Five Years of CLAM Christmas Lunch

 When I organised the very first one back in 2022, there was definitely a want to start a new tradition. And now here we are, that goal successfully accomplished. Because if something’s been running for five years without a break, then it absolutely is a tradition! To celebrate that, I want to do a bit of a three-parter post: reflect on the event over the course of those five years, break down the coords that I’ve worn to previous Christmas lunches, and do some brainstorming for the upcoming one. Because time is running out on me and I really should plan what to wear asap!

Photo by Monica Oprea on Pexels.com

The Christmas Lunches Past

As a massive fan of the holiday, for the last however long now of my life I’ve been actively de-commercialising Christmas (even if this is genuinely the first time I applied that term to it). I’ve been stripping the holiday down to the things that I believe to matter, which are mainly togetherness and celebration (and aesthetics to some degree, but not as important as the other two). After numerous occasions where a remark of ‘how nice it is to have a lolita meetup where people aren’t hungry afterwards’ (because afternoon teas are great, but realistically that isn’t a lot of food), the two concepts had finally come together in my head. We don’t have to go to a Christmas afternoon tea, as nice as that’d be. For the same price (or less!) we could have a three course Christmas lunch somewhere nice.

And interestingly, very little has changed about the event itself over those years. I’ve changed venues last year and only because our original one has shut down (RIP Annies, never forget). I’ve only done goodie bags that first year to keep the costs affordable going forward. And over the course of the years the event naturally evolved and grew to incorporate other things. One of those is a plush children’s table – people simply want to bring their Kumyas, Chrises, and other plush companions with them, so the pile grows and requires its own space. But at its core the event is exactly the same as it was from the start: a larger get-together with a big meal, festive theming, and to gather the comm in one place one last time for the calendar year, with an optional Secret Santa. Like a true Christmas tradition, it found its roots and planted them firmly, with any changes being cosmetic. You know, you can have your Christmas crackers metallic or pastel, posh or tacky, but ultimately, they’re still Christmas crackers.

That the CLAM Christmas Lunch not only ran successfully every year since its inception, but that it was consistently popular (I had to turn people down almost every year because of venue capacity limits) speaks volumes to why it’s a comm favourite tradition by now. People come back every year and new folk join every year. They leave in high spirits and happy that if that was their last opportunity to wear frills that year, it was a good one. Those who couldn’t make it, especially if they’ve been before, seemed really bummed by having to miss one and vowed not to miss one again. This is the right mix of lowkey (there’s no pressure to do anything or to look any particular way, ultimately, it’s just a big sit down meal) and fancy (people absolutely go all out for this, even though they don’t have to). It feels intimate (we’re usually in a private room) and big (average attendance list of 15-20, so you do need to make effort to talk to everyone). And most importantly: it is always welcoming to all. Just like Christmas should be.

So even though the plan for this fifth one is to make it bigger, a little fancier, and a little more involved, I’m not changing anything about the heart of the event. And after this one, I will absolutely scale it back down to what it’s always been. Special things stop being special if they’re there every year. Until the tenth one, that is. I hope that we get to have a tenth one and that life won’t force me to pass the baton to someone else because I enjoy hosting it. Folks, I legit start actively working towards it in summer, that’s how much I love it. Though if I ever have to step down, I hope that someone would continue my legacy. And if not – well, I’ll happily claim the title of CLAM’s Christmas Queen.

The Coords Past

From left to right: 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025.

The four coords to build upon. For being the first person to bang on about comfort and room for food, I admit that I wasn’t always following that myself (notably with the middle years). What’s fun for me to notice in this retrospective is how up until last year my coords were much more festive vibes than specific themes.

Year 1 I remember having a video call on Discord with some friends to try to come up with something. I was Naked-chan for my own event for the longest part and I think I may have even started out with something slightly different until someone suggested one of the bows, I believe? That unlocked that creative well that I needed, pivoting from whatever I was doing to the black x gold base and then throwing some pops of red to go with it for maximum Christmas feel. Of them all, it might still be my favourite coord, not just because of the nostalgia, but because the outfit feels genuinely creative and it did something with that JSK that’s a bit more unexpected. And as anyone who knows me well will be aware of, I am always here for styling things in unexpected ways.

For Year 2 I believe I also originally had a slightly different plan, but the pivot had a bit more notice than just a couple of days. Christmas nostalgia for a millennial is so strongly linked to the Coca-Cola Christmas truck advert that once this JSK arrived with me, paying an homage to that was only natural. RIP those Bodyline shoes, they were such a trooper until the very end. In retrospect, I probably could’ve committed more to the Coca-Cola nostalgia, but in trying to save up for my imminent Japan trip, I opted to use as much of what I already owned as possible, which somehow landed me on throwing some toy soldier/Nutcracker vibes into the mix. I like the coord alright, it was fun, but I think if I were to have a stab at it now, this would’ve become two separate outfits: a Coca-Cola one and a Nutcracker one.

After that I went very much back into vibes and colours, as well as using pieces that were relatively new to my wardrobe (the bow top, the overdress, even the JSK). That and if memory serves me right, I was surprised that I hadn’t worn these tights to a Christmas Lunch, which felt like a criminal oversight. With being able to mix and match my Elf Armorie shoes, I leaned into the Santa’s elf of it all, though still very much kept it more lolita than Santa’s elf. Even looking back at it now, this coord is so joyous that it makes me grin, it’s probably my second favourite because of how texturally pleasing it is and how fun I managed to make it by pairing things in a slightly more unexpected way.

