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.

But it's got pugs! And antlers! And it will rustle mysteriously because of a high polyester content. You might even get sparks. Scrooge.

I hear you I do think the Gin filled Advent Calendar is inspired though

The only notable Christmas tradition in this house is bringing the Christmas tree home in a 2-seater car with the roof down, because we can't fit a decent-sized one in the back of the Land Rover.

Understood, Rudolph, people are not doing faces because of their non-bibliophile kids, their kids are simply 6+.

I'm an absolute sucker for Christmas tat, but I must say that having a second "advent calendar" to count down to December 01 is the madness thing I've ever heard.

The main thing that saddens me about people going into hyper drive about Christmas in November is when you then hear of the same people taking everything down again first thing on Boxing Day because "Christmas is over now". What happened to the 12 days of feasting and loveliness? It's all front loaded now.

My decorations go up around 23rd and come down around the 27th. I just can't have that level of clutter for the required amount of time.
Come Boxing day I am putting all the new stuff the DC got away in their bedrooms.

I would definitely have Christmas duvets if I had spare cash and storage space. I love Christmas, and I equally appreciate the lovely spending time with family stuff and all the brilliantly tacky things you can buy. My DS is only going to be little for a while so I'm going to fit in as much Christmas as I can while its magical for him! I am going to get us all new pyjamas for Christmas Eve, this totally makes sense to me as there are lots of Christmas photos of me and my siblings in our ratty old ones as we hadn't unwrapped our new ones yet.

I love the sound of the sister that has Thanksgiving! I always fancied a Twelfth Night party myself.

We have an elf who visits but I don't feel like it's OTT because we don't really do the Jesus stuff so it balances out .

I love Christmas

My neighbours have put their external christmas decs up already. There is a giant inflatable snowman and a santa going up and down a ladder.

Wont be doing elf on the shelf or choc/toy/book advent calenders or mahoosive piles of presents. Am sure DD will grow up not feeling like she has missed out.

We have winter duvet covers because our house is fecking cold and brushed cotton makes all the difference. Checks and nice patterns though. I do a winterising session in October where I bring out all the wool blankets in the living room, sort out the firebaskets and rearrange accessories ready for winter. Christmas pants, socks, teatowels etc (all gifts from my MIL )stay firmly in the loft until mid december!

it is pretty nuts
as previous posters have said, it's the Christmas Eve hamper thing that gets me
surely the one day of the year when your kids do not need ANY MORE TREATS AND STUFF is Christmas Eve?

I also love Christmas. Really love it. For me the whole 12 days after Christmas, is still Christmas. We leave the decs up during that time and when I was little that whole time was about visiting relatives, watching Christmas TV, eating leftovers etc.

That's why I get a bit sad with the whole WE REALLY LOVE CHRISTMAS starting in November, because those are the people (well in my family they are) who by Boxing Day are fed up of the whole shebang, whip down all the decs, and head out to the sales. So I sometimes feel I am spending a month pretending Christmas isn't happening while the whole world is celebrating it and then 12 days celebrating it all by myself! I should probably get in step with everyone else I suppose.

It's a good job Jesus rose from the dead otherwise he'd be spinning in his grave at all this commericalised crap.

We're a bit Scandinavian in our house and the decor is all green with the odd troll hiding in the tree.

Bedding is actually a 'thing' in my family. Not new ones every year though, just a Christmassy set that goes on for the week. My grab had the same ones for my aunties all through childhood.
I want to buy mine this year to keep till the kids are grown up

Missing point of thread but ..... Can anyone remember Christmas badge style things you used to get probably around early 80s. They were a Santa or something and had a string the bottom and you pulled it and the legs and arms moved.
I d totally forgotten about them they were made of proper cheapy plastic but were amazing! ( was the Xmas tampon idea that reminded me )

My family has flown the nest.I have pre-war hand blown glass decorations,every kitch fifties fawn and bauble in that dirty pink glitter flock stuff and lovelies from up to this very day packed in trunks. Moved house globally many times. All very eclectic and a case history of how 'taste' changes.

My Dds despise 'stuff'.My Ddils don't know the extent...

