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Original poster

It's time for mumsnetters to finally define "tat"

119 replies

Oxforddictionaryunofficialupdate · 30/11/2025 09:17

Aibu for traffic, title not exaggeration.

In last week the world "tat" took over mumsnet faster than bedbugs did over Paris.

It's time to finally define it. In last week it was plastic items, decorations, some clothes, various home furnishings, kitchem utensils and small gadgets, jewellery (i think), chocolates and sweets...

Anyone using the worls "tat", please give an example items of what "tat" is in your minds. Like exact items examples not "just stuff no one needs".

Because at this point on MN it is simply "any physical item I personally don't like" 🤷 o EVERYTHING is tat...

Yabu - tat is life and everything is tat
Yanbu - it did get ridiculous now with even food being called tat

OP posts:
PauliesWalnuts · 30/11/2025 09:35

We don’t need to define it - William Morris did that back in 1880.

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful,"

EineReiseDurchDieZeit · 30/11/2025 09:33

Excess material items of poor quality. Also tacky. I remember as a teenager me and my sister having a riot looking for the most tat Christmas decorations in Wilko.

DoingAway · 30/11/2025 09:33

I live in a tourist destination and we have lots of ‘tat shops’. These are were you go to buy your fridge magnets. I was just in Madrid and they have them there too for all your flamenco dolls made in China needs. This would be my definition of tat. Dd also had a bedroom full of plastic tat she got free in comics or later on stuff she got with her pocket money from Primark.

iSage · 30/11/2025 09:32

realsavagelike · 30/11/2025 09:29

Ye olde advent calendars from the 70's/early 80's with pointless plastic figures inside = prototype tat

Edited

I don't remember advent calendars from that era having anything but pictures - chocolate ones weren't around in those days, nor any of the myriad of adult 'beauty' advent calendars.

It's sad that the idea of an advent calendar has changed so much. I used to get genuinely excited opening the windows and seeing the festive pictures, and always the double window on the 24th with a nativity scene behind it.

WiggyWiggyImGettingJiggy · 30/11/2025 09:32

Tat on MN means - things that I secretly love, and buy, but act snobby about online to give the illusion that I'm superior to everyone else.

The word tat is almost exclusively used at Christmas and valentines day on here.

I always know the season has truly kicked in when I see my first 'tat' on MN.

WinterHangingBasket · 30/11/2025 09:32

It is MN snobbery. People who think they have impeccable taste and anything else is tat.

It is also rampant around this time of year, when everyone is dismissing perfectly acceptable gifts in advance because they are not from the "right" brand, even though they were probably made in the same Chinese factory.

realsavagelike · 30/11/2025 09:29

Ye olde advent calendars from the 70's/early 80's with pointless plastic figures inside = prototype tat

Nutmuncher · 30/11/2025 09:25

Tat for me is modern day life detritus. Stuff being stuff for no reason at all. No purpose, no thought, no soul. Think stuff in Christmas gift sets, just there for the sake of being a gift with no purpose other than to fulfil a duty.

notallwhowanderare · 30/11/2025 09:24

Yep, it's like racist, far right or Nazi - on here that just means anyone I disagree with. And tat is anything the commenter doesn't like.

EchoedSilence · 30/11/2025 09:24

It's anything MN is snobby about.

StrangePaint · 30/11/2025 09:23

‘Tat’ is a purely subjective category. Like ‘clutter’. For instance, a certain subcategory of Mners aspires to completely empty work surfaces, therefore anything on them is ‘clutter’, even if it’s a kettle.

For me ‘tat’ is the kind of thing my well-meaning MIL has bought for DS since his birth — plasticky Halloween decorations (this year he got a shrieking witches’ head, one of those giant fake spiderwebs and a large plastic light-up sign that said Halloween) or Christmas or Easter-related nonsense that will outlive us all in landfill.

WithDiamonds · 30/11/2025 09:23

Anything decorative even if well made would be defined as tat by me because it’s unnecessary.

SchnizelVonKrumm · 30/11/2025 09:22

To me it is anything that could be described as "cheap and nasty".

iSage · 30/11/2025 09:22

I think the key is that 'tat' is poor quality stuff that no one needs. There are lots of things we buy that we don't need, but if they are well-made, beautiful and functional, they don't fall into the 'tat' category.

ItsDarkNow · 30/11/2025 09:22

Fake Labubus. Fake Jellycats.
Amazon Hauls. Temu and Shein.

NigelForage · 30/11/2025 09:21

I've been on here for decades and I've never noticed this to be a thing

LadyKenya · 30/11/2025 09:20

Tat, to me, means tacky, and unnecessary items. A singing Santa, made of cheap plastic, and a flammable beard, for example. Rubbish!

TulipCat · 30/11/2025 09:20

I agree OP. "Tat" is right up there with "woke" in terms of being thrown around at "anything I don't personally agree with or want".

EvangelicalAboutButteredToast · 30/11/2025 09:18

I’ve missed this entirely. I must actually have a life after all!

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