To think the magic of small children at Christmas is a load of old bollocks

Adults Christmas is the total pits. Give me little kids with their faces lighting up any day.

I think adult christmas seems more fun when you are struggling through the hard parts of Christmas with kids... but I've had some really shit Christmases alone as an adult
And for me nothing has ever beaten the joy of seeing young kids who really believe in santa, opening their presents. When they are toddlers its absolute adorable. I have a 20 month old at the moment and she was an absolute delight all day. Super super cute. She absolutely loved it all. She was trying to sing all the christmas songs with her random baby words. Absolutely gorgeous.
There were stressful bits with screaming and whining too.. and when out for great christmas day walk I did see all the adults without young kids laughing and being merry in the local pub.. and I did briefly think 'i wish I was in there with nothing to worry about but getting wasted and eating food someone else cooked.. with no ones needs to think of but my own' and im sure when that time comes ill enjoy it. When my kids are adults and they go to their partners for christmas and its just me and DH.. yeah I'll enjoy it!
But still i dont think anything beats a toddlers joyous face opening a badly wrapped ball of whatever!! That's peak christmas for me

I realised that Father Christmas couldn't have fit down our chimney, but a TV programme had addressed that issue and told us he sometimes got in using magic.

As for how he got around the world in a single night, I assumed he had a LOT of elves helping him!

bollocks, I can't remember a time I believed - I told my mum how impossible it was because I thought she believed, so that wasn't her doing either.
Christmas still felt magical and FC was just fun make believe, so I never felt the need to correct anyone I just assumed they were playing and they assumed I wasn't 🤷🏼‍♀️

I loved the Christmas magic as a child, and yes, I did believe in it.

Experiencing Christmas as an adult is very dull by comparison. I like to to see the kids enjoying it, but after forty-something Christmases, there's no excitement for me.

Couldn’t have said it better. It was lovely, no regrets. It’s just as joyful now but less exhausting.

Yabu

I don't think it's anti parenting to say you enjoy some stages over others. On lots of threads people mention they prefer parenting babies, toddlers, 10 year olds etc and on this thread some people are saying they prefer Christmas now the kids are teens or adults, not anti parenting, just a preference on the parenting stage.

OP probably needs to answer themselves as they are the one that said it.

It seems like this is just yet another anti child/ parenting thread which seem to have popped up more in the last couple of years. I wonder why they started appearing a lot more then?

Its not its the most sensible thing to do.

Completely agree. We have had a lovely two days. Ds1 (25), ds2 (22) and dd1(12). Managed to go out for a lovely meal and drinks yesterday and today was a very chilled day of eating food and watching films. No one was up at 5am looking to see if Santa had been. It’s been nice to just have some quality time with the kids

We never made a big deal of Santa either - we did the milk and cookies and the stocking but didn’t go overboard about it. It sort of phased out and we never had a big reveal. One of my friends DID do the big Santa story and then they went to Lapland and when they were there their boys kind of put it together that this was just a man and were fairly devastated.

I would go back to those days. It was much more fun when there were games, toys and puzzles to play with on Xmas Day. Now with teens it's all make up and stuff. Just feels flatter and less special tbh.

Yes it is a load of bollocks. Had a lovely Christmas Eve with my 4 year old, but most of today has been hell on earth for me. It’s my own fault really, I stayed up until midnight to put the slow cooker on (we eat at midday because of DC so he doesn’t get hangry) and did way too much yesterday in general. Then when my DC woke up at 3am and wouldn’t stop getting out of bed I was exhausted as I’d only had 3 hours of sleep and shouted at him at 4:30 this morning. It set the tone for the day really and I was really quite snappy with him as he was behaving pretty badly at times (I know its
overwhelming but in the moment and after several things going on, I had just had enough). Feel incredibly guilty now as I know he was only excited but honestly the whole day has been utterly exhausting and I am so glad DC is in bed. I’ve learnt an awful lot of lessons for Christmases going forward, I just hope this one isn’t etched in his mind as a bad childhood memory.

Another non believer household here, it’s not shit at all! We’ve had a lovely day without mentioning Santa, played games, done all of our family traditions and shared gifts. I don’t think we’re missing out on anything, we’ve put tonnes of effort in to making it a lovely day and she hasn’t told anyone, and neither has her cousin who also knows.

Just because other families do it differently doesn’t make it wrong, there are plenty of people in the uk not celebrating at all today.

I absolutely loved Christmas with little ones, it's hard work but really magic.
Before kids I wasn't fussed with Christmas at all despite being lucky enough to have a lovely but very small family. I think too many people make it too stressful with creating high expectations, ours loved little traditions like looking at the NORAD Santa tracker and always getting a chocolate orange, being allowed unusual pop on Christmas eve, and finding the money in the pudding.

My kids are now 13 and 15 and in the run up to Christmas both said how they didn’t feel as Christmassy as in previous years. I said this would happen as they get older but you can still have a fun day etc.
Anyway, Christmas Day (yesterday for us) was brilliant and both boys said it was one of the best ever! They loved their presents, we had kind of lower expectations and it was just fun and relaxed and lovely.
DH and I were remembering the christmasses when they were 2 and 4/1 and 3 etc and recalling the 4.30am wake ups, afternoon meltdowns etc and said although it was very fun, Christmas now is definitely easier and more relaxed for everyone.

Again, I didn't say you couldn't, I was just answering a question. OP didn't say it was different, she said it was better, and if you don't enjoy Christmas with small children then those things will be better/more enjoyable when they're grown up, or partially grown up at least.

Our daughter, we went the route of everyone buys her gifts, but Santa will bring her one special present. Worked until she was 5, when she announced just after Christmas that she had told me one thing, but told Santa something else. When 'he' brought her the thing she had told me, she realised Santa wasn't real.
It broke my heart a little, but her Dad just said she's a smart child...
She still loves the magic of the lights and the traditions.

I did most of those with young kids and with older/adult kids. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I adored Christmas with Young children- I felt like I got a second chance at Christmas as the first go was a huge disappointment. But I am almost relieved to have been able to let it go gently. Now it’s just loving finding ourselves again as a family as dc are away at uni and just chilling and making sure they are comfortable and loved. My ds said today , we have to appreciate this as it won’t last forever. And I almost applauded.

It's not better just different.

I miss drinking and playing lots of games but I probably wouldn't trade it, at this point for the sheer joy of DS4 this morning. Or rocking baby DD to sleep to the carols in church. They are both at easy ages though, the toddler years can be hard. But then I know it's not forever.

Oh my god. I said this to my husband this morning!!! After meltdowns from the 4 and almost 2 year olds I said don’t you just miss Christmas pre kids 😂 honestly I’m exhausted it’s been one thing after another!!!!

Different sort of magic, innit?

You had the magic of the Nativity - a supernatural being made flesh with assorted angelic beings communicating with humans and the heavens themselves aligning to show the way.

Other people favour the miracles - the magic - of a saint.

They're both rooted culturally in Christianity (and Catholicism in particular), with the pagan/saturnalia/mithraism/pantheism of local religious practices mixed in to create a sense of light and hope in the dark of midwinter and celebrate the days beginning to lengthen again.