Worried about dc growing up and not fitting in Christmas days out and activities

[Sweetappley]

im worried about dc growing up and not fitting in Christmas days out and activities in the run up to Christmas. The years are so fast but there are so many days out, Christmas breaks and activities I want them to experience. Does anyone else feel like this?

I'm not British and I'd never heard of anyone going to Lapland till I moved to the UK. Sounds like a con tbh going all that way for some overpriced Santa stuff

I understand what you're saying OP. There's such a small window (4-10?) where they are the perfect age for Christmas and you want to make as many memories as possible.

My daughters are 14 & 18 now but we still enjoy loads of lovely Christmas activities. It doesn't all end with secondary school (ok maybe Santa visits LOL) it just changes.

What children - in fact all of us - want and most benefit from is relaxed and comfortable time with loved ones.

Christmas activities? Do you mean Christmas Day and presents? My DC are now early 20s. They usually went to see a Santa in the run up. They sometimes went to pan to with a grandparent( was their Christmas present from them). They did the nativity at schools and we went to the school/ pta Christmas fair. What else is there?

“Lots of people asking what type. I mean theme parks like Alton towers etc, centre parcs Christmas breaks, Lapland/and uk, polar express, just off the top of my head.”
These are not usual. Those are holidays.

I'm certain I've read this exact post before.

Christmas with family together is enough.
All the paid for activities are just add ons.
You don't need to try to do them all, that way madness lies.

No...it's all ridiculous and overwhelming. And yes you've posted about this before

You don't have to do it all while they still believe. Lapland is a fantastic place to visit even as a non believer possibly even better as it's less intense and you can just enjoy it for what it is.

We still do plenty with our teens in the run up to Christmas it's just less Santa orientated and more spending time as a family orientated. We have done go karting, quad biking, paintball, lama tracking, high ropes etc over the years not all in one go. We just spend time together without it being wall to wall Santa and reindeers it's actually quite nice.

My kids are late teens/early 20s and other than a couple of Christmas markets and school fairs they have never done Christmas days out and they haven’t missed out. We get nice food and play games/jigsaws, for us that’s Christmas. Fairgrounds are definitely not part of Christmas for us.

No, the things you are talking about might be fun at the time and may save you time in that you don't need to do any of the organisation. But it's the time spent together doing the little things that really make family memories.

When I was a kid, I just enjoyed seeing glimpses of people's trees through the windows. I also used to enjoy helping my Mam ice the Christmas cake.

Kids don't need center parcs, lapland and polar express one after the other. It's all so bloody frenetic.

Nuts, I tell you, nuts. And on that matter, I'd be lucky if I found a nut at the bottom of my stocking (I'm joking at this point, but feel free to join in with me in the spirit of the four Yorkshire men)

Our kids are grown but the Christmas activities they remember and talk about is going to the pantomime and going to gawp at garishly decorated houses 😂 That’s it! You don’t need to throw money at it.

Is this for real? Who the hell does this?
Just do ordinary, sweet, loving family things. Walks and baking and Xmas films and making decorations and living an ordinary normal life.
What on earth are you trying to make up for by going to such extraordinary and unnecessary lengths? Are you competing with someone?

there are so many days out, Christmas breaks and activities I want them to experience

such as?

most things are designed to fleece adults out of money and give them photo opps for Instagram

I think we had lovely childhood Christmases for myself and then my own children. I don't think we did any actual activities other than things at school. There seems to be a lot of pressure now.

Growing up in the 90s-early 2000s Christmas was absolutely exciting and magical. I was usually taken to see a Father Christmas at a garden centre but other than that all the really exciting bits I remember were just- getting the decorations out of the loft and doing the Christmas tree, all of the houses with their Christmas lights and driving around to see the really impressive ones in the neighbourhood, all of the Christmas stuff at school like crafts and nativity plays and carol concerts, having a chocolate every morning from my generic Cadbury supermarket advent calendar, the ‘sleeps till Santa’ song on the local radio every morning.

There was no elf on a shelf, Lapland, polar express, North Pole breakfast, Christmas Eve boxes, December 1st boxes etc etc so it just shows you do NOT need all that to create wonderful, magical memories.

Of course there’s nothing wrong with doing any of that but there is such thing as too much. I sometimes see kids on Instagram doing endless Christmas experience type things and wonder whether the novelty wears off quite quickly.

I'll eat my hat if this isn't the same poster!!

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5216760-worried-about-dc-growing-up-to-fit-in-all-the-christmas-experiences?page=1

Did you not get enough answers on the first thread?

I actually do understand where you’re coming from OP, and get a similar feeling when calculating how few years of summer holidays we have left that the DC will want to/ be able to come with us. That sort of time slipping through our fingers sensation and feeling anxious that we will feel regret about not doing everything we hoped and planned to with our children (just like that ABBA song!)

i would recommend Lapland (went through Canterbury travel which yes was ££ but totally worth it, we reminisce about it every year). Once good thing about going to Lapland - best to wait till your youngest is aged 5 ish to be able to remember it as well as cope with the cold- is that most other Christmas experiences then hold so little appeal in comparison in future years, so we haven’t bothered doing much since then!

Alton Towers is one that you can do when they’re a bit older and more into theme parks, we did enjoy that once in the Christmas holidays.

Yes, I totally get that none of these things are essential to enjoying a great Christmas. I grew up dirt poor with no holidays and never flew on a plane until my late teens but have fond memories of simple Christmases so understand that. But I do empathise with where you are coming from.

Our kids are grown up now but they were little in the 2004 to 2014 decade. We took them to see Santa at the local shopping centre when they were really young. Other than that their Christmas activities were the school fair, the school Christmas Play, maybe some carols and hot chocolate on the local High Street and the local pantomime some years (but usually after Christmas). Oh and one year we had to go into the West End for something so we did go to Hamleys. Poor deprived babies.

No rush. You can still do things with adult children eg light trails panto etc
Don't stress don't be anxious you want them to want to come visit when adults for relaxed vibe

Snap! 😂

Christmas activities weren’t a thing in the 70/80s. There were carol concerts at school and end of term concert. We went carol singing in our neighbourhood and went to a ballet or play. Christmas was sociable. But there wasn’t the endless stream of tacky nonsense.

Get off Facebook and Insta. Don’t compare your cutting room floor with everyone else’s showreel!

Have you posted about this before OP?