To wonder if you could get rid of one Christmas Tradition

[Atthewelles]

what it would be?

For me, it would be Christmas cards. They're so much hassle to write and get sent off, people get all worried if they get a card from someone they forgot to send one to, people who no longer have any real contact or interest in each other anymore are afraid to be the first one to break the habit of sending cards etc etc etc
I think it would take a lot of the stress out of Christmas if this tradition ceased or was confined to people you are still in touch with but do not see on a regular basis. So no cards to neighbours, siblings who live down the road, couple you met on holidays 15 years ago and wouldn't recognise if you fell over them in the street......

(It's OK not to do cards!!! Thought it was just me. Wo-hoo!! :) ) As my family are all in Manchester and I live in the Home Counties can I nominate for the Christmas Room 101 the annual ritual that is the M6 continuous traffic jam? All those kids wedged in the back of people carriers surrounded by parcels and suitcases, little faces miserably staring through fogged up windows, mum and dad in the front seats talking to each other through gritted teeth. I'd happily give all that a miss.

Just one?

Cards then.

OR i'd like it to be presents for young children only, cards for everyone else. The cost of it all is getting utterly ridiculous now.

(that would cut down on the thank you notes ay? )

That song where someone screams "it's christmas" really loudly. I'd happily trade in lots of nice bits of the season to be rid of it.

Christmas cards and the ubiquity of dried fruit and brandy in Christmas fayre.

I love bread sauce though! With a bit of nutmeg on top dolloped over some turkey leg meat. Mmm.

I would abolish turkey. Too much faff and stress to cook.

I would also abolish cards and presents for anyone over the age of 16.

Cranberry sauce. It's just jam, and jam on poultry is wrong. And the alternative Christmas desert that my MIL insists upon. It's like a chocolate pavlova. I miss Christmas pudding!

Not cards as, whilst I hate doing them, I love receiving them .

I'd abolish the expectation of visitors that you'll have the right/expected stuff to eat in. Every year I buy nibbles, nuts, and random buffet monstrosities that other people expect us to have but eat little of. Heaven knows how many bags of dusty nuts I've thrown out over the years and forget recipes for left over turkey, I want recipes with left over vol au vents and cheese and chive dip as their key ingedients!

Cant' only pick one, so:

Sprouts - I used to have them heaped on my plate as a kid (at parent's insistence.) Finally tolerated 3 per year, then 1 per year. This year not having any. Look like teeny cabbages (I like cabbage), but taste like farts!

Cranberry saws - Never understood why people put fruit on meat. Mum bought some once and we had the same jar hanging around for several years because nobody ate it. Finally got chucked last year!

A skinny Santa - it's just not right!

Humbug!

Lol... Cranberry SAUCE, not saws!!!

I'm not wild about all the religious stuff...

Having MIL for the day. I love her to bits, and she adores the DCs, but once, just once, I'd like her to go to BIL instead.

Paper crowns. WTAF.

The meat, wrapping presents and cards.

Sellotape. It is the work of the devil.

AIBU to have kicked it's stick-to-everything-except-the-parcel backside.

God yes, cards. Who CARES? My mum gets so pissed off if I don't send one. She's the only person I bother to send to though, I just don't see the point.

(sorry couldn't pick one)
Paper crowns, that made me lol. It is random.

I would like shops to shut over xmas so I don't have to work it!

Very easy to ditch cards - I haven't sent any since 2006. Life's too short. I still have friends and the world has kept on turning.

I think this one might be controversial, but I've never had a tree. Like Phoebe from Friends, the annual massacre of the fir trees does nothing for me. And I never have enough money left for one after all the present shopping and nights out!

Stuff with dried fruit in it. Mince pies and Christmas pudding, I'm looking at you!

I LOVE bread sauce though.

The tree! It worries me, we never get it up till school finishes and we ain't got the room!

For a few years when we had toddlers we painted it on the french window!

Spending it with inlaws

Christmas crackers. Seriously, a paper hat, a shite joke and a naff 'novelty gift'.

People spend up to £20 on these!

Made my own this year. They are rubbish but the novelty gifts are at least useful and the jokes are funny. And NO PAPER HATS!

I have a friend who keeps a spreadsheet of who sent his and his wife cards and if you go two years without sending them one they don't send you one in the third year IYSWIM. I take great pleasure in sending them a card every three years to screw with the anal system.

My mil coming round and tickling me with her tash when she goes in for her yearly kiss.

The in-laws' annual board game fest on Boxing Day. I hate every single sodding second of it.

After that, cards and Brussels sprouts