To ask what the hell is a Christmas Eve box?

[tallulahturtle]

Is this something people are doing? What is the point?

Seriously. At the mid winter festival time you ate going to object to the word snuggle?

I hope you enjoy your snuggle free, gusset less christmas and that there is nothing moist about your turkey.

I'm hunkering down with my alcohol and hot chocolate having spent 2 hours putting presents together. Snuggling up to dh, listening to the children snore slightly down the monitor watching the lights twinkle. Thinking about how very very lucky we are to live here and now with family who love us. And that after all the years of trying for ds, we are going to enjoy these celebrations when they come along.

You do you. But don't get upset because I put some pj's in an Amazon box and answered a question asking what a Christmas eve box is.

I'm snuggling into the sofa. Looking forward to moist Turkey with crispy skin tomorrow. Hope your Christmas eve is as pleasant.

Making memories. Just vom.
The memories I have are in my head, we lived through the experiences without photographing every single moment and feeling the need to share it with others who quite rightly couldn't give a shit

I have a memory like a sieve

I need all the help i can get

Really? Someone taking photos makes you vomit?

Noone forces you to look at anyone else's photos. Get off social media if it makes you unwell.

I've been looking through photos of my great great grandparents this week. It was lovely.

I've also been looking through photos of ds today fron when he was a tiny baby and marvelling over how much he has changed. I have memories, but they were different to the photos. More emotional responses in my memory than visual. It was nice to see the pictures. To have memories sparked.

Sorry if that makes you vomit.

But it makes me happy

If I was as angry as some of the posters on this thread that would have far more impact on my Christmas than a box with a pair of pyjamas in it

I love the photos of my family, particularly as I've lost so many of them
But the constant photographing of every minor event, sharing it on fb and calling it 'making memories' does actually make me want to vom, yes.

Ah I wondered what this was! Seen it come up in my FB feed. First time I've heard of it. We've done a version of it here, but didn't put stuff in a box - kids opened pyjamas and slippers and put them on, then we watched Home Alone. They'd been so nice and calm I let them open one more gift; all of which were books I'd thought each one would love - and they did, brilliant! Then we put the Netflix log fire on (😂- we don't have a log fire and they all enjoyed it!) - and had a chapter of each book. Even DP joined in reading, and he struggles to read aloud (but I love it when he does it and I can listen to the story!). Calmest Christmas Eve I've had since having kids; can see the appeal of the box thing (not the moneymaking aspect and not the fucking Elf thing though! Too much effort and consistency for my liking/capabilities).

My box was an old wooden box from the loft which cost nothing. The contents of the box - pyjamas for DS, beers for DH, snacks, some Christmas books we already owned, and two DVDs - was all stuff we either owned already or would have bought anyway.

I'm guessing people who object to this new 'tradition' probably either own or purchase a lot of these kind of things over the Christmas period anyway, so I guess it's just chucking it all in a box and presenting it specifically as a Christmas Eve treat that they object to...?!

I've never heard of this. I got suckered into the awful elf thing. Now that really is guilt inducing nonsense. Every night piling a new pressure on parents to move the damn things around. I will try and remember to do a box next year though. It sounds lovely. It could just be one gift less for Christmas day. My kids have got Elf the movie. If I'd heard of this, they would have got that today and watched it tonight. I loved Christmas eve when I was young as we went to midnight mass, opened our presents when we got back and it was really magical. We're atheist now and no one will go to church with me. I miss it. This might bring a bit of that magic back

Those who have never heard of it can't have been on MN for long. I was introduced to elf on the shelf and the Christmas Eve hamper by MN years ago. Ah those were the days..

We used to go to Christmas Eve mass too - as an adult I didn't feel 'Christmassy' until we went. I'm atheist now and have no religious traditions to pass on to my kids. I'm confident in my beliefs (or lack of them), but nearly almost feel a little bit sad that I don't have any 'real' traditions to pass on. It's an extended routine - something that makes you feel safe and 'home'y. I've loved the book thing at ours tonight - might have to have a Christmas book box next year.

I do not have a single happy memory of my childhood and it has been a painful scar over the rest of my life. There are also no photographs of us as children because we mattered so little. Christmas presents were often sold by new year and I spent Christmas watching my Mum shag punters so they could afford drink and drugs.

I deliberately create happy memories for my children, they are the absolute centre of my universe and I love little traditions.

I am not sure why that makes people so angry

Wriggler79 I'm an atheist too and I do find it sad that we have lost a lot of positive things now that as a society almost no-one attends a church. The community side of things especially. I can't think of anything else that brings communities together in the same way.

I am an athiest but we do go to nativity mass on christmas eve

I do it just to upset them

philoslothy

Useless words about your would be a waste of time, but i hope you and your children have an awesome Christmas

Oh my god...

What happens to my words!!!

About your past!!!!

Merry christmas anyway

We go to church at Christmas as do most of the village. I would say a fair few of us who go are atheists

Thanks Rufus. Christmas is massive in this house, they are having a great time

Made-up Christmas traditions are just as valid! And they are created with love, and to make loved ones feel safe and happy 😊 We had a thing about sprouts, the first Christmas DP and I were together. The DCs were just getting used to things so we told them all their presents would be sprouts, they were chased with sprouts, I ate a raw sprout with great drama and told them it tasted like 'pumps'.......my Ferrero Rocher were mysteriously replaced with sprouts, etc, etc. I found dried-up sprouts in corners for months everywhere (there was a Great Sprout Fight). It was great.

Wow, just checked my phone as been working all day selling panicked people wine, well that ran a bit!

My original post was never intended to be snide or snarky, but it seems to have sparked a lot of emotion.

I merely wondered what they were as suddenly they are on the scene with the nieces and nephews, this is the first year and the oldest is 12 ,so it's not like these have always been around hence my question.

Had just wondered if it was a new thing or indeed a common thing (or an extravagant extra- these boxes are hand engraved and personalised) as the inlaws do seem to spend a ridiculous amount on the kids, mostly the same stuff every year (laptops, phones, tablets) nothing seems to last them so it just gets replaced for each child every year.
That's the background as to why I posed the question.

For example when I was a child we had a stocking which was put by our beds to open first thing in the morning as we woke up and usually had a selection box in it. Then we would get dressed, breakfast then open presents.

Thank you for everyone's contributions it's been a fascinating read. Managed to find some flamingos but alas there were no sausages.

This is the first year we have not had an advent calendar with an advent activity in for every day of December. The activities ranged from make paper snowflakes, watch a film, tidy house, walk to collect greenery etc.

I imagine sme of my friends thought I was daft and Some years I wondered what I was doing to myself but now that the oldest DC is 20 and youngest is 10 we have to do things differently because the eldest two live away in term time.

It's lovely to have them all here for Christmas but that too will change sometime soon. So make the most of whatever twee, imported, made up, tacky, onerous, traditions you like while you can and enjoy

We have one and it's personalised, plenty about Christmas is already tacky so this is just one more thing. It has pj's and reindeer food in it, I bought it for £40 too, if anyone wants to clutch a pearl or two!

Ooo, I've been to church tonight and I have a box, do they cancel each other out?

It's a nice idea. Might do this next year actually.

wriggler

Can't you pass on the Christmas story as, well, just a story, and enjoy it as that?

My family all go to the Christmas carol services. Some of us are religious, some aren't. We all enjoy the carols just the same. It is a very Christmassy experience regardless of our individual beliefs.