Scrooge-like I know but all this lark is getting a bit much...

[Jacobandcara]

Are we ruining Christmas? I remember only 30 years ago Christmas was mentioned a few times the weeks before, I got a quick visit to Santa at the garden centre, wrote a letter and sent it up that chimney and wore an angel costume made out of a pillow case. Magical times.
Nowadays it's all gone crazy. Mums on our local facebook 'what's on' page are clamouring over booking several 'experience' events which cost 20-30 pounds a ticket. So Santa on a train...or visit Santa cove or lights all over the local zoo and we will charge you an arm and a leg. And from the reviews on Facebook people are splashing nearly 100 quid and often these events are badly managed with hours of queing and disappointment.
Christmas eve boxes. And now today I'm a grinch for not doing a 1st of Dec box. Wtf.
The bloody elf on the shelf....yawn.
It used to be just the occassional oddball that put their decorations up in November and now it's ten a penny.
Supermarkets selling ready made nativity costumes for 15quid.
A friend of mine has just paid 20quid for a personalised Santa letter reply. Honestly.
Wheres the charm and magic when it's all drawn out over weeks and weeks?
Bah humbug

[RaquelWelch]

The older I get (and I'm not that old) the less I am spending. I tell my kids I would really like something very small and not at all expensive, as I have everything I need so a box of chocolates or a £5 lippy are fine by me. It has totally become about the spend

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

I'd go further and say, why watch it at all, but he loves that schmaltzy stuff. Your synopses are bang on and made me laugh.

All the films are repeated anyway.. or maybe it just seems like they are? I've never willingly watched one.

[dingdongdigeridoo]

Why even watch True Christmas on repeat? I can tell you every Xmas movie storyline ever: busy businessman/lady moves back to small hometown, hates it at first but then has a genius business idea, opens a bakery/charming little shop, falls in love, learns true meaning of Xmas.

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

.... and my husband, who is a Christmas freak has been watching True Christmas channel for what seems like weeks and weeks and is happily snoring whilst awful Larry Levinson productions are showing on a neverending rollercoaster of terrible storylines (where there is one).

I'm going to put headphones on and watch 'Ultimate Force' and imagine myself in fatigues, with a kalashnikov, without a single giant candy cane in sight.

I love Christmas... but at Christmastime and only then.

[Purplealienpuke]

Lunas yep cliff Richard can fuck off! 😂😂😂

[Hotheadwheresthecoldbath]

Apart from the advent calendar no decorations up her until the week before.I do however keep them until 12th night but more and more people seem to start at the beginning of December and put it all away the day after boxing day.
I am not a fan of new year but would love a 12 the night party with bonfires made of the used Christmas trees and eating the last if the Christmas goodies.

[Menarefrommarsitwouldseem]

Different strokes for different folks and all that.

I despise Halloween but I get that other people love it.
Christmas is so magical when you have children and I just can't help but throw myself into it.
We do elf on a shelf; I love that just for a couple of weeks everything is just a bit different and exciting. Although I agree it's a ballache as sometimes I lie in bed and think ah crap the bloody elf.
I do Christmas eve goodies. Usually new pjs and some goodies.
We see Santa once.
Make a gingerbread house one weekend.
Tree never up before December, usually the first weekend.
Church Christmas eve which I adore.

I do love everything Christmas but I have to admit I feel that every year it gets earlier.
The amount of people who have already taken their little ones to see Santa already is odd imo.
So many houses near me have had their decorations up for over a week too which I also feel is a bit early.

Dh bought mince pies and Baileys at the end of October and I looked at him like he had lost the plot. Everyone knows those are strictly December treats!

[BakedBeans47]

YANBU

I actually quite enjoy Christmas but the frenzy it has become is ridiculous. Not to mention all the competitive fb Christmassing. Bore off.

[Bobbi73]

At my son's nursery, there is a sign up offering a Christmas eve box for the bargain price of £15! It was literally the first time I have ever heard of it. Totally bonkers. Needless to say, my children will not be getting one. Also, managed to totally swerve the whole elf on the shelf shenanigans. I love Christmas, particularly now I have small children but we're pretty restrained on just buying them rubbish. They have been given second hand toys /bikes etc and they're always really happy. I imagine that will change as they get older but for now, we'll keep gift giving low key.

[Goshthatwentwell]

I think it's changing though.
My 13 year wants nothing this year. Judging from the Christmas thread he's not alone.
I've not had ti listen Ito Slade and Cliff yet because the internet means I don't have to ( contrast with 2000 and dial up).
The availability of pretty much everything means nobody needs gets a rubbish gift. Even the generic toiletries are so much better and good value.
Hate Chrustmas studff up but have to say a few pretty lights outside look good.

