to refuse to buy into the "Christmas Eve Box" fad?

[HearMeSnore]

I mean, when did this shit start? I never heard of it until this year but now I keep hearing about it in every shop as if it's as essential a part of Christmas as trees and turkeys.

Fortunately it doesn't seem to have made it into DD's hearing yet but I'm dreading being asked "will I get a Christmas Eve box this year?" as if I wasn't already spending most of the Christmas budget on her actual presents.

I'm not a "bah! humbug!" person. I love Christmas. But this is just unashamed capitalist exploitation. Like when the greeting cards industry tries to introduce "secretary's day" and shit like that.

Seriously. Can we make some kind of pact to not do it? Make it die a death before it catches on and we're all pressured into buying even more crap that nobody needs?

Everyone has individual tweaks on the Xmas celebrations that go down as a “tradition”, but you can choose which ones stick. If you don’t like it (and I feel your pain!) stand firm.

Yes I'm 40+ and my man did Christmas eve boxes for us, I do it for my kids and I love it. Bath time then open box books, mugs, hot chocolate and marshmallows, reindeer dust the lot! The excitement on my kids faces is worth it! It's not too expensive either. I get more enjoyment doing it.

No idea what this is and glad my kids are grown up. I do think every family is free to stick to its own traditions and should not be pressured into something new. We moved our young family to Germany 18 years ago. Therefore all their friends celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve (the 25th is just a public holiday with the uninspiring name erste Weihnachtsfeiertag - first Christmas holiday) and didn't know anything about hanging out stockings, Christmas pud etc. We never found sticking to an English Christmas a problem, every accepted we had the right to follow our own traditions, even if they found them odd sometimes

Never heard of it. Why?.... What's the point?.... Mine used to have new Jim-jams Christmas eve, so they could wear them and be nice and cosy, watching the television. If I did do it, it would just be some chocolate, but nothing else.

I think it depends how you do it. We put pyjamas and a new book in, and a single new tree decoration that suits each child (DD loves bees, and I found one that's a honeycomb with bees on it - not especially Christmassy, but will go down a treat!). I don't think that's especially commercialised, and I've not bought anything that wouldn't go in a stocking or that they don't actually need, other than the decoration.

I do think turning it into a second stocking, effectively, is a shame. It kills the idea of the actual, well, stocking. But a special bedtime box does seem lovely to me.

We don't get a Christmas cake - a friend makes and ices an amazing gingerbread house. That sits between the boxes and they can eat a bit before bed, while we read a special copy of The Night Before Christmas (it's a Robert Sabuda pop-up version and really beautiful - my DD actually pleads for it all year to no avail!). Book and the boxes are used every year so a one-off purchase, and as I say, we don't get a cake as nobody likes them - everyone loves the gingerbread house and it looks beautiful.

I dunno. I didn't have a very happy childhood myself so maybe I go overboard in terms of creating special traditions, but I think memories are important - more so than "stuff". Books and new pyjamas before hanging the stocking seems nice to me - I don't think they're getting anything we wouldn't get anyway, tbf. But I would eyeroll a bit if it turned into more of an excuse to buy a ton of shit they don't need, agreed.

Christmas Eve boxes seem to have been around a few years, I've never done them.
I always get them new PJ's we have hot chocolate and watch a Christmas film

Anything that gets us all spending more and more on unnecessary tat for Christmas…. ummm no I won't be doing that one.

I have never done one, never even heard of it before MN and don't know anyone who does one.

My Christmas Eve traditions are visiting my grandmother, then singing carols round the tree in the village, then going to my parents and reading The Night Before Christmas to DD when I put her to bed.

Sod the Box and the Elf

For me it's all about getting the kids excited on Christmas Eve, they still get stockings. We are spending Christmas at Centre Parcs this year so Santa will be leaving special boxes for the kids in the lodge this year when we arrive, it's all about the magic of Christmas and I love it!

Ach it’s not all that bad. It’s not necessary obviously but my mum used to do something simiar with me when i was young but it wasn’t in a box, I used to get colouring in book, pjs, a dvd and something along the lines of a selection box.. actually I still get pjs, a colouring in book and chocolate at the age of 27 haha! Now I have kids in my life I’ve been making up a box for them along the same lines and we’ll watch a dvd too so I’m only repeating really what my mum did but just putting it in a box lol.

