To hate the idea of Christmas Eve hampers?

[leobear]

I know, I know.....Scrooge! But surely the magic of Christmas Eve is the simplicity of it, and the anticipation of what is to come. A hamper is really a big box of presents, and feels to me like overkill. But maybe I'm just a misery guts!

[Mooycow]

Ihave done new pj's on christmas eve since the kids were little , (ever since i got back the pictures of them in old pj's one year)
i wrapped them and when they asked can we open a present it was always pj's.
They are 19 and 23 now still do it ,onesies last year.
xmas eve - prepare all veg
midnight mass
open new pj's
mulled wine and either santa clause the movie or the grinch sometimes we sneak in muppets christmas carol

[TheGhostofAmandaClarke]

showofbloodystumps your name is making me feel a bit queasy. But your post was excellent.

Hi Zing

[Emie3]

I Must Also Be A Scrooge Me And My Partner Can't Agree On The Pj's On Christmas Eve..I Dont See Why People Do This... Santa Comes On Christmas Eve When Kids Are In Bed So I Think Christmas Eve Presents Are Taking That Magic Away And people Dont Get Presents The Night Before Their Birthday... I do Celebrate Christmas Eve See The Family Then Watch Movies And Have Snacks Then I Will Be Putting Carrots, Mince Pies And Milk Etc Out For Santa And The Reindeers Before My LO Goes To Bed (Her First Christmas This Year) But I Think She Should Get All Her Presents Xmas Day When Santa Comes... Do I Sound Bad? X

[ravenAK]

Oh dear.

We get the Box of Xmas Pyjamas out of the loftspace first weekend in December - it's with the tree stand, decorations etc.

Xmas pyjamas are then permitted until Twelfth Night (new ones all round Xmas Eve).

I never actually intended this - we just started with the cute Xmas Eve new pyjama thing when ds was a baby, & then what do you do with reindeer-printed flannel pyjamas once Xmas is over? Box them up & put away with the rest of the Xmas stuff, I decided.

Three dc later, they end up with about 5 pairs each at the start of every December.

So there's no bloody way I'm adding hot choc mugs & dvds into the mix...

[OhMerGerd]

My dad's side is from a country where you do the Christmas eve thing but we just do the gathering of the clan, special shared meal and midnight mass bit, no pressies, as Santa brings them all. I LOVE IT as do the DC who can't sleep unless a) they've smelled the Christmas ham cooking ( always cooked on Christmas Eve evening ready for Boxing Day), b) hung up their stockings by the fire place with carrot, water sherry and mince pie, c) rolled their eyes at me reciting 'twas the night before Christmas and all through the house...' am dram style d) been issued with their 7.30 waitrose shopping list ( I turned being unprepared and panicked into a fun Christmas eve tradition 1 does veg/fruit 2 does turkey & meat 3 does dairy & sweets 4 does staples and household we all meet at wines and spirits). Yee ha bring it on!
Hampers no . PJs and slippers are pressies to be opened on Christmas Day .
DC are 23 and 16. Santa never misses this house which means they must be very good girls!

[Twilightsparklesmama]

I only started doing the Xmas eve hamper last year after reading about it on here! I put Xmas pjs sweets a DVD a book and reindeer food. I love it we all watched the DVD (which was Arthur Christmas and will be going back in this years as we haven't watched it since) ate the sweets. We then bathed the kids put the new pjs on put out Santas mince pie and the reindeer food on the path and had the book for bedtime story. Magical

[cory]

ShowOfBloodyStumps Wed 16-Oct-13 21:48:17
"Oh I love the delicious irony of people complaining that a Christmas Eve hamper is materialistic and confirming this by stating that it detracts from the magic of the presents on Christmas Day. "

This.

I can't for the life of me see that it matters if you have a Christmas hamper or a stocking or a Santa who knocks on the door or a Santa who comes down the chimney or whether you leave carrots out for the reindeer or whisky for Santa: the whole point is that families are playing and having fun together- exactly how they do it doesn't matter.