[Abbylee]

The elf on the shelf is from a region of the USA that Dutch Christian reformed Calvinists. particularly strict. I thought, when it first came out that it was one more way to suck the fun out of Christmas. I'm still not sure but I am happy that people have turned it into fun instead of one of the strict forms of raising children that Calvinists are so fond of.

[maddiemookins16mum]

Each to their own.
We have Christmas Eve Boxes - normally containing new jim jams and a tube of sweeties.
We also do a 'comedy' present (DP is getting a Game of Gnomes garden gnome). It's the first present we open on Christmas morning (oh and we have Christmas Tree crumpets for breakfast).
Then a handful of pressies on Christmas Day, a slap up dinner and that's it.
Tree goes up a week before and comes down about the 28th.

[80sMum]

Advent calendars get me, what’s wrong with a £1 chocolate one?

Or even the ones that just had a picture behind the window. The excitement was in seeing a new picture and counting down the days

^^I completely agree with this! I remember buying myself an advent calendar from a school promotional catalogue when I was 11. I had always wanted one, but my parents couldn't justify the cost, so I saved and bought my own (it was probably about 40p). It was in the shape of Father Christmas and had glitter on it. By the time I was 15 I remembered what picture was behind every door but I still re-used the same calendar every year. It became part of the excitement of the build up to Christmas.

It's not necessary to spend loads of money to create a sense of excitement and anticipation. I find the out-of-control consumerism of today's Christmases very off-putting and distasteful.

[purplebunny2012]

I can't stand Christmas before December, can't stand Elf on the Shelf, can't do with Christmas Eve boxes. But I'm not a Grinch because I love Christmas!

[Imabadmummy]

OMG 1st Dec box is a thing??

I don't do Xmas eve boxes etc but I started a 1st Dec box a few years ago (this will be our 3rd year - youngest was 2 so he was just starting to understand) for the kids....i thought i had made it up!
Basically has in Xmas books, a few special decorations and the advent calendar.
It's our sign that the Xmas season has begun and we get it out on the morning of 1st Dec.
Last year I put Xmas jumpers in it, this year I got them some silly pj's!

I did it as I didn't want to put decorations up until later in the month and as the kids were getting older, it helped me introduce xmas stories & santa.

The 1st few years it worked, decs went up about 12th Dec but last year they were so desperate to put the tree up we did it the 1st weekend of Dec and since youngest has been asking for 2 weeks now about putting the tree up I've told them the rule is the 1st weekend of Dec when mummy isn't working....which unfortunately is the 3rd this year 😂

[Cagliostro]

Agree the marketing is the worst. My major issue is the whole 'must have toy' phenomenon. Some random person deciding what every child will be desperate for this year. How the hell can anyone else decide what my child will enjoy. It's well known that these things like hatchimals will end up on a shelf after the novelty wears off yet still the pressure is on because the advertising is so powerful. I've known people to be desperate to find one (including paying over the odds on eBay etc) even when the child hasn't asked for it... but they are 'the toy of the year' so they must be sourced. It makes me so mad.

[LunasSpectreSpecs]

marketing convinces an awful lot of folk that it is essential and you will be a bad parent if you do not indulge.

See I think this is a big factor. I'm in my mid 40s and past the stage of giving a shit what other people think of my parenting. I'm a fairly confident person and secure in my own skin. I'm not afraid of saying NO to my children. I don't get sucked into the comparison game and encourage the kids not to either. People who are less secure, less confident and unsure if they're doing a good enough job as a parent do get sucked in to all the shite.

I did my morning shift today at the charity shop and one of the ladies I work with was emptying endless boxes of Christmas themed stuff which has been stored from last year. Christmas photo frames, dinner services, table runners, jumpers, those awful santa figures which wiggle their bum and "sing", Christmas sunglasses, mugs, candle holders, pyjamas, gloves/scarves, books, DVDs, CDs, nativity scenes.... you name it, we've got it. I think storage is the issue for most people - if you add bedding, jumpers and the rest of it to the standard tree decorations and stockings, all of a sudden you have boxes and boxes to find a space for.