We have made Xmas eve boxes since our endear was born, 20 years ago . My parents also did for my siblings and I.
New nightwear, dressing gown, hot chocolate, a chocolate treat, a dvd (or video when we were young) and a small teddy bear (pocket size) our eldest has 20 small bears that represent every Christmas. I think it’s a wonderful sentiment
Each child in our house also has an item to leave for Santa in their box too.
My mum started doing it 43 years ago and the main reason was she wanted us in new pjs and dressing gowns for the Christmas morning photos!

PicnicinNovember that's exactly what I meant. Thank you.

In our family we have a small gift exchange on New Years Day, purely because the extended family are miles away and we generally can't get together with them until New Year. So it suits us, and has thus become one of our traditions.

But if shops and businesses started marketing stuff as "IDEAL NEW YEAR GIFTS" I would be equally pissed off. Because it shouldn't be expected, or pushed on people in the name of consumerism.

Why are people to enamoured with hot chocolate? It is the most horrible, over-sweet, yucky drink imaginable (along with mulled wine).

God I love mulled wine....

mmmmmmm..is it too early for that?

Here here

Christmas Eve box will be filled with Pjs, Xmas film, hot chocolate that type of thing. Personally I think it’s over kill, I’ve always done a new pair of pjs on Xmas eve my eldest are now 20 and 18 and still do it as they have a little brother now.

Nope not done it and never will

Love mulled wine and hot chocolate, each to their own!

Christmas Eve boxes!! Are we now adopting the European habit of giving presents on 24th Dec, to mark St Nicholas visiting then i stead of the 25th marking the birth of a certain biblical person. It's got to be one or the other for me I'm afraid.

I do a 1st Dec box.

Growing up we did get new pjs Xmas eve and I got lovely new Xmas pjs for DD, chocolates and a movie in her first Christmas Eve box. She was too full to eat the chocolates off tea, by the time we'd bathed and changed she fell asleep 15min into the movie and I felt strange putting her in Xmas pjs after Christmas day........So 1st of Dec box was a better fit for us. I put in Christmas pjs, crafts for December and some sweets. All used fully in December and on Christmas Eve the kids get new 'winter' themed pjs from the Christmas Fairy.

Definitely not doing the elf far too much pressure but the 'boxes' contain things I would usually have anyway just together in a container to make it a bit more magical.

I explained that some houses have naughty elves and some have Christmas Fairy that watch to make sure boys and girls behave. Each to their own.

I am going to put old Christmas books, dvd's and pot of cocoa and blanket in a box for my two then we will snuggle up to read and watch movies. You don't have to buy new.

I have never heard of Christmas Boxes. However, I always got a Christmas movie for the DCs. It was placed in a 'general' pile under the tree that also included a box of chocolates and a chocolate orange. And the DCs sometimes got a new pair of PJs for Christmas, or a dressing gown, slippers, etc. But it's never been A Thing.

I adopted exMIL and FIL's custom of opening gifts from friends and family and each other on Christmas Eve, with only Santa Claus gifts left under the tree (later that evening obv). It's possible this is a remnant of a German custom as exMIL grew up in a city whose culture was heavily influenced by German immigrants, in the US.

We did not adopt the St Nicholas' Eve fad that swept the DCs' school about 12 years ago. The DCs left their shoes outside their bedroom doors on the night and told me confidently that St Nicholas was going to swing by with presents to put in the shoes. They got a dollar each for their trouble. I told them there had been a big mixup and the tooth fairy had done our house.

And I said No Way to that godawful Elf on the Shelf.

Never heard of it. I usually by new pyjamas - for photos etc. The other thing that some children seem to have started doing the last 2-3 yrs is having an elf 🙄.

No, but we don't even have a chocolate Advent calendar. We have an ordinary one with pictures and play bingo every year - each person has to think of 6 Christmassy things and if it is behind one of the doors you get to cross it off your bingo list (DH and I had already started this tradition before the kids were born, but they enjoy it too now)