Christmas things not worth doing

If we forgot DD did it for us 😆. We only started it because she begged for one but I’ve said now she doesn’t believe then they’re not coming back. Well they are for something she wanted to do with her mates but they’re not in the same job anymore lol. I second Xmas markets and driving everywhere getting a toy they’re after. I did that for a ‘hamster in the house’ years ago. She played with it for five mins but to be fair it was crap overpriced tat. Best thing we ever got her was a little live pet bird. We still mess about with it now.

My children are very enthusiastic the whole time 🫤

Oh hell yes!

I give you …

Thunderbirds Tracy Island, couldn’t find one for love nor money… got one the next year - DS had grown out of Thunderbirds, and never looked at it. Ended up giving it away (as nobody else wanted it by then either🙄)

Various Meccano sets, DS is nearly 40, he still doesn’t like it! Grandad wouldn’t listen and kept wasting his money and time finding ever more complicated sets.

A massive helicopter thing that broke before New Year… tears and upset and the company washed their hands of it😡

Not many food ones…although DS believed all the bloody adverts, including the groaning lavish tables of delicacies… in reality, a can of pop and a sausage roll made him very happy!

My children were too old for elf on the shelf . One thing I have never done is a panto , I really can’t bear them.

This is lovely 💕

Matching pjs - what a waste if you can only wear them a few times a year. Same with Christmas jumpers

Christmas markets - it’s freezing, why do I want to be outside in the cold?

Christmas Day - total anticlimax

Thankfully elf on the sodding shelf only started being a 'thing' when my kids were too old to bother with it!
I don't regret anything else really. I love the decorations and the (matchy matchy) tree we have. I love preparing the house for guests (even if it is only my sister and her family!), everything is cosy and everyone is excited/happy on the day (even if it is booze fuelled happiness it counts!).
I spend most of the day cooking an epic Christmas Dinner for it to be demolished in about half an hour, its a lot of effort but I do it because everyone loves it and it makes me happy making them happy!
New years eve can get to fuck though, I don't want to stay up until midnight and I'm usually asleep when all the fuckwits start letting fireworks off....bloody hate it!

I don't do elf on the shelf but this is lovely ♥️

We love all of it 😂
piles of presents for everyone, big dinner, light trails, Panto, Christmas parties, decorations, advent calendars, spending too much. The elf will arrive in a couple of years as we only have an 8mo.

I do Elf On The Shelf. It IS a lot of work, but my children LOVE it, and therefore, for me, it is worth it just to see how excited they are (well, mainly the younger one now) when they find him, and see what he's been up to. It definitely adds joy and anticipation to the build up. We don't have the ugly one with that horrid face though - I have my own one who is much nicer, and this year, he is bringing a friend, so that when the kids leave home, they can have one each for their own families, should they want.

I am perhaps compensating because we don't have extended family to cherish my children, it's just me here, and then they go to their father's for early evening, but he has no family close by either. So Elfie is our family!

My children love a Sunday roast (vegan version) so I go all out on that, with all the trimmings.

My best Christmas Day was when we had lots of family coming, set the table all matchy-matchy, then my sister called to ask if her and husband could join us (never found out why they left her IL’s house just before Christmas dinner 😂). We squashed everyone around the old oval table, got odd plates, cutlery and glasses and brought down the laundry basket and desk chair as extra seating. I breathed out and have never been worried about everything being perfect since.

Second that!

Oh quite a few things. People seem to have gone completely mad since COVID.

1. Why the need to put decorations absolutely everywhere? I recently unfollowed someone on Instagram because they bought a Christmas tree for each of their three children's bedrooms. Really?
2. OTT Christmas lights/decs on houses. Giant inflatable Santas the size of your house look so tacky (yes I'm talking to you, number 15, although my DD quite likes it I'll admit).
3. Christmas Eve boxes. Watch a film, leave a mince pie on a plate, maybe read a Christmas story.
4. Elf on the Shelf.
5. All these Christmas 'experiences' and inviting people in elf costumes to your house or whatever. Yes meet Santa at the garden centre or at the Christmas fair, but nowadays it's so much bigger and more 'amazing' than that.

Yes I'm a bit miserable I know, but I do feel like everything has to be an 'event' nowadays. Everything has to be a #corememory or #familytime or #makingmemories.
With kids it's nice to throw yourself into it when you're young, that's true, but I think there's a line over which it almost takes the magic and mystery away a little bit.

I absolutely love having hardly anyone to buy for. Just the dds, oh & couple of friends & my db. No early waking on Christmas Day (to be fair it was usually me up before the dds). Having to entertain people. Just the 4 of us now & we just please ourselves

All of it, I'd say.

Totally feel the same way!

Each to their own but there is surely enough excitement at Christmas without all of the faff of this too?

Xmas Tree.
Decorations.
Roast dinner.
Extra presents on Xmas Eve.
Lights on the outside of your house (why?).
Matching PJs.

But I'll give you Carols from King's and mince pies 🤣

Me too. I get everyone’s favourite food in then essentially spend Christmas eating our way though it and some chilled family time. Everyone gets a new book and we hang around the wood stove.

I am approaching my 8th Christmas as a mother and I have not yet been suckered into doing Elf on the Shelf. Please send me strength at this difficult time!!

I don't do this, what an absolute nonsense made up thing. And so much work.

The only time I did that for a relative he ignored the themed wrapping & hated the present inside.😂Never again.

Banished from our lives:

guilt

crackers

sending lots of cards

spending Christmas or New Year's Eve with anyone else, away from home

wrapping presents for each other - we graduated to putting them in a Christmassy bag unwrapped, & now just use our presents as soon as we buy them, keeping a list for Christmas Day to remind ourselves of what we've had. I don't start my new yarn until the New Year, though, as it's a real treat when everything's gloomy to get out some multi-coloured yarn & play with it.

🤣

never done elf on the shelf
finally gave up stockings last year - kids are 18 and 24!
not sure we decorated at all last year, but we did have a lovely, uncluttered pile of nice presents and a delicious roast beef rib dinner.

then we went to my mums and made the most of all her Christmas tree/decorations/lights/open fire.

I do enjoy Christmas, mostly, but Elf on the Shelf, Christmas Markets, Light trails, breakfast with Santa type experiences.... no thank you.

My kids are teenagers and when I've asked them about their favourite memories they've said things like staying up late (!!!) and baking with me.

When they were little we always hosted and it felt like a fucking pain in the arse, but now I'm out the other side of it (separated!) I'm glad we did it.