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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Is it me or is Xmas going crazy?

72 replies

Belle1616 · 04/12/2018 07:47

Yes this another moany Xmas thread...

But, all these massive advent calendars, elves, North Pole breakfasts and Xmas eve boxes... every year people are concocting yet more ways to squeeze money out of this season...

I mean I love Christmas, but there has to be some limits!

OP posts:

halfwitpicker · 04/12/2018 12:26

Agreed.

Spoke to my mother and she has bought all the crimbo pressies already!

BiddyPop · 04/12/2018 12:36

MrDonut - I used to have a list of options to do that. And a sheaf of free printable seasonal colouring sheets and activity sheets as well. So on days when I had time, or we had plans for an outing, I would put a note about that in the calendar - and lots of days, I would just put a colouring sheet/activity sheet instead and DD would happily go colour it in/do the maze/find the words....getting progressively harder versions as she got older.

It also meant that, on days when I thought I might do a wintery walk, but woke exhausted from whatever happened at work or DD was under the weather or the actual weather was rubbish - I had either an alternative activity already in my head or a sheet printed out that I could substitute and do the wintery walk a different day instead.

And it is definitely necessary to have a mix of outdoors or indoors, active or quiet, useful or fun, types of activities on the list of options - even if some of them never get used (we never managed to get to the local fire station with cookies to say thank you, for example - but we probably made paper chains every single year).

Oblomov18 · 04/12/2018 12:43

I just ignore. I love Christmas and Halloween. Doing my decorations now.
But I just refuse to do all this Christmas Eve boxes, and Elf gives me the creeps!

JudasPrudy · 04/12/2018 12:51

Never heard of a North Pole breakfast. Imagine though if elf on the shelf was a tradition from 1872 we had only just heard about. Wouldn't we find it charming that people amused their children with little dollies? Fads are only really annoying when you're living through them.

TheFifthKey · 04/12/2018 13:08

Why is buying presents early a sign of excess? Mine are bought and wrapped - it means I can spend December weekends doing (low-cost) Christmassy things with DC like watching movies, making crafts etc rather than dragging round the shops.

WhyDontYouComeOnOver · 04/12/2018 13:14

elf on the shelf - school does this I don't get it

As I've already explained, it's a great resource for literacy.

but there definitely wasn't reindeer food, elf on the shelf or Christmas Eve boxes when I was a kid in the 90s

Our Christmas eve box was made 70 years ago. It definitely existed in the 90s. My father used to make reindeer food during my 70-80s childhood. Muesli and sugar.

Blanchedupetitpois · 04/12/2018 13:16

I think if you tried to do it all you’d go mad. You have to pick and chose the traditions that are meaningful to you.

PinkSquidgyPig · 04/12/2018 13:18

We might if I am motivated make the Blue Peter advent candle thingy. My DD saw it on tv the other day and I foolishly said "oh I remember them from when I was a child". To which she replied "oooo, can we make one mummy? But not with real candles!

OutPinked · 04/12/2018 13:20

I’ve done Christmas Eve boxes and the elf on the shelf for years. When I started it no one had heard of it and some people just thought I was fucking weird. Now everyone and their dog do it. I’m officially a Christmas Eve box/EOTS hipster .

Honestly the Christmas Eve presents are really quite dull. I like them to have new pjs, socks and slippers to have on for Christmas Day morning and that’s honestly as exciting as it gets.

MarshaBradyo · 04/12/2018 13:21

I don’t get elves or pjs or boxes

kingscote · 04/12/2018 13:25

"Why is buying presents early a sign of excess?"

I don't think anyone said it was.

pizzapineapple · 04/12/2018 13:27

What's North Pole breakfast?!

Elfinablender · 04/12/2018 13:36

I have three dc and we don't do elf on the shelf, toy based calendars, Christmas Eve boxes or North Pole breakfasts.

