas Eve, then for lunch it’s a bagel slathered with cream cheese, smoked salmon, and capers.

I will do some actual work between these two meals and after, but probably while listening to Ariana Grande’s Christmas & Chill on repeat, as a treat. I might also make some more festive memes.

Then at 5pm it’s time to head home, bung a load of stuff in the oven, enjoy Christmas dinner, polish off a chocolate selection box, then open presents.

I’m assuming my boyfriend has already chosen what we’re watching on TV and would place my bet on it being Paddington 2, as he’s already told me repeatedly that The Muppet Christmas Carol is for Christmas Eve.

ellen scott christmas
I could pretend the purpose of this photo is to show off my Christmas tree, but we all know its just a great selfie (Picture: Ellen Scott)

 

Jay Jaffa, Head of Social Media

I’ll be driving my girlfriend’s grandma up to Nottingham tonight, where there will be 11 of us (myself, her family of five, a wife, two grandparents, my mum and my step-dad) and four dogs (Mabel – Bassett Hound, Milly – miniature Dachshund, Patch – Border Collie, Rufus – Welsh Terrier) and maybe a rogue fifth (Iggy – neighbours’ Tibetan Terrier).

The other Grandma has dementia and thinks a keyring wellington boot is a mobile phone.

I’m expecting a couple of drunk arguments come the evening but the first champagne bottle will be popped at 9am and present giving is at 11am before food.

Games to be confirmed. This is also my mum and step-dad’s first trip to the girlfriend’s family home.

 

Emma Kelly, Deputy Entertainment Editor

I will be arriving at Metro.co.uk HQ at 7am for work, because top content stops for no holiday. I will spend my time begging friends and family to read my work while grimacing at every Instagram picture that pops up.

Will probably break a mince pie eating record, as well as mainlining every vol au vent the M&S party section has to offer.

After work, I will go home, call my family, and watch the Gavin & Stacey special in my pyjamas while eating Yorkshire puddings with my bare hands.

 

Paul Hardcastle, Video Producer 

I will get up at the crack of noon and have a midday breakfast of wine and pastries, followed by a mid-afternoon roast and then a nap after my family fail at getting anyone to try to go for a walk around the village.

At no point will I be ‘swathed in Paco Rabanne’ but I am hoping to get a nice fluffy dressing gown from the Debenhams sale.

 

Zoe Drewett, Deputy News Editor

I’ll be spending my first Christmas at my boyfriend’s family home in the Wirral, with parents, siblings, other-halves and dog included.

On Christmas day we will be engaging in the Great British Tradition of eating more than we are physically able to before collapsing on the sofa/floor.

The day will begin with a breakfast of chocolate and Bucks Fizz, and some chasing the excitable 9-month-old puppy around the garden.

zoe's dog
Zoe will be spending Christmas with this pup (Picture: Zoe Drewett)

I anticipate it will end with too much gin, a squabble over who won Monopoly and cheeseboard-induced fever dreams.

I’m looking forward to being swathed in oven-fumes, twirling an electric Turkey knife, swinging a compostable dog poop bag and not talking about apres ski in Val d’Isere.

 

Natalie Morris, Senior Lifestyle Reporter

Christmas Day this year will start with brioche and Buck’s Fizz with my mum and my little sister. I literally just text my mum to request this for breakfast.

Then we will pack up the car with presents and food and head to the other side of Manchester because we’re cooking dinner at my dad’s. Normally he comes to us, but he hasn’t been very well so we are bringing the festivities to him this year.

We’re doing secret Santa between the four of us because we’re not too bothered about presents – for us, it’s all about the food… even though I have cheated and got everyone a little something.

We’ll then cook for most of the morning (my mum has done a lot of the prep already because she’s a hero). Then a big dinner at probably around 2pm. Then it’s movies, booze, and snacks. We don’t really do Christmas films… last year we watched Get Out.

Later in the evening dad becomes DJ and gets the tunes on – usually a playlist with a LOT of 90s hip hop and 00s RnB – and we have a living room rave until we’re all too tipsy and tired.

 

George Griffiths, TV Reporter

This Christmas I’ll continue my family tradition of jetting off to a remote island off the coast of Bali…no, I’m joking. I’m spending Christmas back In Wales.

Every single member of my family lives within a five-minute radius, so we’ll be house-jumping to the extreme and splitting time with my two nans for Christmas dinner with one and then turkey sandwiches with the other, until I get too full of food and wine and ask my dad to drive me back home so I can watch Gavin and Stacey where no-one will be allowed to speak or even breathe whilst my girl Pamela is on-screen.

man lounging on sofa
All of our festive plans are just as glamorous as Vogue’s (Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

Jessica Lindsay, Lifestyle Reporter

I will be hanging like a bitch after a Christmas Eve lock-in, on the prosecco by 10, listening to George Michael and only George Michael, and dressing like Vanessa Shanessa Jenkins as a tribute to the real queen’s speech which is Gavin and Stacey.

