Fucking Christmas duvets??

[sandylion]

I LOVE Christmas, so this is in no way a bah humbug thing, but does anyone else think it's getting way out of hand? Every year there is a new "thing"; Christmas jammies, Christmas eve boxes, advent calendar with actual toys (eg lego ones, playdoh ones etc), elf on the shelf, 24 advent Christmas books and now I see there are bloody Christmas duvet sets! When did these all become "traditions"? Only in the last 5 years? I sound like my mother! Christmas has become over-commercialised! AIBU or is it expensive enough without having to add to the expense! Imagine if you have more than 1 child! Is it competitive parenting? Is it over-compensation for shit parenting? Am I just being an old cow? Sorry I just saw the Christmas duvet tonight and it's proved to be my tipping point.

Am keen to get some festive kitchen roll to mop up the festive spillages. Will pass on the rest.

DH would like a gin advent calendar, but saw one that cost £150! Crazy.

elf on the shelf is sinister!

My kids have Xmas blankets (we snuggle up with them on the sofa) and Xmas pjs. They come out on 1st December with the advent calendar and advent candle.
That's about it.
We see family on Xmas eve an sometimes go to the Xmas service at church (depends what time it is)
Then we will have a film night before bed.
I must admit to being tempted by snowman toilet roll this year! :)

I don't do Christmas duvets, but only because we have special winter sets that are so fabulous to sleep in the DC whinge when it gets to spring and they come off!

I am weird over invested though. I have cushions, curtains, pictures, blankets for the sofa etc. Actually, I have them for each season and swap them all four times a year. I have colour coded bags for everything and it goes in the loft.

We have a smallish 3 bed semi btw!

We're doing the book advent thing this year. I have wrapped a mix of favourite books, books my DD used to love and hasn't chosen in a while and some new books in there as well. We have several stories every night anyway so plan on letting them choose (DD is 3, DS is just 1) one to unwrap between them each evening. I can't wait, my DD loves books and will be so excited!

Everybody pulling the face, is that because your dc don't like books?

pullthecracker a tampon nativity scene! I love it. Shame I'm really bad at crafts.

We've got the Christmas bedding,fist time last year.

I've stopped myself from being the Insane Christmas lady(for the time being but I don't know how long I can stop her) this year and we'll all use the Christmas bedding I bought for all 7 of us last year.

I love Christmas but I've never done the elf on the shelf and the 24 books is a new own on me and I won't be doing that.We have thousands of books as it is I think my poor DH would give up if I came home with 24 more.

Each to their own, ultimately.

We don't decorate until Christmas Eve; same as when I was a child. We do have Christmas place mats and coasters for the table and I tend to get Christmassy napkins.

Don't do Elf on a Shelf, PJs, bedding (unless someone requested it as a gift, I wouldn't do it 'just because...'), etc. In the past, mine have had a regular advent calendar and a chocolate one, however, this year they are having Lego ones as I've finally given in - they are 16, 14 and 13 so have been patient! They don't know this yet but they are sacrificing the daily chocolate for this!

Christmas Eve we have a family candlelit meal followed by getting into PJs (kids only) whilst we have Christmas stories with hot chocolate and a liebkuchen (sp?) from the tree - as these are homemade they are BIG! They hang up their stockings and go to bed. This year may be when the eldest starts going out for the evening so things may be changing.

Rudolph- wrapping books they already own possibly works at 1 and 3, I imagine mine would be a bit put out unwrapping their own stuff, even though they like books. Might as well wrap their tooth brush and school uniforms.

We have 'Christmas duvets' BUT they are red tartan ones and one with a photographic penguin print so can be used all winter. Also have two Christmas bath mats, lots of Christmas tea towels (were gifts and get used all year), several Christmas tablecloths (oil cloth one gets used all December, fabric ones over Christmas itself) and several fleece blankets that were bought for Christmases but get used all year.

We do the Christmas Eve pyjamas (get used all year, don't buy Christmas prints just normal ones) and we have an elf but it's not the creepy shelf one and she doesn't report back on behaviour- she just brings the advent calendars on 1st December, leaves the pjs on 24th December and does silly things in between.

