Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Ridiculous made up 'traditions'

371 replies

Sittinonthefloor · 01/12/2016 14:03

Looking at you on your shelf, Elf . It actually has the word 'tradition' on the box, after what, 2 years?

Also spotted today 'Christmas Table Favours' eh? Not a thing! They were like wedding favours (also ridiculous) but gold and silver. That's what crackers are for surely?

Advent calendars for grown ups, Christmas pjs, also Christmas Eve boxes (haven't dared discover what they are though).

Love, love, love made up / evolved family traditions but feel irrationally enraged by the commercial ones, and more so that people seem to fall for it with enthusiasm!

OP posts:
Grumpyoldblonde · 01/12/2016 14:33

Er, um, could I ask where you saw the table favours please? (desperate for some and can't find any decent ones)

Megainstant · 01/12/2016 14:34

They are called crackers Wink

grannytomine · 01/12/2016 14:35

Didn't Christmas jumpers used to be something hideous that your maiden aunt knitted and everyone laughed when you had to wear them?

TenaciousOne · 01/12/2016 14:35

Meh, my friend always got Christmas PJs on Christmas eve after coming back from midnight mass. I happened to be at hers one Christmas as a teenager and I was treated as one of her mums children so I got new PJs as well. I loved it and so ever since my DS has got new PJs (Christmas themed) on Christmas eve. I added a bath product to the tradition as my own spin on it and it's nice to have a bath and go to bed in new PJs. Last year DH got a box to put it in, so now it's a Christmas eve box. It's an evolved tradition which seems to be fitting in with other peoples ideas but it started as something I had experienced and enjoyed and wanted my DS to have.

Advent calendars, I have made my own for DS and it's got a homemade chocolate in each pocket and in some it has notes in telling him about advent and also where to find the one bigger present that wouldn't fit in the pocket.

Mamabear14 · 01/12/2016 14:35

In our house it's more about good food and time together on Christmas Eve, especially as the elder 2 would be closeted in their room on their Xbox if they could. It's nice for everyone to put their phones down and actually sit together when normally everyone is too busy to just chill. One of my favourite bits of Christmasz

tinytemper66 · 01/12/2016 14:35

I have had Christmas Eve pyjamas all my life and I am 50! So it is a tradition for me and mine!

PsammeadPaintedTheLion · 01/12/2016 14:35

I'm keen on the home-grown traditions in families. Cannot stand the commercial ones.

What is a North Pole breakfast? My kids decided to dig out their Santa hats today at breakfast, which was cute and spontaneous. Much nicer than forced 'traditions'.

Sparklingbrook · 01/12/2016 14:36

WTF is a North Pole Breakfast?

guest2013 · 01/12/2016 14:36

Totally agree! I can't stand all this pointless buying! I'm beginning to feel uncomfortable giving my kids presents for nothing and their expectation of it! But that's probably unreasonable. As soon as the kids are old enough I'm out.. Christmas will be cancelled and I'm going somewhere hot!

LunaLoveg00d · 01/12/2016 14:36

I feel intimidated by it at times, I can't imagine the time and money spent. How do people do it?

Because they plan for it all year, starting around February. Personally, I'd rather enjoy the year and the changing seasons and leave Christmas where it firmly belongs, in December. I also think that it is the parents who feel the "keeping up with the Joneses" pressure and are desperate to ensure that their children are not deprived or in any way lesser to anyone else's children who get hooked into this nonsense. Because it's all about the kiddies, innit hun?

Unluckycat1 · 01/12/2016 14:36

I hate the elf, mainly because most pictures of him I see are full of plastic tat bought for that one instagramable moment which no doubt has no purpose beyond it. It screams waste. 24 days of it. Urgh.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 01/12/2016 14:37

Every tradition was new at some point. And wasn't Elf On A Shelf an American tradition before it came to the UK in recent years - which would make the use of the word 'traditional' on the box pretty reasonable?

crayfish · 01/12/2016 14:37

Im 36 and we always had new christmas eve pyjamas when I was a child so I have carried that on now (used to buy them for myself when i lived alone!). We always had an advent calendar too but a plain one with pictures, no chocolate of lego or whatever.

I'm with you on elf on the shelf and christmas jumpers though, I have no recollection of those from my childhood!

