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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not get the Christmas jumper thing?

78 replies

jollyfrenchy · 15/12/2015 23:20

I don't get it. It seems to be the assumption now that everyone has a Christmas jumper. I don't spend a lot on clothes for myself or my kids (they have plenty of clothes though!) and object to paying £8-£15 for a jumper they can only wear for a couple of weeks, and which I don't even like! Their school has 'christmas jumper day', luckily I got them both one in the market second hand stall for £1.

On Christmas Day, we wear smart party clothes, just like we always did when I was a kid. Does anyone else still do that or does everyone wear silly jumpers now??? My girls have some lovely dresses they never get to wear so Christmas is one of the rare times they can dress up.

OP posts:

Fairylea · 16/12/2015 08:21

I think it's very elitist to have a Christmas jumper day at school where you not only have to buy a special jumper and also pay the £1. I think it's one of those things orchestrated by those with money who can't imagine what it's like to not have a spare £10 or so floating about.

Considering the general amount of food banks and child poverty at the moment I think it's pretty unfair to expect parents to fork out an extra £10 for each child at a time of year when lots are already struggling.

Sukkii25 · 16/12/2015 08:29

I agree with PP ^ Also are the woolly jumpers not too hot in class? Perhaps a Christmas T-shirt would be more appropriate and affordable.
In saying that my son aged 21 and his GF wore matching Christmas jumpers to a night out last year and I thought it was adorable

absolutelynotfabulous · 16/12/2015 08:29

DD needed one for today (I bought her a TShirt instead).

I couldn't believe that someone would pay £20 for something as absolutely hideous as the offerings on display in Tesco. Vile!

CarlaJones · 16/12/2015 08:44

At least my dd1's secondary school gave plenty of notice. Dd2's primary told us yesterday it was to be jumper day on friday.

MillionToOneChances · 16/12/2015 09:33

YANBU! I came on here to ask the same thing, but scrolled down first as I thought surely I wouldn't be the only one. Today is Christmas jumper day at the junior school. Or, if your parents are as crappy and mean as me, wear something festive day. We could afford a christmas jumper, but what a colossal waste of money. As a PP said, it's the shops that benefit. One of my clients said it wasn't a problem wearing them today "because we had to buy them for our christmas carols [another school event] last night"!

Thankfully my son doesn't really care about not having a Christmas jumper, but he was a bit worried going in whether his clothes - a santa hat, baubles hanging from his ears and another bauble around his neck - were festive enough. Makes me sad. But not sad enough to buy a vile jumper for them to wear once or twice before they grow out of it.

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 16/12/2015 09:56

what I dont like about them is the fact that if you dont wear one you arent crazy and fun and up for a laugh

THIS!! ^^

And I speak as someone who loves them. I also don't like how schools are now having Christmas jumper day and charging £1 to wear them. So if you're skint as fuck and can't afford to buy a jumper that's only going to be worn a few times your child(ren) get called miserable for not joining in because it's apparently "fun" some kids it wouldn't upset them but some it will. It definitely would've upset me and it did.

Wearing them if you want too is fine. Being expected too is not.

CigarsofthePharoahs · 16/12/2015 10:00

I've been lucky enough to be able to borrow one for DS this year. He has a friend in a different school who was instructed to buy one for his nativity play. Poor kid had to stand in a sweltering hall wearing a jumper, scarf and hat to look like a carol singer.
My DS isn't a fan of jumpers at all and I didn't fancy spending £10 on something he'd probably only wear once. I couldn't find anything in the local charity shops - probably picked clean by mums who had the same idea, and I couldn't even find anything in his size to decorate up.
We did spend an hour making a Christmas hat too. I'll probably get in trouble for that as DS did all of the drawing and sticking.

Alfieisnoisy · 16/12/2015 10:01

Am I the ONLY person who doesn't go out and buy a special jumper.

Dress up a normal jumper for goodness sake and save the money. Then stick the £1 in for the charity. Job done.

Stop moaning about buying Xmas jumpers that YOU DONT NEED TO BUY!

SoupDragon · 16/12/2015 10:15

Dress up a normal jumper for goodness sake and save the money

This!

Still laughing at the thought of Christmas jumper day being "elitist".

hazeyjane · 16/12/2015 10:26

Dds just wore normal cardigans with a christmassy thing tacked onto it, quite a few of their friends just wore normal jumpers with christmas badges or a piece of tinsel tied around it - I don't really see what the big deal is, I don't want to spend £20 on getting them a couple of cheap Xmas jumpers, so I don't.