None of this has cost much and most of it gets used all year- I wouldn't waste the money on things that only got used for a few days!

YABU.

They do everything with hearts at valentines. Halloween has gone mental and we now have Grandparents day and of course you just HAVE to do something for St Patricks.

Unless someone is matching you to the supermarket at gunpoint and forcing you to buy things then just keep walking.

Its a marvellous thing called self control.

Commercialism only works if people buy into it. Otherwise companies go bust or simply don't do it next year.

dementedma - I just had a look at mini book advent calendars, and the ones I found were mostly based around Christian/Bible stories and the Nativity - might that work for you if you wanted to go back to an advent calendar? They did look rather nice, I have to say - this is one of them but there are others :)

Thanksthumbwitches. We used to have one of those but sadly a few of the mini books have been lost over the years.

MrsDeVere I'm exactly the same.

In the past my DH,my Mother and my Father have all threatened to superglue me to a chair on the 1st of November.

Now everyone has realized that I would just go Christmas shopping with the chair stuck to me so they've now admitted defeat and let me get on with it

Buying things that you would buy a non Christmas version of anyway, viz food, drinks, loo roll childrens' books, etc. fab, even duvet covers at a push.
Inventing new things, like that shitty elf. BAD.

The sheer amount of utter guff that goes along with Christmas nowadays gives me the rage. People stretch it out for a month. A month for one day. All elves on a shelf should be shot. What absolute shit .

i did the book advent for my ds for a few years now,i own a few books like the snowman and the night before christmas also is the book we read on the 24th,but i get most of the books from the library so he gets a variety.Ds is now 9 i don't think he'll be that into it this year.
I own a christmas duvet but can be used all winter as its more a nodic theme

I actually quite like the idea of Christmas duvets.
It always takes me so much longer to get the duvets covers dry in the winter, I have been thinking of getting a couple of spares for the DC, and it might be fun to have a christmassy one .

I have seen book advent calendars in the bookshop - they are teeny tiny little books, about 8cmx8cm, and only a few flimsy pages, more pamphlets really, it's not like being given 24 novels or beautiful picture books.

There are loads of different types of advent calendars too - candle ones, tea ones, toy ones, aforementioned book ones, magic trick ones, toiletries, perfume, beer etc. I actually thought it was a German thing. I have also seen books with 24 stories, or 24 chapters or something, and you have to cut open each page each day. Quite like that idea too.

I have always bought the DC toy advent calendars because we are away from home for Christmas, and it's a good way of giving them one of their presents without having to carry it with us on an aeroplane. They always have to have small and light Christmas presents that can fit in a suitcase.

reni my understanding was that it was the surprise of which book would it be tonight, not that I'm tricking them into thinking they are presents. We have some new Christmas books and i am going to engineer it so that 'the night before Christmas' is the one kept for Christmas eve. I think I saw this as aimed at younger children anyway as older children's books aren't always designed to be read and finished in one day

Scone
" I have cushions, curtains, pictures, blankets for the sofa etc. Actually, I have them for each season and swap them all four times a year. I have colour coded bags for everything and it goes in the loft.

We have a smallish 3 bed semi btw!"

I am pretty minimal with this kind of stuff. Kids only ever have 3 pairs of trousers, a few tops, 2 cardis, we own 2 sets of towels and 2 duvet covers per bed so this SHOULD be anathema to me, but I'm strangely drawn to it Scone. I don't know if it's the appeal of having a regular clean and change, or the fact you're so in control of it all whereas I'm drowning in stuff here. Oddly it seems to make sense in a way that christmas duvets and jumpers just don't.

Cider buying christmas kitchen roll because it's the cheapest is completely different and sensible IMO. Something consumable that you need to buy anyway I can cope with, even tampons.

Mrs it certainly is,I admit I need help for my affliction just not sure I want that kind of help

I did exactly the same with the Christmas Duvets and by the time I gave in to my obsession I ended up having to go to several shops to get them for all of us.

I just wish I'd given in at begining now.

I am not swapping my high thread count Egyptian cotton duvet cover for an itchy and scratchy one with Christmas pugs on. No siree.