Last but not least, my most recent CLAM Christmas Lunch coord – and the only coord with this JSK that I’ve worn so far! I know, shocking. But also kind of satisfying to have it be such a banger. The print reminded me of festive stamps, hence immediately throwing one of my favourite themes into it. Thanks to Royal Mail-chan from September 2023, I had a lot of the pieces ready and waiting, and only needed to figure out something for my head and was able to craft the clips from scraps of my past projects. That being said, I’m also (still) not the biggest fan of what I had going on with my head (hair and accessories alike). I was rushed on the morning of the event and I think something hadn’t gone to plan and I didn’t have time to fix it, so I just went with this. Not that it’s bad, just that I prefer the more voluminous things I’d done in previous years. The coord is still great though, it’s merely styling that I’d improve if I could. 

The Future Coord

Despite everything I said (and keep repeating) about the event not having a formal theme and encouraging people to dress to eat and not put pressure on themselves – I absolutely try to outdo myself every year. This year is no different. If anything, I want to outdo myself more because I love the holiday so much and want to bring something new to the Christmas table each year. Realising now that I’ve only started properly theming my coords last year gives me a lot of room to play with. I’m no longer just putting together a Christmas coord, but can play with specific aspects that remind me of Christmas and channel those. That’s a lot of creative potential to utilise.

My first loose idea revolved around Mrs Claus, in reference to me being my comm’s Mrs Claus. Now, this in itself could go in several different directions, seeing as Mrs Claus’ image is less uniform in comparison to Santa Claus, which is where that idea is currently stumped.

Not necessarily a coord plan as much as it is a bit of a moodboard/early draft idea.

On the one hand, a cosy Mrs Claus is very appealing: the woman who spreads kindness and comfort, bakes cookies, and is generally just an NPC in her working husband’s world is a fun concept to play with. My mind instantly jumped to this vintage half apron that I got that’d easily layer with most things in my possession. Then again, I have this Chalmiere one from last year that hadn’t seen much wear yet... However, it has somewhat unusual colours, so this may require a little bit more thinking to truly nail it all down.

Not necessarily a coord plan as much as it is a bit of a moodboard/early draft idea.

On the other hand, since Mrs Claus isn’t as set in what she looks like, a safer, more recognisable route might be to just do Santa Claus but feminine and in lolita. Faux fur trims, maybe a headbow or bonnet with a pompom as a nod to the famous hat, classic red x white… That’s very easy for me to do. It might require some crafting, and thus planning out sooner rather than later to give myself the time to craft these to the level that I’d like it to be, but it should all be pretty inexpensive to do.

Not necessarily a coord plan as much as it is a bit of a moodboard/early draft idea.

Then I thought about gingerbread and cookies. It’s not Christmas for me without some baked goods and thanks to two very fortuitous Secret Santa exchanges, I have some excellent crochet and felted brooches in the shapes of Christmas baked goods, as well as the wooden accessories from Lady Sloth’s Winter Spices. My biggest problem here is that I only have one brown main piece, one which is fairly plain, so would require a lot of dressing up to get the whole coord to the fanciness levels that I like to put on for these events. Right now is not the time to be spending money on a brand new main piece and I also wouldn’t want to get yet another seasonally-exclusive main piece just to make a statement. I have the Chalmiere one and that’s enough. This may end up being an idea for a Christmas Lunch a few years down the line.

Not necessarily a coord plan as much as it is a bit of a moodboard/early draft idea.

Of course, there’s always the option of festive knitwear. I love me a piece of tacky holiday knitwear and would love to grow my collection some more, but I do need to be mindful of what I will actually use and how much. I’ve done coords in the past with my various Christmas jumpers, though they all tended to lean casual – understandably since comfort is the point of knitwear. However, I have also accumulated more layering pieces in the last several years, which I think I could do more with these days. This still isn’t a fully formed idea as such, but with the right prompt or starting point, I can definitely see myself getting creative with what goes under what and adding a couple of safety pins here or there to improve the fit for a better match with the lolita silhouette.

Not necessarily a coord plan as much as it is a bit of a moodboard/early draft idea.

The last idea that I pondered for more than a fleeting second is to turn myself into a big pile of presents. Like the gift that keeps on giving that I am. An excessive amount of bows and ribbons, maybe a headpiece made out of actual giftwrapped boxes (fully recyclable, of course), probably some general textural fun, maybe even fun with shapes… I have absolutely no clue which main piece would be best subjected to something like this or how to realise it beyond just the few phrases above, but it could be great if pulled off.


Writing up this post and putting it all together got me very excited for the meet now. The annual Christmas lunch always leaves me on a high, to the point where I want to cry with joy, and I can feel it in my bones that this one will do the same. And I may end up posting these shreds of coord ideas up into my Instagram stories to let people vote on the idea they think I should focus on. Idk, I want to do them all, but I absolutely need to be realistic about what I can commit to. And sometimes leaving the decision to others helps clarify one’s mind.