If men were left to organise Christmas themselves

Almost no woman I know gives a fuck either.

I'm waiting (in vain, I think) for the OP to acknowledge that she hasn't found some grand faultline between the sexes.

What's a polar breakfast?

Happy, but not traditional here.

Lots of lovely gifts and great food (DH sorts all food anyway). Stockings might be forgotten and thinks like wrapping the presents from Santa in a different paper wouldn't be done.

Let me guess, loads of women take pictures of this pointless shit and flood social media with it in the hope that everyone will say how wonderful a mum they are. No man gives a fuck.

@WearyAuldWumman and @Corinthiana do you put oranges in your kids stockings
I always have, it’s become a bit of a joke.

As a child I never got a stocking though, it wasn’t something my parents grew up with. Much like me with Christmas Eve boxes I suppose

Yes, Mum maintained the stocking tradition with me too.

Same with my parents! In our stockings we got an apple, a satsuma and 10p. We got other gifts as well, but they maintained that tradition.

Irish family born in 1930s
An orange if they were very lucky and had any money
All they really did was spend a lot of time in Church.

ps dads family were tenant farmers but also worked down the mines in Tipperary

I keep thinking back to Mum telling me that her Christmas was usually an apple and orange in a stocking, together with a sixpence. Once, she got a tiny doll and made a dress out of an old sock for it.

(No, not a Yorkshireman sketch - she was born in the 1920s to a coalmining family.)

😂👐

You can only be pressured if you allow yourself to be.

Nobody needs to do half or even a quarter of the stuff on the "lists" that people have posted on this thread - it's just not necessary.

And there’s more @WearyAuldWumman
Polar breakfasts🤯
Matching pyjamas🤯
December 1st boxes 🤯

Another lesson from MN

Oh, I dare say that - now that the shops are selling the boxes - that families will feel that they have to buy them.

Think I prefer the sound of your part of Scotland ie Less commercial pressure

Thank you. I'd never seen them in my part of Scotland until my visit to Morrison's a few days ago.

We wouldn't have much of a Christmas if DH was in charge. Not that we have a big Christmas now, but I do ensure we have a tree, do fairly minimal decorations, buy and wrap presents, buy and cook food, arrange a few family visits.
If it were up to DH there'd be no tree or decorations, no roast dinner but we'd probably go out for a curry instead. Minimum presents, no cards and no fuss. Which would be ok but a bit joyless.
A few years ago I got tired of buying, writing and sending Christmas cards to my in-laws who live abroad, and handed the task to DH. Obviously since then they have not had any cards from us.

Christmas Eve boxes and December 1st boxes are new. As are the Polar Breakfasts. Also new matching pyjamas.

My kids are 20 plus now but it seems I’ve been depriving them for most of their lives.
I can’t quite remember what was said on a previous thread but they were ‘a thing’ by 2005 ish.

So no, not recent at all.

Are Christmas Eve boxes quite a new thing? I'd never heard of them before Mumsnet. I noticed a pre-printed box in Morrison's the other day.

I used to work in a secondary school and I don't recall the children every mentioning them.

If women want to run themselves ragged then that's on them. I really have very little sympathy. Yes there's an added element with social media now but back in the day - not so long ago - when mine were little there was still plenty of pressure to create an entirely artificial concept of a 'perfect, magical' Christmas.

I chose not to play that game.

Our Christmases were always wonderful, and still are - simple and low key is no less magical by any means.

Well those women need to give their head a wobble.

Do you have children?

He'd cook great food, LED flashing trees, along with plenty of fancy Belgian artisan drinks. He prefers no presents, believing physical gifts promote pollution and greed.
He doesn't do birthdays either, and says again self-indulgent nonsense past the age of 12.

Last minute. It might all turn out OK, it might not, but DH would be like 'oh well it's not that big a deal / it's only one day / there's another one next year'.

Christmas dinner he would be able to sort no problem, although he'd probably forget / not be too bothered about the extras like bread sauce or nice cream for the pudding ("what's wrong with custard?"). Gifts..most people's would arrive after Christmas I reckon. There'd be a lot of hampers, online gift vouchers and Lynx gift sets. Wrapping paper...doubtable as he'd assume we had some. Tree...I think he'd struggle, he has no patience for faffing so the lights and decs would go on any old way.. Christmas crackers I reckon would be deemed unnecessary or hed just get yhe first nice looking ones he saw. To be fair, he has absolutely no expectation that I will buy / do all of these things either he'd be perfectly happy to scratch the presents and just have a bottle of wine and an Indian takeaway in front of Home Alone (no DCs and we usually just spend the day together no wider family).