Christmas nonsense that can get in the sea

[YimYum]

Matching family pyjamas
Matching family jumpers
Photoshoots involving the above
The Elf
Christmas Eve boxes
Hot chocolate stations
Light trails

This is all just absolute nonsense that people are being sucked into by advertising and social media #makingmemories scams.

There, you're welcome. From a Grinch.

We have Christmas duvet covers. I got them about 5 years ago. I love them.
but pretty much everything else on this thread that’s mentioned, I’m nodding and agreeing.

I mean, if that's your winning argument against people getting hiked up about Christmas jumper photos then sure! You do you! I'll continue to talk to my family and friends in Asia/Australia/America via facetime and WhatsApp and the rest of it and living in my otherwise social media free bubble 😄i honestly only see the stuff the OP is moaning about mentioned on Mumsnet, but can only imagine it must be prolifically irritating for so many people to be irate about it.

@SharpOpalNewt by herd fuckwittery I mean the ridiculous jumping on the band wagon of consuming things that are totally unnecessary, not part of a traditional Christmas and have been invented by marketing people to sell you more, mostly plastic, mostly disposable, rubbish that you do not need and you might not really be able to afford. I don't mean that you shouldn't spend time with your loved ones, participate in group events in public, and thoroughly enjoy Christmas.

Where is the need for a Christmas Eve box in addition to a stocking and presents? Its not teaching children anything other than how to consume and be entitled. You barely even see a nativity scene these days, the whole thing is literally just sell sell sell.

I'm a renounced Catholic. My Christmas has nothing to do with the nativity scene. It's about my family and friends.

@K0OLA1D perfect! Good for you. No need to buy a load of tat to spend quality time with family and friends.

I am very grateful that my children are adults and so there is no pressure from them. We always kept it simple but that was easier when there was no social media.
It mostly passes me by now, though my mum is in a care home which is decorated like an American Christmas movie, and that's quite fun to look at.
I went through an extremely grinchy phase myself @YimYum but I put a spin on the lights being everywhere as just brightening up the place on dark evenings and ignore the rest. I'm sure it's easier to ignore than if I had school age children so sympathies to anyone who feels forced into going along with it!

Facebook posts of a Christmas tree with the caption "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"

I don't. But I also don't have a nativity scene. That doesn't equal Christmas.

@K0OLA1D

I am no religious fanatic myself, I don't HAVE a nativity scene in the house either. What I said is you barely even SEE one these days.

Given that the OED's primary definition of Christmas is:
NOUN

1. *The festival marking the birth of Christ*, celebrated by most Western Christian churches on the 25th of December (see note). Also more generally: an extended period including the days immediately before and after the 25th of December, commonly devoted to festivity and celebration.

I am aware we are barely a Christian country and extremely multicultural but my point remains, the message of Christmas and even the spirit of it, has been lost to a money making environment destroying machine.

What’s sad is when you do go to places like the Christmas markets etc is all the people posing and re posing to get the perfect shot for insta. Telling their kids how to pose for that ‘spontaneous’ social media moment.

@HangryBeaker I see nativity scenes all over the place.
Churches usually display one outside.
Toy shops sell them - the Early Learning Centre Happyland range has one. ELC toys are sold through The Entertainer toy shop these days and every branch has a big nativity scene in their window because the company has Christian owners and they are big on things like that.
All the typical gift shops and crafty places sell them (or make your own ones)

How did you get from “herd fuckwittery” to Thatcher’s “there’s no such thing as society”? Please show your workings out!

My hot chocolate station is a kettle, a cup and a tin of instant hot chocolate. Very stylish.

I haven’t ever done anything on that list. I pretty much still emulate the Christmas’s I had in the 1970s as a kid; a fake tree, some Christmas tat placed around the front room, plenty of food and some tubs of chocolates. Job done.

Meh you are being a Grinch OP. I also hate wasteful tat BUT we do matching PJ's and the elf and I don't think it's wasteful! We wear the PJ's all year not just Christmas so it's basically just something we would have bought anyway, just happens to be Christmas themed and we wait till then to get them and our elf is 10 years old so far. So he's been used quite a lot already and the kids won't bloody let us stop. Reckon we'll be doing it till they're 18 🙄

One thing I do hate is how every man and his dog has to be seen to be doing the typical Christmas things. Social media is to blame. Christmas markets for example have changed so much in the last few years. They are just packed and crowded with queues everywhere. Generally you can't get near the stalls and people are just falling over themselves to get a photo with the viral festive bubble tea or whatever it the latest trend is. It's not about the experience because the experience is shit. It's about being photographed with the latest fad to try and look cool. Even going back a few years it wasn't this bad. I remember visiting a local Christmas fair and just having a causal mooch. Not anymore.

So this op is why I choose to stay home with my pjs, hot chocolate station and elf. People can't get the magic outdoors anymore so they have to make it at home.

I agree with most of these except for holiday bedding, which can be just cozy/wintery (like a plaid flannel duvet) vs Christmas-specific and therefore used throughout winter. The elf on the shelf is the worst offender imo. I also admit to rolling my eyes when I see people decorating for Christmas and putting up giant fake trees the day after Halloween.

Oh wow there's never been a thread like this before, especially not last year, especially not the year before that or even before that. Ans it's definitely the only one if it's kind every season. Incredibly original.

@TinkerTiger You saw the title of the thread, you clicked on the thread, you read the thread, you typed a response and you clicked post.

You did not have to do any of those things. You could have just rolled up your eyes and scrolled past.

People are entitled to differing opinions and expressing them.

I did, well spotted. And yes, I’m expressing my differing opinion, you’re very good at stating facts, well done.

Ah but @allthatfalafel my DS wears his christmas socks all year round, and needs yearly replacements as they all get worn through. And did the same with his christmas pjs when he was younger.

Martyrdom

I love most of the things on the list. Don't do matching pyjamas but don't see how they're wasteful if you need pyjamas, wouldn't most children just wear them throughout the year before they grow out of them.

My mum would have never done the elf or anything else like this. She was too busy falling over herself trying to better herself than the commoners who would do such stuff. Same for Halloween, bonfire night and other occasions.

I overcompensate for my mums lack of doing anything that might make us look common. Didn't make her any happier not doing it.

So glad the elf wasn't a thing when our two were little (because the tooth fairy once left the eldest a letter and that became a thing!). DH doesn't wear PJs so that was never going to be a thing here thankfully. Christmas Eve boxes too - in the bin! We already do Boxing Day presents - yes, I know! It started when the kids were smaller, we'd give them money and we'd all get each other a £10 gift which went under the tree until Boxing Day when we have Christmas dinner at home. Now they're adults and don't even live here we still do it. Only it's not a tenner a gift! Bonkers but at least we don't have to do stockings (or give them money for gifts!). Anyway, Merry Christmas 😁

Same, children at the primary school where I work often come in wearing a 'Christmas jumper' for an extra layer on cold days, whatever the time of year. Jingle all the way, I say 😉

Agree on whole with you do you mentality but personally don't agree with diss at light trails.
Very little to do with young teens, sure there's a gap in the market.
Obvs nothing santa related, they don't like panto, but ask each year to do the light trail and their faces light up in the midst of lights and twinkly music. And a hot choc at end of course!