A simple Christmas

[crochetmonkey74]

inspired by the brilliant thread recently about waste and being more thoughtful, I am determined to have a more thoughtful and also restful and restorative Christmas. I was browsing M and S yesterday and where normally I would feel excitement and a bit of that buying 'frenzy' I was reminded of that thread, and started to think carefully about how I want my Christmas to be.
So far I have :
make food from scratch where possible, rather than buy in
buy as little packaged food as possible
no gifts or gifts from lists to reduce token presents
I already only do about 5 cards to relatives who live away, I give out homemade sweets instead.

What will you be doing?

Like Cherry I think we’ve always done a fairly low key Christmas. No excessive presents, and we only give to under 18s (cash). I do send Christmas cards as we have moved around a lot over the years & have many friends all over the country & abroad & I don’t do Facebook or social media so I genuinely enjoy writing cards & exchanging news.

Celebrations focus on our Church activities & volunteering with two family visits planned. I work over Christmas & DH has enforced annual leave (which he doesn’t want at that time of year but has no choice) so will be spring cleaning and decorating).

Our own children will have five gifts each under the Christmas tree,

People think that's minimal? My DC have only ever had one present from their parents. They don't seem particularly deprived.

I've ordered books from Hive for the kids - thank you Hive for paying taxes and supporting independent bookstores - and bought DH a toiletries set that he wanted ages ago in the summer sales, before the Christmas price hike. We never celebrated Christmas growing up, other than a small amount of presents for immediate family so there is luckily no pressure on me to produce a postcard Christmas now. I really don't get people going overboard and spending so much. I especially hate the plastic tat that is heavily marketed to kids. And the overpriced food.

@Equimum "Oh mum (inlaw), you shouldn't have...." "Oh don't worry dear, it was cheap! See how it still has the Sale sticker!" Lol I feel your pain. I guess the charity shops gain a lot after Christmas though so that is good!

We do a secret Santa with the adults on my side of our family- works really well and is great fun. Dh has a much bigger family so we only buy for the dc.

And I don’t send Christmas cards as would rather see people.

I'm making in-roads on a simpler Christmas too.

I'm using up existing wrapping paper but will swap to brown paper and string when my stock is used up. No more wrapping paper purchasing in the January sales.

We only buy a few Christmas cards anyway, so won't send many. I'm going to get a label cutter and make gift labels out of any Christmas cards we get that can't be recycled due to glitter on them.

I'm also quite swift at charity shopping any unwanted gifts while they're still boxed and in perfect condition. If I can't stop the tat purchases from grandparents, then at least I can pass them on to someone who does want them. However the last few years we have done Amazon wish lists for the children for anyone who asks, it has limited the random gifts and waste.

Only extra food we buy are dessert, something like a 3 or 5 bird roast rather than a chicken/beef/lamb joint we would usually have on a Sunday, pigs in blankets and sprouts. Everything else is our usual Sunday roast dinner. Going to replace crackers with just hats I think, or try to find recyclable ones without tat in them! Any recommendations?

We save money on cheese because a couple of years ago my partner and I shared a very big varied cheese platter just the two of us. Within a few hours I came down with norovirus....the house was never quite the same and we can't eat posh cheese since

DB uses Amazon wishlist for his kids, but I go and buy the stuff in the real world, locally if possible and then notify the wishlist that it's taken.

Going to have a word with DB about the little extras that DS gets from them. I'd rather the kids get what they want and will play with than extra novelty crapolata that is played with for 10 minutes then sits on a shelf for three years gathering dust before it goes in the bin.

We'll be doing reverse advent calendar, ready to give to Food bank early December.

We've never gone in for excessive amounts of food, like a plastic tub of celebrations just to graze on. That said, stockings will have sweeties and chocolate.

We don't exchange gifts with our adult siblings any more.

My parents and ILs are indoctrinated to give me naice soap or edibles, possibly goats wool socks, (made in UK, your feet will never be cold again).

My Dad has been known to ask for an Oxfam goat, I wanted to spoil him though so I got him a pair.

Most of our decs go back about 15-20 years, I'm going to strategically and carefully bolster the collection this year as the decs that worked in our tiny house 10 years ago are ridiculously small for our current tenement flat with massive rooms and high ceilings.

I went to a beautiful charity fundraising carol service last year that embodied the spirit of Christmas for me, tickets were about £10 and the church was full. I'll look out for something similar this year. In fact this has just reminded me to see what that charity have on this year - carol concerts in London, Edinburgh and Glasgow:

www.feedtheminds.org/get-involved/carol-concerts-2018/

Stopped sending cards years ago. there was a few moans at first but now its just excepted that Meddie doesnt send cards. People adapt. Also saved me all the clutter from received cards which was the main reason I stopped as I didnt like them cluttering up every available surface.

