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

[Ontopofthesunset]

I am genuinely Scrooge-like in that I'm not really sure, if people aren't religious, what it is they like about Christmas so much. I mean, like it so much that they say how they love Christmas and want to spend a whole month just being Christmassy and doing all this Christmas-themed stuff.

I think having a tree decorated with lights for a couple of weeks is nice and seeing family for a big meal and exchanging presents is nice and when your children are small it's nice seeing them excited and putting out a mince pie for Father Christmas. But that's kind of it, isn't it? If you don't believe in Jesus then that's all it is.

So really what is it that people enjoy so much? There isn't really much to it. Buying lots of stuff and eating lots of stuff and watching films about people buying and eating lots of stuff.

Bah humbug.

[reluctantbrit]

Biscuit - in a way this is what lots of other countries do.

I am German and we decorate and start the celebration with the first Advent Sunday (or around that date). This is when the markets start, the Advent calendar comes out, we have the Advent wreath with candles etc.

The tree only comes just before Christmas.

I love having my house decorated for 4 weeks up to Christmas Eve and then the tree until the 6th January. But the tree is a Chrismas tree. I would def get sick of seeing it and occupying my living room for 6 weeks.

[TaylorTinker]

We all know what gets used in our particular families: football tops are a crazy price and I hate the material but I have to say for certain children at a stage in their life they work out well on a cost per wear basis!

[ScipioAfricanus]

We put decorations up as and when we can be bothered from the beginning of Advent, but we don’t buy our tree until a week before Christmas and we decorate it on a Christmas Eve. We used to do it a little earlier growing up, but I have a friend from Scandinavia and she told me about not doing the tree till Christmas Eve which I really like. We keep it up till Epiphany long after all the other trees in the street are down, so we get 12 days of it which is lovely. I’d consider doing it earlier if my DC wanted but so far he’s happy.

[converseandjeans]

Great thread jacob and lunas you are making complete sense to me. I have actually started to dread Christmas. I can't face 2 months of the shops moving stuff about to make way for 'festive' produce.
I find the level of consumerism frightening & the amount of plastic packaging obscene.
Also I do wonder how people can justify something like £100 for the family to ride on a Santa Express train. You could get an annual pass to somewhere pretty good for that amount.
It is a lot of effort & expense :(
I do like the lights going up though :)

[TaylorTinker]

Growing up we did the tree on Christmas Eve but I've been ground down so now it goes up in the final fortnight. Then I want to keep it up until Epiphany while DH is saying it can come down from boxing day!

[LucheroTena]

The worst thing is going for a Christmas Eve walk around town and all the poor shop staff have taken down the Christmas stuff to be replaced with sale crap. It's over before it's even begun.

Blue water the other week was mental with people buying mounds of tat, literally bags of it, including huge remote control helicopters that will 1. Break 2. Difficult to fly anywhere built up 3. Take up metre+ of space.

Wonder if people who live in rural places still get a nice magical Christmas unspoiled by consumerism...

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

Lunas, that post was really interesting.

Would you mind listing what you can't sell - as well as what are the good sellers for you?

[LunasSpectreSpecs]

We took the kids to the panto last year only because we got a last minute deal (probably because they couldn't sell enough tickets). Yes it was good, but at full price, shocking value.

Taking the family (2 adults, 3 kids) to the panto in Glasgow this year wold cost us £150. We could afford it, but it's just NOT worth the money to see the likes of Edie McCredie from Balamory hamming it up. DD and I have tickets to the Nutcracker by Scottish ballet on 4th Jan, cost us £14 each. And people say the ballet is cutting people out because of the cost.....

[Belle1616]

Christmas for me is a time for family, counting blessings and helping the lesss fortunate. I love Christmas. But it doesn’t start until December 20th.

Also when my child is old enough none of this commercial elf rubbish. I’m generous at Christmas but every year they invent new ways to get more money out of people.

[Laiste]

The worst thing is going for a Christmas Eve walk around town and all the poor shop staff have taken down the Christmas stuff to be replaced with sale crap. It's over before it's even begun.

Working in a primary school it's even worse! While the kids are having their party on the last day half the staff are busy taking down all the xmas decs, xmas displays and xmas trees dotted round the school. No one wants to go back on Jan 7th (or whenever) and see last year's Christmas.

It's obvious when you think of it but until i worked in a school i didn't realise that xmas ends early there. The last day of school should be all full of xmas joy and there we were at 4/5 pm stuffing it all back in the back of the dusty store room. Very unxmasy

[dingdongdigeridoo]

I can’t imagine taking the tree down on Boxing Day. SIL puts it up mid November, then Boxing Day it comes down before they hit the sales. Makes Xmas feel really short and I think it’s nice having something to cheer you up in that miserable period between Xmas and New Year.

[LunasSpectreSpecs]

Well what will sell depends very much on your demographic. We find that things like scented candles, Lego, nice hat and scarf sets which are still shop tagged, board games with all their bits and those mug sets with stirrers or things sell well. Jewellery also sells well - both costume and more expensive stuff.