In between, we’ll have the annual Christmas fight which I’ll relish – as I do every year.

 

Abigail Gillibrand, Entertainment Reporter

I’m the lucky one spending the entire Christmas week at Costa Del Metro, counting down the days where I can go and see my mum and dad in sunny Blackpool for the New Year.

 

Amy Duncan, SEO Editor

I’ll be waking up at my mum and dad’s house in Surrey with my husband, parents, sister, brother in law and two-year-old niece.

Once my niece Emilia has burst through our lounge door (which my mum is covering in wrapping paper for her on Christmas Eve), we’ll be popping open the Bucks’ Fizz, playing Christmas music and opening our stockings – my sister and I are both in our 30s and obviously haven’t stopped leaving our stockings out for Santa to fill.

We’ll then exchange presents around the tree one by one (so we all see each other’s faces), and the day will then be spent drinking more, eating my parents’ amazing Christmas dinner (turkey, of course), playing games (Mr and Mrs, Articulate and Friends Trivial Pursuit), more drinks and maybe some Christmas TV. There’s no Christmas like Christmas at home!

 

Caroline Westbrook, Assistant SEO Editor

We are following the popular Jewish tradition of eating Chinese food on Christmas Day (I have no idea of the origins of this but I believe it started in the US) and going to a kosher Chinese restaurant for festive lunch complete with all you can eat buffet and as much crispy duck as you can possibly handle (not to mention a few festive cocktails to wash it all down).

Then we’ll waddle to family for a brief stopover before heading back home for telly, more food and more drinks plus candle lighting, because Hanukkah actually clashes with Christmas this year which makes it even more festive and special.

There will be doughnuts. And possibly even a little Christmas pudding. At some point during the evening I may even leave the sofa to forage for snacks. It will be epic.

Families who are divorced reuniting for Christmas
(Picture; Ella Byworth(Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

Eleanor Lees, Social Producer

I’m going home to Surrey for Christmas. My parents and brothers are planning to road trip it all the way from Dorking to the office tonight to pick me up. I will probably demand to play Christmas songs on a loop for the entire journey back. My dad is the biggest music snob I have ever met and will not enjoy it one bit.

Hopefully, if we make it back in good time, we can argue over what Christmas film to watch before bed. My vote is firmly with Nativity. I’ll be sharing a room with my mum as my parents downsized when I moved out and I don’t have a room of my own anymore, sob.

After over 30 years of marriage, mum decided she absolutely cannot sleep in the same room as my dad any more and he’ll be on the sofa, sorry Jon. My brother has autism and never grew out of getting excited about Christmas and spends most of the night on Christmas Eve pacing the halls, willing time to speed up so we can open presents. The best case scenario is that I’ll sleep through the whole thing, but he does seem to move around the house like an entire herd of elephants so that seems a little optimistic.

Come 7am, he will have allowed himself to wake the rest of us up, much to my youngest brother’s dismay as he loves a lie-in regardless of the time of year. Bleary-eyed from a lack of sleep, he’ll drag his stocking into my parents’ room as if he hasn’t already rifled through it 100 times.

After that we’ll have breakfast and do presents. I’ve heard that the later in the day you open presents, the posher you are and sorry to the rest of Surrey but we’re a morning unwrapping household.

I’m the oldest and now that my youngest brother is 19, mum has ruled this is the year we’ll get drunk on Christmas Day, which I am all for. The rest of the day will probably consist of watching films, stuffing our faces and playing board games. Maybe we’ll fall out, maybe someone will cry, but then we’ll sit down for EastEnders during which at least one character will probably be killed off and we’ll be reminded that actually our Christmases could be a lot worse.

 

Rosy Edwards, Platform Producer

This year I’ll be waking up in London – because that’s where I live – and taking an adventurous trip to Tooting for lunch.

I’ll be packing my old iPhone, my iPhone charger cable because my old iPhone battery is s*it, and my family’s presents. My mum just asked for vouchers, which is fortunate since they take up almost no room in a Sainsbury’s Bag For Life. My dad asked me to bring a big plate for the chicken.

My Christmas outfit plans: I haven’t done a darks wash in a while because I worked up until Christmas Eve so it will probably be a mish-mash of my boyfriend’s boxers, his sweatshirt and coat and of course, my Christmas essential: stretchy leggings.

I hope to open something I don’t hate. My boyfriend has got me jewellery (he left the receipt on the kitchen table) and I am incredibly, incredibly grateful, but I will have to lie if I don’t like it.

If I get some down-time, I’ll try and tackle the mould in our bathroom.

For New Year’s Eve, we might venture out to watch the fireworks but my boyfriend reckons that if we crane our necks, we’ll be able to see them from the window. If there’s Netflix and cheese involved, I’ll be happy.

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source https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/24/metro-staffers-spending-christmas-year-11956176/
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