Took me years to get the family to agree to secret santa for the adults. But they finally embraced it 3 years ago and now they are the ones reminding me to organise it in October and its been great. We all meet at nans house, bring either something to eat or drink and do the present exchange. Its lovely having all the family together for a few hours. We still buy separately for any children still in education/not working.This has been the one single thing that destressed christmas for us.Instead of hundreds of pounds of smellies and chocs and candles. you just buy one thoughful gift for slightly more money than you would spend on a single gift.

I can recommend www.secretsantaorganizer.com/ you just put in peoples emails. it randomises the participants and they get an email with a link to who they are secret santa for and access to a wishlist they can populate with stuff they like and their secret santa just picks stuff from the list up to a value. Means that the gifts are actually wanted. Organiser cant peep as it will notify all participants you cheated if you do. so it remains a suprise.

Decorations are re used and I love getting them out at christmas, they hold so many memories of when they were bought or made by the kids when they were little.

never done xmas eve boxes as such but I always bought the kids new pj's and we would have hot chocolate sitting in our new pj's watching a xmas film on xmas eve (it was mainly a way of calming them down and getting them into bed) and even now as adults they still ask for their xmas eve PJ's

Our Christmas will be pretty simple, as usual. Just 3 of us then DSs girlfriend over New Year.
We always have a tree. I send beautiful ecards to anyone I would have sent a paper card to except for a couple of elderly family/friends who arent online, they still get a card. This means I only send about half a dozen actual cards.
Only do presents between DH and myself if there is something we actually want/need which is rare. DS is now adult but still likes to open a gift or two so gets a couple of small things plus money.
I'm pretty good at not buying more food than we need and often pick up some treats rather than essentials in the reduced section.
I've never seen the draw of a commercialised Christmas and always roll my eyes when people on house shows say imagine this room at Christmas/oh there's nowhere for a Christmas tree.
Of course we did the usual stuff when DS was younger and grandparents were still around but now it's just a cosy time together. If DS has children in the future I'm sure that will change back.

Just bought myself a pack of these reusable crackers they even snap!

The kids like crackers, but the hats and gifts are rubbish. Thought I'd pop a small useful gift in or some sweets, bought spare snaps at the same time and we'll reuse them for a few years. Better than throwing it all away after lunch!

I do an activity advent calendar with the DC which takes a little bit of planning but they find it really exciting. I have a calendar with pockets on that I sewed (from a kit - it was really simple to do!) a few years ago. Every pocket contains a chocolate coin for each of them and a little card with a Christmas themed activity to do that day. I pop the cards in the night or a couple of days before when I know what we can achieve that day - some days it’s as simple as watching a Christmas film or lighting an advent candle. Then other activities can be planned around what you’ve already got planned anyway - Christmas trips out, put up the tree, post cards, go to watch a lights switch on etc. We also add a few charity based activities in too eg going to buy a gift to donate to the Salvation Army toy appeal, taking a box of food to the local food bank. The best thing is it can be full of things you’d do anyway, so isn’t much extra cost/effort, but it makes those little traditions a bit more exciting for the DC.

charity shop scarves as wrapping
asked my SIL who is very generous but of the more is more mindset to reign it in
FEwer presents, secret santa for adults
no advent calendars- each kid to have a small wooden box that i will refill each evening as they can't countenance not having chocolate
generally lower the level of consumption

NRTFT
I'm doing less meat for xmas dinner this year. The general consensus is my kids want pigs in blankets, stuffing, crackling, nice spuds, sprouts and yummy gravy. I'll do a veggie version for sis. Skip starters and have a cold pudding that can be taken to other sis for the next day.
Only presents for my kids as they are the only ones under 18.

No disposable table wear. Lining paper as a table runner and provide pencils for hang man etc between courses.

No crackers. I have a handful of nice paper bags that I will put useful stuff in as well as some crap. Who needs a miniature plastic hair slide when you can have a can of beans?

No cards - emails or FB. All money I would've spent goes on a hamper for Women's Aid.

Kids have asked for an advent calendar but might do a treasure trail 'find a treat' instead as the chocolate is shite in advent calendars and I can't justify £50 on 2 Lego ones even if they will use the lego again.

grumiosmums comment of 7.35 just epitomises the competitive frugality on mumsnet. Almost wonder if s/he’s for real or just being goady to the pp whose comment it references.

I am totes for real. Would not have posted it on the average MN Xmas gifts thread, but this one is titled "A simple Christmas" so in this context I thought it was ok.

MERLY "No crackers. I have a handful of nice paper bags that I will put useful stuff in as well as some crap. Who needs a miniature plastic hair slide when you can have a can of beans?" A can of beans?!?!?!

I'd rather have a small chocolate. I mean I'm all for non waste and all that but you'd actually give out cans of beans in place of crackers? What's wrong with a small chocolate? (ethically sourced and produced of course, perhaps the Fair Trade produce from Oxfam). Then you would be supporting a farming community in a third world country instead of lining the pockets of mass corporations. Think on.

A can of beans instead of crackers at the Christmas table tho.... I mean....