Im not a big fan of making life more complicated than it needs to be - it's meant to be a holiday, not a production.

YourMilkshakeIsBetterThanMine · 04/12/2018 13:39

I hide a lot of people on social media in December. We put our tree up on Saturday and the DC have bog standard chocolate calendars, that's it. I've seen a few people post photos from Saturday with "1st Dec Christmas Breakfast woo hoo" or "J loving his Santa breakfast for being such a good boy" all complete with festive paper plates etc, new Christmas books/DVDs, £20 calendars, LOL dolls, gift bags full of wintery clothing and the arrival of the EotS all for their DC to wake up to. On the 1st. It's mad.

Hide. Hide. Delete. Hide.

MarshaBradyo · 04/12/2018 13:40

It is probably due to social media, that and tasteful displays of stockings etc

I don’t even do advent calendars

Keep it simple - tree / presents they still get overly excited

TheFifthKey · 04/12/2018 14:30

Kingscote, earlier on the thread we had "Spoke to my mother and she has bought all the crimbo pressies already!"

I just don't see why this is noteworthy or a sign that "Christmas has gone mad!"

bigKiteFlying · 04/12/2018 15:02

elf on the shelf - school does this I don't get it

As I've already explained, it's a great resource for literacy.

That's great but doesn’t seem to be case in my children's school it's more used as some ineffectual behavioural control threat – threatening something outside schools control. I expect my children to behaved watched or not - so find whole concept odd plus we don’t really do Santa.

Maybe it's just be getting old it's only been around since 2005 so hardly a tradition yet.

WinklemansFringe · 04/12/2018 15:11

Social media has a lot to do with the rampant commercialisation of any vague celebration at the moment.

My favourite this year was pubs advertising ' St Patricks Week' . In England. I'm pretty sure we will have 'Valentines Week' in February.

I know you are only observing, but you can say no to stuff. I'm sure you probably will.

Do what makes you happy, put your tree up in November, have a curry for christmas dinner..whatever. It's a holiday, and for most people a time to show love and kindness. That will never go out of fashion ..hopefully.

Paddington68 · 04/12/2018 15:28

WWJD?

WhyDontYouComeOnOver · 04/12/2018 15:53

in my children's school it's more used as some ineffectual behavioural control threat – threatening something outside schools control

That's a bit crap. I don't agree with this surveillance crap though I did once tell a particularly excited class that the light coming on when they activated the alarm sensor was Santa checking in to make sure they were listening

orphanblack1 · 04/12/2018 16:03

Thus is my first year with a DC but he will only be around 15 weeks on Xmas day. We weren’t going to bother getting him anything as clearly he’s not going to understand/remember but that felt a bit mean so have got him 3 toys (which he will be playing with at around 6 months) and lots of books (which I will read to him/which will last).

However I definitely want to do an xmas eve box when he’s older but won’t be putting anything fancy in it. Will likely be new pj’s (and get some for us too) so we can all snuggle up in front of the tv and maybe books (as I loved reading as a child and buying books is definitely not a bad thing) and a treat we can all enjoy together. But I’d like the box to centre around us as a family as I’d like to make Xmas eve memorable and magical for him

weegiemum · 04/12/2018 20:12

Our dc are teenagers now, so the magic years are behind us, but it was never the gifts etc that made it a thing for us.
If you asked them what makes Christmas, at least 2 out of 3 will say the Advent Wreath, where we light a candle to represent peace, hope, joy. Faith and love on the Sunday's in advent and Christmas Eve.
Even though they're big (15,16,18) they will expect their Dad to read "Kippers Christmas Eve " as he has since they were tiny, and they will decide, along with Kipper, that expecting presents is best!
No boxes, no elves, and sadly no longer leaving out mince pies and carrots for Santa, but our Christmas Eves are special in a way I never share on SM as its ours. Dd1 now works in a at/venue and doesn't know yet if she's working Christmas Eve, she's dreading missing it!

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