How to posh up your Christmas with Jacob Rees-Mogg
The Daily T
The Telegraph
4.1 • 709 Ratings
🗓️ 24 December 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Christmas can be a minefield. When should presents be opened; how to separate unruly guests to avoid a political row; and is it ok to wear pyjamas in front of your in-laws?
For all the answers to these matters of great import, Camilla and Tim are joined by Britain’s poshest man and friend of the podcast Jacob Rees-Mogg, who takes us inside Christmas at his family home in Somerset.
Plus, etiquette expert Laura Windsor is on hand to explain how to deal with a drunken uncle – and why Buck’s Fizz should be avoided at all costs.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:09.1 | How do you do Christmas like Jacob Rees-Mogg? |
| 0:12.9 | He is the embodiment of tradition and good cheer. |
| 0:16.2 | And on today's Daily Tea, he tells us how to do Christmas the proper way. |
| 0:20.5 | Welcome to the Daily Tea with me, Camilla Tomini. |
| 0:23.1 | And me, Tim Stanley. |
| 0:34.5 | Camilla Christmas is an absolute mindfield. |
| 0:37.3 | When are presents supposed to be shared? When do things go up? What do you do with people who are too drunk? |
| 0:42.1 | And is eggnog gnaff? These are all very serious festive questions that we need to ask the experts about. And we couldn't be better served. |
| 0:50.4 | Because in the Daily Tea studio is Jacob Rees-Mogg, the master of all things ceremonial, |
| 0:56.5 | and Laura Windsor, aptly named, because she is the Queen of Etiquet to navigate all of those |
| 1:02.9 | potential pitfalls. Can we begin with a bugbear of mine, get this out of the way, when is Christmas? |
| 1:10.3 | What? Christmas is the feast of Christmas Day and the 12 days following. Thank you. To the out of the way, when is Christmas? What? |
| 1:13.8 | Christmas is the feast of Christmas Day and the 12 days following. |
| 1:14.3 | Thank you. |
| 1:15.3 | To the feast of the epiphany. |
| 1:18.0 | If you want to go on, you will like this, Camilla. |
| 1:23.7 | When I was answering questions as leader of the house, we had promised to do something by Christmas. |
| 1:29.5 | And so I found that the last day you could say was Christmas was if you went from the Serbian Orthodox Church, which still runs on the old calendar, you got Candlemask, which |
| 1:35.6 | is, I think, in the Serbian Orthodox calendar, either the 14th or 15th of February. |
| 1:40.4 | So you really can take it on quite a long way. |
| 1:43.5 | And many churches leave things up |
... |
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