GinAndTeaForMe · 01/12/2016 14:38

Ugh I get sucked in by all the hype. If I wasn't on last month of maternity leave with no pay, I'd likely have all those things you mention.Grin

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 01/12/2016 14:38

I only heard about Christmas bedding, Christmas Eve boxes, and elves on shelves here.
As for 'favours' on the dinner table, aren't crackers enough? Who needs yet more tat?
Couldn't do without crackers,, though - that's a Brit tradition if ever there was one. I don't think other countries have them. Visiting niece from the US used to love them, and a Swedish friend living here has just been asked by her DiL in Stockholm to bring some for Christmas.
Panto is another one of ours that I don't think they do anywhere else.

Sparklingbrook · 01/12/2016 14:38

YY I can imagine some DC going into primary school today and going on about their Elf on the Shelf malarkey and the other DC who have parents that think it's Hmm and don't bother feeling a bit cheated.

BoboBunnyH0p · 01/12/2016 14:40

I'm late 30's and we always had new Pj's for Xmas eve, so that family tradition has been carried on for my children.

longdiling · 01/12/2016 14:41

I like Christmas but the thought of planning for it all year leaves me cold.

I googled north pole breakfast and loads of links to 'menu plans' and 'decorations' came up. I think people may put more effort into that than I do with Christmas dinner!

Soubriquet · 01/12/2016 14:41

I must say I was bit Hmm when I saw one particular FB post on my mine

She has 3 children. Her "elf" has brought them all, one toy advent calendar, one chocolate calendar and two large share bag of sweets each.

And that seems to be the tradition for that family. But surely that's too much?

Megainstant · 01/12/2016 14:41

I just tell my dcs it's stupid.

Dd3 got to fill the advent calendar with chocolate coins this morning and thought it was the best thing ever

I have really started to hate all the commercial throwaway tat you see in the shops

KondosSecretJunkRoom · 01/12/2016 14:41

I don't mind trick or treating. It lasts one evening.

Interesting that you say that, I'm just about to launch a new tradition for Halloween, where, for the whole of October, you hide a hideously fucking expensive ugly troll around the house to scare the shit out of your children in really ingenious and Pinterest worthy ways.

Parents who really truly love their children will make me rich just love the idea.

LadyPenelopeShufflebottom · 01/12/2016 14:41

Our homemade tradition stems from when DP and I had just bought our house and were monumentally skint.

We couldnt afford decorations so we had MiL's old plastic tree and made paper chains for it out of wrapping paper. We couldn't afford an angel for the top of the tree but DP had a batman figurine he'd had since he was a kid and had "rediscovered" it during the move... he's sat on top of our Christmas tree looking stern ever since (batman, not DP!)

He's the hero Christmas deserves Grin

That was also the year we introduced the present limit. We are only allowed to spend £1 on each other every year. The presents have gotten quite creative! My absolute favorite was last year when DP stole my phone and looked up all my most listened to songs. He then learned them all on guitar and vocals and recorded acoustic versions of them all for me onto a CD he bought for £1 Grin. I ripped them down to MP3 and I still listen to them in the bath most days!

The best one I ever did for him was drew him a comic book all about the adventures of a goat called Les.... it's an inside joke Blush

cjt110 · 01/12/2016 14:41

For me, my tradition was having my stocking on my bed as a child with a gift to keep me entertained until my parents woke. We only went into the living room as a family. In the latter years before I moved out at 23, I still had it. And would even avert and blinker my eyes as I went to get myself the first morning brew before my parents woke up.

My son is only 2 so I suppose we havent yet made any traditions, except that we spend Christmas day at home as a trio. My parents come on Boxing Day and we celebrate again.

I must say, this year I did buy some Christmas things for the house - teatowel, table runner, coaster and cushions. But they were all from the poundshop!

MisguidedAngel · 01/12/2016 14:41

When my children were little we were poor. They were thrilled to get new felt pens and drawing paper, chocolates, a special breakfast and maybe one "proper" present. I think children nowadays have so much that it becomes difficult to make Christmas (and birthdays) special, so people have to go over the top.

Megainstant · 01/12/2016 14:42

I will say I have caught myself looking at the Xmas pj's in tesco. Think the dcs would probably like them and they need some!