Ridiculous made up 'traditions'

[Sittinonthefloor]

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!

A lot of them appear to be imported Scandi traditions (bedding, decor etc) where advent is a big thing everyone transforms their home into Santa's workshop - when I moved to Scandi in the mid 1990s someone asked me if I had put up my Christmas curtains yet - I had no clue at the time what they were talking about

Your DM sounded lovely , , bless her and I can totally understand your reluctance to celebrate until your DC arrived .

Choose some of the traditions your DM had but make some of your very own too Temporaryname137.

I do agree it is over the top. We have an elf on the shelf (not the weird looking one which is proper one but a cuddly elf) just because school had one last year and dd really wanted one. All the elf does is have tea parties with her dolls, climbs tree, up on top of tv ECT. We wouldn't have started it but as they were doing a lot of work around elf on shelf last year (writing stories for English and letters) it helped dd. We do pyjamas as well just as nice to have a nice set for Christmas eve to stay in all day Christmas day. Ours are not Christmas themed though. Our only family tradition is going to see father Christmas and his reindeer every year at same garden centre and decorating together, each year the kids get to choose one decoration which they love

If never heard of Elf on the shelf or Christmas boxes ( as opposed to stockings) till I read this!

Christmas Curtains

I can understand that perhaps in Scandi countries as they get the full works don't they, as a rule , lots and lots of snow.

Lady Penelope will you adopt me?

Our Christmas tradition is to have a big row when we all troop to the garden centre to buy the Christmas tree: everyone wants a massive 8 foot one and I endeavour to be the voice of reason and remind everyone it will be too big.

Also some Christmas bickering about decorating the tree; two perfectionist daughters and two bodger sons.

Also the smallest in the family gets to be lifted up by DH to put the star on the tree. This may have to be hurriedly amended to smallest child as I suspect I am now the smallest.

And finally, I traditionally have a brief Christmas melt down on Christmas Eve. Last year it was caused by helpful DH commencing a marathon three hour oven cleaning session, just as I was starting my Christmas baking.

Actual Christmas day is traditionally fab though.

I agree but I have an elf this year (not the £20 one mind!) to save having to explain to my children why Santa has sent an Elf to some of their friends houses but not ours. I wonder how many people get pulled into the 'tradition' that way. Christmas jumpers seem to be required for school nowadays as well. The Christmas Eve box and festive house refurbishment can fuck off though.

poly a Christmas Eve box isn't a stocking replacement, it's a seperate thing

Namechangemergency something shaped as something and covered in glitter I am going in search of one of those this year. I hope it looks really like something.

In my original country (Northern Europe) we have had elves as long as I remember, and they do bring stuff - but they will also keep an eye on any naughty behaviour. You put your slipper on the window in the evening and if you have behaved, there's something in it in the morning. But something small, like a clementine or a single candy, not an entire bag.

And of course you never see the actual elf, so no need to spend £20 on a toy.

I nicked all our 'traditions' from MN as my own childhood was shit and I have no traditions of my own (only a few old decorations that I clung to as one of the few positive memories I have)

I do agree that many are just consumerism gorn mad though :o I enjoy seeing what other people's elves get up to but don't intend to do it ourselves

YANBU. Special Christmas dinner services are particularly insane. Fancy storing them all year round for one day. Having said that , I was sorely tempted to leave a bid in our local auction rooms when I saw the Christmas sevice Nigella has at the end of her Christmas book.
But sanity prevailed.

I had a very bad childhood so my kids have grown up with lots of pointless traditions around christmas. They have had a fabric advent calendar since they were babies. It is still being used now and the kids have both asked to keep going with it even though they are now 15 and 16. My dp has an advent calendar which is homemade by me. This year I have 4 including 2 playmobil ones that have been reused for years.
On the 6th we will celebrate St Nikolaus day as I am german. My kids will get far too many treats and clean their boots (the only time of year they bother).
I will also make at least 12 different types of cookies with the kids while listening to the tweenies christmas cd. We have done this every year since they were babies. We also make salt dough decorations for our tree including christmas pigs and christmas dinosaurs.
We also always watch Shrek the halls on christmas eve and open our 'Krautmas' present which is always a new board game. We also have a fancy german christmas meal.
All those traditions have been done with my boys since they were babies and they have both said they want them to continue. It's special that the kids treasure our family tradition and heritage.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elf_on_the_Shelf

