If men were left to organise Christmas themselves

Sounds perfect

Well, we're a lesbian couple so we'd just have to wander the dark, cold streets like little Dickensian orphans, staring wistfully into the festive windows of houses with men in them.

Heavy on the pigs in blankets low on the broccoli

Was kneeling on the floor in the office, cutting up boxes, recycling paper, packaging etc for different outside bins today. OH wanders in saying WE!! spend too much money on Christmas. WE!!???! I buy and wrap all the presents bar the three he buys for our sons and one each for the grandchildren at my insistence.

He's such an eejit.

But that’s not because he’s a man is it? (Which is what this thread is about?)

He is capable (he does do it) but he wouldn't do it without being told though. Its really not a hard concept.

You sound like your quite ignorant of the fact that different people have different functional abilities though.

In my house, we would have a very bare bones Christmas. There would be one decoration that took less than 5 minutes, gift cards handed out, restaurant for dinner. DH does not believe in Christmas cheer.

*Oh look another man bashing thread on mumsnet.

In response to your comment, given that Christmas was revived in the mid Victorian era by men, hardly.

Without Dickens there would be no family centred meal.
Without Prince Albert (and his German influence) there'd be no tree.
Without Sir Henry Cole inventing the Christmas card, there'd be no card.
Without all the male songwriters there'd be next to no Carols (no "Deck the halls", Welsh melody published by Edward Jones and lyrics by Scotsman Thomas Oliphant, no "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" published in Bristol by Arthur Warrell, no "First Noel" (among others) published by William Sandys in Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern).
Without Thomas Nast there would be no Santa Claus
Without David Lewis inventing the Christmas grotto in his department store in Liverpool, there would be no grotto w/ kids meeting Father Christmas/Santa.

And in the 20th/21st century, without John Hughes there is no Home Alone, without Ronald Neame there is no Scrooge, without Richard Curtis there is no Love Actually etc etc. Bascially no Christmas films.
No classic festive pop songs: no Fairtyale of New York by the Pogues, no Last Christmas by George Michael, no Wizzard, no Slade, basically no Christmas number 1 race (previously a big deal). No Do they know its Christmas (and by extension no Live Aid or Freddie Mercury at Wembley).

If it were all just left to women there would be next to nowt, that's what we would have at Christmas (oh, we'd have that Mariah bleedin Carey dirge 😂)

Dh does most of it. He loves it. My previous dh didn't do anything except cook. He had to work one Christmas and organised a private chef as a surprise. I can cook! But it was nice to concentrate on the babies and not worry about lunch.

I'm good at making sure everyone gets on.

Clearly not true from the whole theme of the thread...

We would have no tree up , presents would be in the boxes they come in (we do this anyway and just use our big sacks) there would be loads of meat and very few veggies to be seen other than potatoes and old episodes of morecambe and wise on the tv - I’m not well at the moment and to be honest this might just happen but finding it hard to be concerned - just me and him so no kids to consider and we just like being together

Would be great in our house! He sorts all the decorations and we put up together. He does all the food / booze shopping and all the cooking. Sorts the presents for his side of the family and alot for the kids. I basically sit around and drink mulled wine / prosecco for most of the time 🍷. The one thing that wouldn't really happen is social activities as I mostly organise those

Sorry, I don’t understand - why isn’t he capable of doing things on special occasions?

It would be minimalist,

DH does not consider family traditions or of making memories for the kids. So it would get done with no trimmings. And he's find it extremely stressful.

I do too much for others, family gatherings, making sure the kids have some magic moments, thoughtful gifts, extra special dinner. He'd just suit himself.

He wouldn't bother with decorations and would hand ds his presents unassembled (ds is getting a desk and chair for Christmas and no way would dh put them together).

He'd cook a lovely meal though with all the trimmings and plenty of puddings. Can't fault him there.

This.

The house would be decorated with more tat then a pound shop. The living room floor would be overtaken by his collection, yes collection, of Christmas train sets. Presents would be odd, cheap and practical with a slice of humour. Food would be simple but fine though his Dad would like make it in which case simple and delicious.

Honestly I could sit it out

My DH obviously physically CAN do these things (he actually does all the cooking in the house) but he just wouldn't even think too do without prompting. He gets all the 'must do' jobs in life done and leaves everything else.

My DH is very functional in day to day (much better than me thanks to my disabilities) life but the point is Birthdays, Christmases, Halloween, Events, Holiday etc... AREN'T day to day life they are the extras on top which take more effort.

There would be no birthdays for the kids, annual holiday planning/booking, no summer activities, Christmas etc... without me planning it out because thats the stuff he would gloss over while hyper focusing on the everyday daily stuff.

Am I the only one that read your list of cupboard items to the tune of 12 days of Christmas?

I think many women over organise stuff and knacker themselves. I think the least bothered person organising Christmas would not be a bad thing

Takeaway every night.
Loads of alcohol.
Pizzas
Thoughtless, half arsed gifts still in their plastic bags, no wrapping.
House a tip.
Carpet wet from spilled beer.
Toilets not cleaned.
Guests not catered for.
Loud, blaring TV on 24/7
Video games on 24/7
Kids screaming and bored.
Teeth not brushed.
Tree in corner, not decorated.
Hoards of drunken mates calling all hours of the day and night to play the video games.
Filth and squalor everywhere.
More takeaways.

It would be absolutely fine because my husband is a grown adult and I don't give men a pass by presuming they're going to be terrible at things. He carved me several pumpkins and bought Halloween sweets for the kids on our street, he'll put the tree up and do the lights (I like to do the baubles!), he buys his own family presents, he organises his own family visits for us. I don't assume he'll need me to do it and knows if he doesn't it won't happen.

(I'm not blaming women for men being shit at stuff. But I do think we need to stop making threads where we all just take it as a given that they will be because we're just perpetuating the stereotype that means men continue to be like "ahhhh well, men aren't good at this".)

Lots of last minute panicking but everything would be perfect.

If I wasn't allowed to help out, DH loves Christmas so decorations will be up earlier before I would organise them, as are presents & Christmas activities. He would struggle with cooking food on Christmas Day though & would find some way around that e.g. flying his Mum into the country or persuading my Mum to do it. Although I just asked DH & he said he would try to cook something but it wouldn't be too strenuous. He likes to keep things chilled.

It probably wouldn't occur, DH wouldn't think to do 99% of the thing we do.

There are things (like stockings) that I have done for 15 years (since oldest was a baby) and he is still 'surprised' by them every year because he forgot they where a thing lol.