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!

Oh God yes, Christmas themed gifts rather than Christmas gifts. Usually given on Christmas Day by the type of person who puts their tree up on Nov 6th and takes it down the second the clock swings into Boxing Day. ITS TRADITION. Yeah it's been tradition for the past three years that Tesco have been stocking them.

I just looked up North Pole breakfast and my head exploded! More presents, more themed plates/tableware, I can't cope! I'm so glad I didn't know about this when my children were little, so now we don't have to bother with this 'tradition'.

Perhaps Christmas Day isn't special any more, as it's just presents (which people get lots of at birthdays and all year) and a turkey dinner (ditto). So, there's a need to go better and bigger and more special.

When I worked in a petrol station with a car wash it used to baffle me that everyone wanted their car washed for Christmas. And not the cheapest option like they'd have the rest of the year almost always the most expensive one. On Christmas Eve we had a queue right off the forecourt onto the road. It blew my tiny mind that anyone would think of a clean car as festive!

I had a Christmas mug as a child, it played a song and everything! Not one every year though, I think they were an stocking filler one year maybe? I still have it and it still sings (despite years of my mother claiming the batteries would run out!)

Last year was my first in my own place where I could do what I wanted, and I was on my own for Christmas , so created myself some traditions I have a wooden advent calendar that I decorated and filled far enough in advance that I've forgotten what's in it. A Christmas Eve box of pjs, a colouring book and a festive tipple. Christmas bedding (but I did resist the urge to buy another set this year.., it was hard though ). I did have festive blankets but they've actually been in use all year, have to stop myself buying a new one just for Christmas. I do have 2 Christmas cushions, and resisting the urge to get some for the other sofa but would definitely stop after that. The only time I can be arsed burn candles is when I'm feeling festive.

The one thing i don't do is crackers... I'll happily fill my own advent calendar but pulling a cracker on my own seems a bit too sad

No EOTS here, no table favours (cheap crackers only, I think posh ones are naff and against the spirit of rubbishy jokes and plastic moustaches), no special pjs, no special bedding, and no Christmas china.

But we do have Christmas candles and candle sticks, Christmas table cloth and Christmas bobble hats for our Christmas afternoon walk!

however much they were stacked they would not bear even a passing resemblance to a reindeer or still less a Christmas figure

I will confess that I can do a 3D triceratops so could probably manage a reindeer (or at least a snowman). But why would you bother?

In my defence I don't post endless pics on fb about it all though! It's just for me to enjoy

And don't get me wrong, I have vintage Christmas Pyrex, a Christmas mug and a tea towel with Pom Pom trim(which was my mother's circa 1987)but I don't try as pass them off as essential and tra-FUCKING-dition

The Christmas jumper day at school can fuck off, not buying nasty acrylic jumpers that my 2 will only wear for 1 day and I'm certainly not shelling out £££ for wool ones that again will only be worn once or twice.

I also always had new PJs at Christmas, but they were your ONLY PJs and did you till you grew out of them.. and if you grew out of them in september you made do with too short PJs half way up your leg until you got your new ones in December

Please can someone explain Christmas PRINT PJs to me? - do people then wear them for the rest of the year? or are they single use/disposable?

Christmas car wash

Every thing has to be an event these days doesn't it. There will be a lot of very disappointed children when they reach the work place and realise every other week doesn't feature a celebration or pancake breakfast as tradition.

I smile wryly at all these things as I wander round shops, but I don't buy into a lot of them. Sometimes I do go mad though: in a garden centre there was a singing Santa going ho ho ho; at the same moment there was "the little boy that Santa Claus forgot" blaring out. Ugh!

But my DP and I have one tradition, which is my penalty for not believing in Santa (although I love this ritual): DP wraps my presents in front of me. I love hearing the wrapping and feeling some of my goodies, but I can't see them because I'm blindfolded.

I hate everyone doing the same and I'm already sick of the creepy elf
Our traditions are DC choose a new bauble each year and snowy footprints which they love
When ds was little we used to make a landing strip on the drive out of tea lights and I would sprinkle a bit if glitter down the middle
I just don't get how much stuff folk need for Halloween and Xmas and all the storing of it. Bedding toilet paper jumpers boxes on Christmas eve it goes on and on

Why does leaving out a mince pie for santa now have to involve a saucer you can only use once a year that has a CSI style outline of a mince pie on it and it says "Santa's mince pie on it".. were there numerous misshaps in the past where santa didn't know which mince pie was his?

But my DP and I have one tradition, which is my penalty for not believing in Santa (although I love this ritual): DP wraps my presents in front of me. I love hearing the wrapping and feeling some of my goodies, but I can't see them because I'm blindfolded.

I love that

Our christmas tradition is that we open our presents to/from each other/the kids on Christmas eve, so that the immediate family presents are special and have their own little event and aren't lost in the mass of Christmas day presents

Morris Dancing, Ploughmans Lunch. Bobbins.

I volunteer in a charity shop and we had boxes and boxes of Christmas ornaments and tableware ranging from a very lovely, beautifully made porcelain platter for serving your turkey down to tatty little plastic ornaments with snowmen and santa. And everything in between - candle holders, napkin rings, table covers, glasses, cutlery, hanging signs, santa stop here signs, crockery of all shapes and sizes etc etc etc. Everything overtly "christmassy" and stuff which couldn't be used at any other time of the year. Storing these items must be a nightmare too, which is why they must end up in a charity shop....

I never buy Christmas themed presents for people as they just aren't useful.

I introduce the Christmas Eve Shitting Log a Catalan tradition (Caga Tio) we have embraced with gusto!

Feed him all month, cover him with a blanky to keep him warm, hit him with a stick and sing a song about poo = he craps sweets

The creepy Big Brother Elf can go blow himself.

The Elf thing is ridiculous. My dp's ex does it for their dd who is 13 ffs. Just no.

Traditions in this house are ice skating on Xmas Eve for my DD's followed by going home, collecting chinese food on the way and then new pjs. The pjs don't come in a fucking box.

Xmas tree goes up first weekend in December always. It's going to be tight this year to include DD1 as she's going away on Sunday for 10 days so we are doing it Saturday morning before going out to watch dp dressed up as Santa on the train doing his parade through our village.

We go to the panto every year and actually had this discussion with dp last night that we seem to be the only country that does panto. We assume the American's might be slightly baffled by it and the daft sense of humour that you need to enjoy it.

So we don't do Elf or boxes or anything else massively commercial. We have advent calenders (although DD2 has two this year as DD1 bought her the lego one too). We have crackers with their crap jokes and daft hats, we do a plate for santa and rudolph and we do xmas stockings.

Wanderings - you win! I just chucked out loud at DCs sports class imaging you blindfolded- how did that tradition start?

Glad I'm not the only tat refusenik- and my first thread to be on trending.

Off to buy Christmas tea towels now.

Shitting log .

Guess it would be great letting off that Christmas shopping and preparation stress hitting it with that stick.

Chuckled not chucked

Mind boggled at the Christmas car wash- though I do a deep clean before anything Christmassy goes up.

All the Elf on a shelf I have seen look sinister.

Wanderings, your's is one of the sweetest traditions I've come across

Loving all the weird and wonderful family traditions.

The shitting log is genius. I want one.