[Housemum]

I absolutely love Christmas but hate the expectations put out by the retailers. We put decorations out first weekend of December, we get the Christmas DVDs out a little earlier but only so there is enough time to watch them together (usually only have one or two evenings a week where we are all home). Went to Asda yesterday and there was a "make your Christmas Eve box" stand - basically choosing stuff to buy to go in your "special" box. The whole fact it's a box designed by Asda with their gift suggestions to choose from means it's not special!
The best traditions are ones that evolve rather than being forced upon you - ours is stuff like the first DVD we watch being Mickey's Twice Upon A Christmas, the kids helping make Christmas cake (I have 22 years of photos of 1,2 or 3 kids stirring Christmas cake!), the oldest child putting the angel on top of the tree after we've decorated it together - no one has told us to do that, but I'm sure many other families have similar things that are their traditions

[Cagliostro]

YANBU.

I LOVE Christmas. Look forward to it for months especially once the clocks change and my mood tends to dip (more so this year as I'm 5 weeks postnatal with DC3). But it is still quite a low key affair in our family. The only thing I think about in advance is presents (I love choosing toys - and hate tat so it's more about choosing the family board game each year, books to read at bedtime and toys that will last the year ahead etc). DCs still believe at age 10 and 8 but we've never done grottos and stuff like that or even letters to Santa as he brings surprises.
.
The one thing we do that is a little frowned upon is the Christmas eve jammies. I nicked that from another forum when first pregnant as I had no traditions from my own childhood. My parents didn't do Christmas really, they let me decorate the tree and then it would be up until April or later as they couldn't be bothered to take it down. I remember sitting in my room cutting out a paper glass of wine, carrots and mince pies for Santa because I wasn't allowed to put real ones out. So it's important to me that Christmas is better for my DCs.
.
Again though it doesn't take much to make it exciting and magical. The jammies arriving are when it really kicks off and yes we do add in other things like a DVD or book, last year they had new bedding which was the first time we'd ever bought them an exciting duvet cover (dinosaurs and space) as we don't tend to replace stuff like that. They get as excited about the elves delivering their jammies as about Santa.

Other than that Christmas is about music for me. Decorating the tree (same tree since my second Christmas as my parents didn't want to keep it, lots of the old decorations and added to when we go to exhibitions etc as a way of remembering the fun places we've been. I agree replacing it all every year is sad and wasteful) while listening to Annie Lennox's carol album, and me playing carols on the piano - I'll have to do the latter with DD2 in a sling this year! And watching vicar of dibley and mr bean christmas episodes is essential of course. It really is the little things.

[manicmij]

Agree Jacob. Far too much trash thrown at us for far too long each season. Of course marketing convinces an awful lot of folk that it is essential and you will be a bad parent if you do not indulge. Just look at Halloween - not that many years ago adults didn t dress up and have parties, it was for kids only. We are now another American state with money to waste on junk all year long. Christmas Grump finished!!!

[Hudson123]

LunasSpectreSpecs

What you said- love the 4 yearly Christmas idea 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[chorusline79]

Yanbu - it's consumerism gone mad!

Christmas in the 80s was magical with maybe seeing FC at the school fair, a pillowcase with presents in, and just good old fashioned family time without too much fuss

My kids are still v small but I want to keep it Christmassy but not so much that it loses impact - no elf on the shelf, no £££ visit to Santa, and not ridiculous amounts of disposable presents!

[beehive74]

We have Xmas eve pj's and hot chocolate, visit to santa and reindeer and Xmas Dec's go up first weekend in Dec. Now dds are 15 and 10 we aren't doing the santa visit this year. But youngest has friends whose parents do elf on a shelf etc, and even worse two of those parents have decided the elf brings a present every day in December! It's ridiculous in my opinion and by time Xmas is here kids are exhausted and over excited.

[SottoVoc3]

I saw a Santa bath mat somewhere.
What is the point of that? What do you do with it for the rest of the year? Put it away with the decorations??? Just so unnecessary and wasteful...

[Obie4]

I love Christmas. I love my kids excitement. I'm looking forward to seeing my 2 younger children getting involved for the first time. My 6 yo dd had her list written at the start of November. I start my Christmas shopping in summer. (To make it more financially managable).
However. We have standard advent calendars. No 1st of December box. (new one to me). No xmas eve box. No fancey trips. No decorations in november. No elf on the shelf. I make my kids Christmas brilliant for them without spending a fortune. Crafts, Santa in our local shopping centre, we do alot that doesn't cost much.
I have friends that spend fortunes, do allsorts, and go to alot of Santa themed days out. They think this makes there kids happy. Actually I find it makes there kids ungrateful. While my kids have raved to a friend about making and decorating cookies at the weekend, (Last year). The other kid was saying how boring his day trip to Disney was!!!