The spectre of the 'SKIP' having to be sent for is very real and keeps me rolling around at night.

Got the 'wild buying heart feeling' yesterday in a huge happy bustling garden centre though...just love it all!!

I have a Christmas duvet

But you know what you are right we've started up a few new traditions ourselfs because if seeing things on Facebook such as the Christmas Eve box etc now to be fair I'm quite thrifty and so put things together myself for much cheaper but I totally see your point and it never ends and I often feel like oh that looks a good idea I'd love to do that for ds because someone had posted yet another idea on Facebook gaaaaaaah enough is enough !!!

Rudolph "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 hmm face, is that because your dc don't like books?"

Smugtastic

We don't really have any Christmas traditions as such. Me & the DCs bake something & decorate them with festive sprinkles etc. We also do popcorn & a movie on Christmas Eve - mostly to calm them down

I love, love Christmas and I have been enjoying (and contributing to) the Christmas threads. Having said that, I'm also aware that there are a lot of people and companies who view Christmas as a money making season.

Like everything else, it's down to personal choice.

I don't do the Christmas Eve box but it's a nice idea. DC gets new pyjamas for Christmas but we usually choose them together and they're not usually Christmas print ones. We always got new pyjamas for Christmas as kids so it's not a new thing. We have a selection of Christmas DVDs so we usually watch one every weekend in the run up to Christmas.

The Elf on the Shelf wasn't around when DC was small and I'm really glad. It sounds like way too much work having to come up with new scenarios every night. Also, I think he's a bit creepy looking. Instead, we have Santa's robin who sits on the garden wall and keeps an eye on things for Santa. DC is a bit gullible and hasn't copped that Santa's robin hangs around all year long .

We've cut back on presents a lot over the years and we do kriskindle now. It works out a lot cheaper and it's kinder for the environment in terms of unwanted presents/wrapping paper etc.

We don't go crazy in terms of decorating. We mainly decorate the sitting room. We have lots of lovely baubles for the tree and ornaments for the mantelpiece (some of them were bought on holidays) so it's nice to be re-united with them each December.

We buy a real tree so there's no point in putting it up too early or it would be dead by Christmas Day.

I know people who go totally OTT when it comes to decorating and buy Christmas bedding and shower curtains and bath mats etc. Well, as long as they can afford it, so be it. There are worse things they could be spending their money on.

Love the pine scented tampons idea . Whoever came up with it should patent it fast.

But but but .... if you don't buy the Christmassy Snowman loo roll, you don't get the joy of impersonating Aled Jones and singing 'I'm wiping someone's bum, I'm cleaning up the pooh - and wee!...'

Just us, okay .... (goes off to namechange)

I now NEED Christmassy loo roll and I blame you.

Agree that Christmas duvets are a step too far. Winter designs - fine. Brushed cotton - excellent. But yes - there's lots of stuff out there that's just turning Christmas into a vicious circle of more and more stuff and traditions and whatnot and gubbins that's actually taking it away from being just christmas.

Having said all that - I Santa did get everybody a christmas throw last year. My house can sometimes be a bit drafty so I had a few throws in the lounge to snuggle up in, but they would disappear into the dc's bedrooms or somebody would use several etc. I happened to be in Asda one day and they had loads of really soft micro plush fleecy throws for a fiver each. So one each appeared with each stocking for the dc, my mum and aunt (who were both staying with us), me, dh and the big family bear (aka there was a spare). They went down really well - there were several different designs and apart from the santa ones for the dc the rest were just wintery.

I was planning on putting them away and bringing them back out to mark the start of the festive season - but they never made it as they got too much use and the dc love snuggling in them still despite having santa on even in July. Mum and aunt took theirs home; must remember to remind them to bring them back again this year as not planning on buying them again. But for a fiver each they have been really good - wash them and they've come up like new. And they've been used most days. I did look for some more spring/summer-y ones but they only had the fleece ones rather than the microplush which were much softer and nicer. Hey ho, will carry on being festive all year round!

Noooo to pine scented tampons...! Ouch!

Imagine A and E heaving over the twelve days with complaints of thrush or worse,toxic shock from them and sad litigious- seeking photographs in the papers!