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!

I always have an advent calendar, it wouldn't be Christmas without one!
Elf on the bloody shelf, though?! Nope.
Honestly, I think people have lost all leave of their senses. My Instagram feeds awash with the creepy little shites and their "hilarious" antics.
One was bursting out of a cereal pack with rice crispies scattered "cutely" around and the words "I'm back!" scrawled on a note.
How the actual fuck is that cute?! More like nightmare inducing.
I hope all you elf lovers are secretly saving for any future therapy bills for your little darlings......

Our Xmas traditions:

1. read Raymond Briggs 'Father Xmas at least every other night
2. make and decorate a ginger bread house with boiled sweets for stained glass and royal icing snow 3)Attend a carol service
3. Donate some money to a charity
4. Make a xmas wreath from greenery we find in the local park
5. See extend family members
6. go to a xmas market even Winter wonderland in Hyde park counts
7. do a tour of central London to see the window displays in Selfridges, Fortnum & Masons, Hamleys and Harrods
8. Watch 'A Christmas Carol' and 'Home Alone'
9. go to as many Xmas parties as possible

Oh and christmas day is spent in pjs. Dont really 'get' beauty advent calenders, same with candles. I have a lindt one because i like chocolate, but it alwats has been pictires, and a little later on, choxolate. Not mascara and creams

I have Xmas bedding but to be fair I used it in the summer as well.

My taste in bedding is pretty bad.. I currently have cats with space helmets on my duvet cover so...

I don't do Elf on the Shelve or an Xmas Eve box. However, I am quite temped to start the Xmas Eve box tradition. My friend's children had great fun this morning with their Elf, so good for them.

Elf on the Shelf - we don't have one, my view is that I've got enough to do without thinking up stuff for him to do, and in this house, I don't need a 'go between' - between me & Santa - I have him on Direct Dial. Just kidding, he's neither a carrot or a stick here...I'm scary enough 😬

On the whole though, I don't see the problem with people doing whatever makes them happy. If that's a North Pole Breakfast, then knock your socks off - frankly, I can't be arsed 😂

North Pole breakfast?

I can't stand those Christmas Eve boxes which people keep selling on our local selling pages on Facebook. Most of them look so tacky!

I do feel sometimes on mumsnet there's almost a race to the bottom to show how little you care about all the Christmas stuff. Can you not see that actually a lot of parents find it fun? And like surprising their kids with lovely things? And things like the Christmas Eve boxes are far more about spending quality time together than they are about commercial 'stuff'

I DO wish people would stop being so scathing about the things others do. It's nice to hear what people do & quite funny to hear others objections and 'I'm not fucking around with that malarkey' but the nastiness is spoiling the thread. For me at least.

Yes of course people find it fun. But I've found this thread refreshing. It's lovely to hear about people's simpler Chrismasses.

There is a thread somewhere today called 'It's Christmas' where there is lots of enthusiasm for this sort of thing.

Yes phlebas and it is so lovely and kind of timeless - Tom gets a little r2d2 in his stocking, which my ds gleefully pointed it out when I brought it down this morning Posting a letter up the chimney to Father Christmas. The Sally Army band. All the stuff tipped out on Mum and Dad's bed. Everyone crammed round the too-small table. Kids getting overwhelmed and tired. It almost feels like a memory.

I think building excitement is wonderful, but my son came home from school overwrought today with talk of Christmas, so I think it goes too far when it tips over into hype. It's meant to be a nice gentle build up of nice things and activities toward the big day, including thinking of others, otherwise the day itself just can't live up to it.

Krampus

I've been very good this year so I won't see you!

Exactly hipho - the Christmas eve box seems like a lovely way to spend time together. And the elf seems like a lovely creative bit of fun for very little outlay. Why be so sniffy!

I've only ever seen people fill their own Christmas Eve box, never known anyone to buy prefilled

I've also always had Christmas Eve pyjamas.now whoever is staying at my house gets them.thankfully this year just exh, two DC and me (I buy my own ones), so less expensive than it has been in the past.
I also quite like the idea of elf on a shelf-but I Balked at 30 quid for the little beast.
My favourite tradition is that I take each child on her own to buy a nice bauble for the tree-we label them with their initials and the year before Hanging,the idea being that when they move out they take their ones with them and have their own set of tree decorations for their own tree. It also means I get a bit of 1 on 1 time with each kid where we get a nice lunch and a bit of time together with nothing to do but bauble choosing-which is lovely.
They love unwrapping them each year and remembering where they got each one, and laughing at their taste when they were little. And hopefully they will keep them and talk about them when they have kids too.
The best one however is dd1s first ever one which I got her before she arrived-she was due on Christmas Eve but took ages, so arrived on Boxing Day-her one for that year has a pram on it-that one makes me a bit teary every year

But you can spend time together and drink hot chocolate without the need for the whole box thing.

I agree Satsuki. I've said one Christmas story every other day and nothing else except carols and the ( bloody neverending) play. I'm reserving the glitter and real frenzy for the last week.

I also like "The Cat on the Hill" for a short. Gentle is good! I agree that get overwrought. I often wish we could dispense with any performance from ks1. My own kids school does.

myfriendnigel that sounds so lovely. Only one dc here though so it wouldn't work. he always wanted Christmas traditions and was keen on making them for us.
When he was little we only bought our tree after school term had ended, that meant the holiday season had begun.

we made advent calendars and cards and paperchains out of old paper saved from last year. Ds even made crackers and copied out jokes from his joke books one year.

we also had a little brass candle chime that you lit one of four candles for each week of advent and the angels got louder each week.

Now he is grown up its not magic anymore.

As a child we were never allowed to open presents until we were dressed, never heard of Christmas PJ's and wearing them all day! Sounds so decadent to me.

I like hearing all the different things people do, and not judging them, and thats something I never would have known about without the rise of t'internet.

But equally why not do the box, it needn't even cost money, Could be the same movie etc each year

Because I can't be bothered and my children don't expect one!

Because the hot chocolate lives in the kitchen cupboard all year round and the DVDs are always in the lounge cabinet.

TBF my DC are 14 and 17 now and this particular ship has sailed. So I am always fascinated by what other people do.

I don't get the hostility towards the Christmas Eve box
It is just a box containing (in our case) pj's, a DVD, popcorn, a book, a key, a bath bomb, reindeer dust, a cup and some hot chocolate - how is any of that offensive?
Most people do pj's, DVD, hot choc & a book on Xmas eve anyway - why does having them tidily out away in a box that you can prepare in advance so you don't forget anything suddenly make it hideous?
I genuinely don't understand

Oh bit of a X-post there, I got distracted half way through typing

But I still don't understand

Do people want a more sophisticated answer with regards to the Christmas Eve box than "because we fucking want to?"

The reason I put all the tat in the same box each year is because it looks better than pulling it out of a plastic bag...

I cannot see why people think putting stuff in a box is somehow far worse than pulling it out of a drawer. At least it's more fun.

I wouldn't be caught dead doing EOTS but that's because it looks like a creepy little fucker and quite frankly I've got enough going on without having to think of creative ideas for the sneaky bastard to do. Don't judge anyone else who does it though, I just think "rather them than me!"