Scholes34 · 16/12/2015 10:30

As a PP said, Christmas jumpers were always something a relative knitted for you for Christmas and were considered a little bit naff, hence the reason Mark Darcy wears one in Bridget Jones's Diary. When I last watched that film with DD, we realised the impact of his jumper is lost on most of today's audience.

Gradually, the Christmas jumper became a little less naff and a bit ironic. I knitted my first one in 1984 and still share it with DD. I bought a lambs wool one from Laura Ashley in around 1992 - reduced from £45 to about £30 - shop-bought ones were expensive and rare. That was very much a treat and not something everyone had.

Nowadays, they can again be very naff. My DC have subtle Christmas themed Fairisle ones, carefully picked out in Primark - so not too expensive and not so naff and the teenage boys are more than happy to wear them.

Easy enough to suggest adults wear one for a charity collection. Santa hats are probably better for children if everyone is being encouraged to join in. I've never bought a Christmas jumper that I know my DC will grow out of.

Samcro · 16/12/2015 10:31

i hate this forced charity stuff, sso would never do it

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 16/12/2015 10:37

Stop moaning about buying Xmas jumpers that YOU DONT NEED TO BUY!!!

But if you're got kids it's not as simple as that. I think most them want one because all their mates have them and they don't want to feel left out.

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 16/12/2015 10:41

I wear them because I like them. If I was told I needed to wear one I wouldn't.

hazeyjane · 16/12/2015 10:42

Both my kids want heelies, because their friends want them - they're not getting them though!

The fact that kids want them because their friends have them, is like any fashion thing surely? Because I do see people wearing them for a couple of months before Christmas - not just on charity Xmas jumper days.

But if you don't want to buy one, then there is the perfectly good option of decorating a jumper they have already.

abbieanders · 16/12/2015 10:45

I think it was mildly amusing five years ago, but it's really tired now.

My sisters in law are very keen that I should buy one.

StoptheRavelry · 16/12/2015 10:47

Hang on, hold fire for a moment - all this talk of 'dressing up' a normal jumper.

HOW??

(I have a vision in my head of something draped disastrously with sparkly stuff that keeps falling off)

Scholes34 · 16/12/2015 10:50

If it's a knitted jumper, you can darn shapes over the stitches to decorate the jumper - but that might be a bit too complicated for a lot of people these days, as with cheaper clothes fewer people knit and sew.

AnyoneButSanta · 16/12/2015 10:50

Tinsel belt, small baubles tacked on, felt Christmas tree shape tacked on. I did a lovely pentangle with gold braid on a top for DD one year. It was meant to be a temporary fix as a Star costume for a nativity but it looked so great she kept it like that until she grew out of it. And heaven knows I'm not crafty.

StoptheRavelry · 16/12/2015 10:53

It involves sewing then? Oh dear.

I just spent two weeks knitting a Christmas stocking which has turned out DREADFUL.

I don't have the confidence, or time, to start attacking decorating a jumper.

Poor ds, I hope he finds a second hand one that fits him

AnyoneButSanta · 16/12/2015 10:55

Eg (I happen to be tidying Xmas decs box at the mo) I have these lightweight plastic Xmas decs which could be attached to a jumper with literally 3 stitches each (1 at a pinch).

AnyoneButSanta · 16/12/2015 10:57

Halfarsed tinsel pentangle - 1 stitch in each corner

Original poster

jollyfrenchy · 16/12/2015 11:00

Of course you don't have to buy one but as others have said kids want to fit in with their friends.

Our school isn't even doing it for charity so it's ONLY the shops that benefit.

Whoever said they are 'cheap' in Asda, it's all relative to what you consider cheap. The cheapest I've seen one new is about £8 and I'd have to buy 3. That's more than I've spent on clothes for myself this year. Considering my kids already have loads of jumpers that would be a total waste of money, hence why I wouldn't have got one if I hadn't seen them in the market. I also would not be keen to deface one of their nice jumpers by sewing Xmas stuff on it unless I could do it in such a way I could take it off again - I want them to be able to wear that jumper at other times.

To the people who say they've been around for years - that is a different thing though, being given an embarrassing jumper knitted by a family member is not the same as spending £20 in Asda is it??

OP posts:

AnyoneButSanta · 16/12/2015 11:01

Seriously, if you can sew on a button and you have a Christmas decorations box then you can busk a Christmas jumper.

But it's important that schools send a message that improvised stuff is every bit as good as readymade.

aquashiv · 16/12/2015 11:09

I don't find it in the least bit amusing. I used to receive those fecking hideous jumpers home made as my real present. When did it become funny to laugh at such torture?

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