This is SUCH a longstanding tradition. 12 WHOLE YEARS. I particularly like this quote: "The Elf has received some criticism from cultural reviewers. Atlantic columnist Kate Tuttle calls it "a marketing juggernaut dressed up as a tradition"

Spot on, Kate. Especially judging by one particular FB friend's page she had a last minute panic because the elf hadn't arrived from China and she wasn't sure she had enough activities for elf to do over hte next 24 days. Alongside a photo of three carrier bags of assorted crap.

I make two fruit cakes. A dark one with dark fruits, walnuts, black treacle and brown sugar. A light one with yellow and green saltanas, cherries and flaked almonds and white sugar. I cut them in two and splice them together and decorate it so you don't know where one starts and the other finishes. We open it on Yule and use it to celebrate the light/ good and the dark/bad of the previous year. The other two halves go in the freezer for the following year. This is our tradition only but anyone coming for a bit of cake knows they take potluck. No cutting the other side!
Bunch of Pagans us!

bookworm I also reread The Dark is Rising just before Christmas each year. A couple of years ago I looked up from it to discover it was exactly the time and date mentioned on the page - completely unintentional and slightly creepy.

I also dip in and out of my favourite Christmas sections of books - quite a few different L M Montgomerys, a couple of Just William stories, some Noel Streatfeild, and a lovely short story "Night in Paris" by Patrice Chaplin.

Great. Never heard of North Pole Breakfast before and now I'm googling and Pinteresting it and berating myself that it's too late to start it (by about 9 years). Pah!

5 advent calendars each??? good grief purple daisies that is nuts! like bloody Easter eggs.

When we were growing up three of us shared one, no chocolate inside in those days. Each window had a religious picture behind it and we all hoped we would be the one that got the 24th because the window was bigger and (always) had the nativity scene behind it.

It was magical, literally I was so excited for my turn every third day.

I wonder how many kids get excited about a chocolate splodge behind a window these days.

Sounds lovely littlemissangrypants

DH's mum is German and celebrates St Nicklaus Day as well. She lives here in UK and has done for many many years as her DH is a Brit.

Quite tempted to come join your Christmas . Have a Happy one.

Frohe Weihnachten zu Ihnen und Ihrem

Definitely, the elf thing is just odd and the added layer of lies required just makes Santa seem even more unlikely.

I've noticed that dedicated plates to leave a mince pie and carrot out for Santa have become a 'thing,' as have oversized fake plastic 'magic keys' so the big man can get in the house.

The thing I find most baffling of all though it the sudden apparent need to replace all of your soft furnishings - bedding, cushions, towels, tablecloths, I've even seen Christmas bath mats! WTF?!

Arf at Batman on the top of your tree LadyPenelope

I have become more bewildered over the years at the 'magic' that must accompany Christmas, mine are grown up now, did the xmas eve pj's & opened one small present they had the picture advent calendars, we always went & picked the tree together the week, before Christmas as pp the youngest put the fairy on top & read the Night before Christmas before bed on xmas eve.
No xmas boxes or elves, xmas bedding or crockery,but they still get advent calendars & pj's even though they are 37&31😀
Dunno some of feels a bit forced & photo opportunities for social media but I am an old gimmer & maybe a bit bah humbug.

I do miss my DC being small though and a tradition I forgot to mention was to go to farms (down in deepest Kent) to see Santa and they usually had reindeer as well . One particularly lovely farm and visit was near Pluckley and he was ever such a jolly Santa . I have the photo of my youngest two with him on my windowsill.

Ah thanks Rachel, she was v thoughtful.

I think we'll be starting our own traditions this year with "how many ways can DD get to the Christmas tree, however ingeniously we try to block her..."

Latenightreader How creepy - but very in keeping with the atmosphere of the book!