Toiletry sets really don't - unless they're Jo Malone or Cath Kidston or something. Radox, Lynx or Baylis ones kick around for weeks until we whack them on the £1 table and then they sell.

As for what we can't by law sell - any toys without a CE mark, including disney stuff brought back from the states and knitted/sewn toys. Any foodstuffs, whether or not they appear to be unused. Things like cosmetics which might have been opened. Knives and knife sets. Fake anything - we get a lot of "Gucci" bags and "Hermes" scarves obviously bought overseas from markets and it's illegal for us to sell them on. Alcohol.

What we can't sell because it's against policy - things with offensive logos or workwear which could potentially allow someone to pass themselves off as someone they''re not. Plug-in electricals as we can't PAT test - battery operated items fine. Fur items. Used underwear. Other shops might be happy to take these - I know DEBRA shops do PAT test. Always ask the volunteer rather than just assuming and dropping stuff off.

[BarbaraofSevillle]

We didn't even have a tree until 26/27 Dec one year. We'd had a few years of real trees and thrown the old crappy fake one away, but hadn't got round to a real tree and decided they were expensive and messy anyway, but I bought a pre-lit nice fake one in the sale after Christmas and put it up!

[LucilleBluth]

I absolutely agree. I have three DCs 16, 13 and 6. The change in Christmas from DC1 to 3 has been astonishing. It's gone too consumer crazy......too much stuff.

I don't do xmas eve box, I don't even know that a Dec 1st box is....we do panto, Santa visit.

The one that makes me laugh is like a pp said 'hot chocolate' it's a drink, not a Christmas tradition. The concept of 'snuggled on the sofa watching a film with a hot chocolate makes me cringe. Everything has to be something.

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

Thanks Lunas

I think I've been guilty of donating some of the 'do not sell' stuff. I'll know better now.

[Ontopofthesunset]

Yes, to the pp who talked about how cringeworthy 'snuggling on the sofa watching Christmas films with hot chocolate' is. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against watching a few good Christmas films or indeed the act of 'snuggling'. It just sounds so irritatingly twee and also is made to sound bizarrely as if the rest of the year you would never cuddle up on the sofa with your kids or partner to watch a film or TV, or ever have a hot chocolate. Why do you have to wait till Christmastide to do it?

[Ontopofthesunset]

And don't get me started on the fairly new requirement for everything to be 'magical'. What's wrong with just fun or a laugh or enjoyable or comforting? Why does everything have to be laden with import?

[Newinthegame16]

I got my free Royal Mail card today and it's not a personalised letter so those wanting DC name need make one or source elsewhere

[Newinthegame16]

NSPCC do personalised letters for a donation

[Hippee]

My DC think that the CCTV at our doctor's is a Santacam, so we've never needed to do the Elf on the Shelf thing - I did have a half-hearted attempt a few years ago, but even the 4 year old spotted that the elf was an old Happy Meal toy (they are quite fond of him now, but he doesn't bother with any shenanigans). Other Scrooge-y things that we do, that are now a quite fond tradition with DS1(11), DS2(9) and DD(7), are: Brussels sprouts in stockings (to replace presents when they have been naughty - in reality we just bung a few in, but DS1 was convinced a few years ago that a Brussels sprout had replaced the Nintendo DS he had wanted) and Advent Calendar bingo - we all pick 5 things that might be behind the windows and then cross them off as they open the windows (1 picture calendar between three - they don't even moan about chocolate calendars any more).

[Queeniebed]

I have to agree with you. Mine is 16 months now and last year we did pop into Santa (we both had weekday off work and there was no Q) so we have a lovely set of first Christmas photo keepsakes (some of which doubled as xmas presents). My mum keeps calling me up suggesting things and ive responded so far with he wont remember so its not worth messing up sleep times and standing out in the cold. DH and I are going to a late shopping night with him next week but will likely only see the lights and go home.

I cant be bothered with it all really but I would do it for DH who loves it and DS

[Loonoonow]

When DC were little we had an artificial tree that went up on the day they broke up from school. It was officially the start of Christmas for us and it is bringing tears to my eyes remembering how excited they would be to come home and see the lights. Their annual visit to Santa was at our church Christmas fair and I don't think even now they realise that he was 'John' from down the road dressed up.

Nowadays we have a massive real tree that gets delivered in the first week of December so it goes up then, but there is only me and the grinch my DH to enjoy it. And it is normally down on New Years Day.

All of you with little ones at home, enjoy it in whatever way will bring you joy - those years go by so fast.

[HuskyMcClusky]

Yes, to the pp who talked about how cringeworthy 'snuggling on the sofa watching Christmas films with hot chocolate' is.

I don’t get it either. Just watch something and have a drink if you want, no need to get all #makingmemories about it.

[moominsareace]

I love Christmas and had the most wonderful Christmasses when I was little. Now with DC I try to recreate that - decs up the first weekend in December, a few decent presents, Christingle, panto (first time this year). But we also (like many) make a Christmas shoe box, buy gifts for the local Refuge, things like that.

Christmas is over-hyped and starts far too early. But I still love it :)