To boycott the school Christmas jumper day?

[TheBigBumTheory]

I've just heard the glad tidings that our PTA has decreed that every child shall report to school on a certain date wearing a jumper that can only be worn for a few weeks a year and will not fit them next year. Oh and bring a pound to take part.

I am fairly anticonsumerist and dcs will not be taking part, I will happily donate cakes/chocolate to the Christmas fair and support the pta in other ways.

We have just ignored the superhero day for much the same reason-total waste of money for sweat shop outfits made of plastic materials.
We will donate to Children in Need.

Bah bloody humbug

And not 'all children love' dressing up either, as a pp tried to suggest. Ds1 hates it with a passion and always has done. He's perfectly content to be in his uniform even when he's the only one, although he rarely is, there's usually a good handful or more. I too loathe dress up and am just boggling at the posters spending real money to the tune of £30 on once wear jumpers! SERIOUSLY?!?! Why on earth would toy think to do that?! Just donate the money if you have it to burn...

DS hates dressing up too and couldn't be persuaded into a superhero outfit yesterday. A Spiderman tshirt was as far as we went and even that he already had in his wardrobe.

Christmas jumpers would result in a big NO from both him and me.

Buy some cheap christmas pyjamas with a fleecy jumper style top then wear the top to school. The PJs can then be worn for the rest of the winter.

Of just buy a 'make your own christmas card' pack from the pound shop (the l was with the felt shapes) and tack them onto a plain jumper.

We have themed dress down days EVERY MONTH the kids love it but it is a huge pita! in not organised enough for this shit

DS (aged 10) just hates the dressing up days. He took his CIN donation to school, and simply wore his casual clothes. He said he was creating a new superhero called Captain Casual

I hadn't heard about the christmas jumper thing, and looking at the school events timetable I don't think they're joining in for this one. At least I have a heads up for once, if they do it after all.

DD reackons she's heard something about it for her school, and both DCs like the idea of making their own unique jumpers, so charity shop tops and some decs is the way to go.

Sorry, it should be DD reckons, not reakons.

It's funny isn't it? At our school the parents complain that there aren't enough themed days.

I made my DS a sheep costume with two poundland beanie hats and stuff we already had last year... The white hat formed the headpiece, I cute the black hat into 3 pieces to make ears and a tail. I stitched the tail to his beige joggers and the ears to the white beanie. He wore his light brown sweater
Oh, and the tail came off afterwards. £2 and a bit of imagination/effort/hardly any time on a costume seems reasonable; if you really can't manage that then, imo, you should feel free to ignore the request with absolute equanimity and feel fine about telling people why, if they ask

I love your DS's approach FryOneFatManiac I'm sure he has a bright future ahead of him!

You can always improvise.

DD went to the superhero day in her favourite panda jumper, with a bit of fabric draped round her for a cape ("superpanda")

On christmas jumper day, she could wear her favourite clothes accessorised with tinsel, or you could pin/tack a christmassy design onto a regular jumper.

PTAs spend hours of their own time trying to raise money to buy all the children in school things that ever-decreasing school budgets can't buy. Hurrah for all those PTA volunteers out there!
YABU, I don't think it would matter what the PTA did, someone would complain. Enter the spirit & tack some tinsel or holly on.

Stomps off to tuck into an extra-large slice of lemon drizzle!

oh hell, I hope my boy's school doesn't do this... we don't celebrate christmas, for a start, so I'd begrudge even having to decorate a jumper with decorations on it for him to not be made to feel even more different!

(I'd still have to do it for his sake :( )

Last year my dd's school did this, but earlier in the week they all made a Christmassy motif in class, and brought them home with a letter about the dress up day and asking us to use them to decorate a jumper. So no unnecessary spends on cheap clothes, just a donation to charity on the day. (We're not in a very well off area, and the school is very careful to make all dress-up days pretty vague/easy to achieve.)

We went for the 'cheap' option of making a superhero outfit for tiny DS (2 but wearing 12-18m). It was a total pain. We both work full time. I had to beg the bits we needed and persuade my mum to come and help me (I'm totally cack-handed). I could just do without it tbh.

Oh and even the 'wear x colour t-shirt for sports day' - we inevitable don't have the colour and have to go and buy one. Every fucking year presumably. And no doubt DS will need a different colour from DD. Yes you can get plain polo shorts cheap - in a three pack - one of which is worn and the rest will prob end up in the charity shop. Total waste of money.

Thanks BogStandard, it was a lovely moment. He was a very enthusiastic, individual sort of kid. Once in 6th form he went into school in a Superman costume just because he felt like it! Apparently none of the teachers mentioned it, His Headteacher rolled his eyes when he saw him in the corridor. I wish I had been there.

Teachers hate these days too!
Kids are hyper, we have to dress up too and it usually pretty short notice.

Once a term max general non- uniform is enough but I hate it when they specify.
We try to keep it vague so all can take part but even 'spots' for CIN had half of the staff scrabbling around. Most just wore spotty socks.

We also do world book day, wear red for RND, aspiration day (a profession) also a pain in the bum.

Pretty poor area so lots don't bother, not all parents speak English so some kids just don't understand and are excluded. The best this time was a mum who sewed mini craft pom-poms on an old jumper probably only cost a pound and looked amazing.

Either buy from charity shop or make (decorate) your own. This goes for Christmas jumpers or superhero costumes.

We've just had dress up for remembrance day, children in need and now Fridays newsletter mentioned Christmas jumper day. Sometime after this is the twelve days of Christmas dress up.
Dd is going in an old jumper with last years Christmas reindeer cross stitch tacked to the front.

Dress up for Remembrance Day?? The mind boggles!

What did they dress up as for remembrance day ? Soldiers ?

We had to wear Christmas jumpers on the kids rugby tour. In march ffs. The organisers said 'we picked this theme because everyone's got a Christmas jumper'. Er, no. We had to borrow 5. Except couldn't get one to fit me so had to buy an actual nice one for a tenner off ebay.

Our school does non uniform, no theme for children in need etc. No overexcited kids, money raised. Job done.

So, if the teachers hate these days and the parents (mostly) hate these days... who actually likes them, and who arranges for them to happen?

For Pudsey day I stuck pom poms on a plain sweat shirt that I already had. I will replace them with white cotton wool snow balls, tinsel pom poms or snowflakes if they are asked to wear xmas jumpers. (then recycle/upcycle the next year)