"Kids make Christmas magical"

[HammerHorror]

... no they do not!

I've had almost 40 wonderful christmases and about 20 of those were about relaxing, enjoying the atmosphere, spending time with family & friends, watching TV, and eating.

My kids are now 3 and 2 and are finally catching onto that Christmas buzz and anticipation... it's like living with chimpanzees!

They've stopped listening, stopped going to bed, stopped eating dinner nicely at the table... they're just a mass of wired excitement.

I feel like managing a circus whilst simultaneously doing the Christmas shopping and preparing for hosting Christmas Day.

Christmas is not magical with kids, it's fucking exhausting.

Disclaimer: lighthearted but not but is!!

I LOVE the kids I nanny for but I am thinking THANK CHRIST I don’t have to be there on Christmas Day.

We’ve done some nice things and they’re normally lovely to spend time with but now their mum is off work and we’ve had to do

4x Christmas carol services
2x go round locality carol singing
2x Christmas shows
1x day Christmas baking
4x Christmas high teas for relatives/friends
2x pantomime

They’re so over it (Im with them on that!!) that they are being completely horrid right now. I dread to think what monsters they’ll be by Christmas Day.

It’s not been magical

3 and 2 is so small it does get nicer when they're 6 onwards imo

YANBU and I'm afraid it doesn't get any better. Well maybe in ten years?

Being with people you actually like /love and not just tolerate /guilted into seeing - make Christmas special.
If they happen to be dc it's sheer coincidence imo.

Yanbu. As someone else said, it gets better as they get older. Although there are more organised school activities then of course...

I normally love spending time with them. They're usually fabulous company and very well behaved.

I've spent two weeks on a steep learning curve of behaviour management! ... and there's still 5 days to go!!!!!!!!!

I really don't think it's my children that have done all the planning, shopping, wrapping, stashing, cooking, feeding, and entertaining that makes Christmas so magical...

Christmas without kids can be lovely, relaxing, fun, boozy. However I don't think I would describe an adult Christmas as "magical".

My daughter is 2 so this is the first year she has any idea about Christmas and her little face when she sees Christmas lights is magical. I think her response on Christmss morning will be more magical than the 15 years of no-kid Christmases we have had.

I enjoy the non child side of Christmas.

Oh i do love them. I love them so much I want to cry tears of joy into their angelic sleeping cheeks... but right now they need a cage and not a bed. I'll throw an advent chocolate and a satsuma in once a day.

At least when their older they'll be at school full time! Their teachers can enjoy the magic of children at Christmas.

I want it to be magical. They want it to be magical. I think it is magical in anticipation and retrospect. The actual doing it is pretty hideous !! Throw in 1 Dc with ASD and 1 Dc with ADHD and its a fairly explosive mix ...

You are so right!!!
My child free Christmas’s were amazing! Full of eating, drinking, shopping, watching movies while wrapping prezzies with a chocolate orange and bottle of bucks fizz, visiting friends, nights out dancing to Slade, wham and Mariah Carey! Brilliant.

Last year was my first Christmas with DS and without a doubt my worst ever! He was 2.5wks old, wouldn’t be put down, reflux and colic, screamed literally all day and I threw my Christmas Dinner in the bin. Obviously I absolutely love every single fibre of his being and would die for him but it certainly wasn’t a magical Christmas! He’s just turned one and is now a truly funny, warm, smiley little boy but unpredictable and Christmas still has no meaning for him...difference is my expectations are much lower this year! Lol.

My dc are the same age as yours - 2&3.
Christmas is essentially all for them in my house.
Before we had them, DH and I would happily fuck off the whole traditional Christmas thing. Stay home, have a pizza and chill out before work starts again.
Now we have kids, it’s Christmas extravaganza!

I've realistically altered my Christmas expectations and not expecting to drink mulled wine for breakfast... I am expecting my children to remember that they're not allowed to stand on their chairs at dinner time nor run up & down their bedroom at bedtime.

I'm all for doing the kiddy stuff and having a shite looking tree. I'd just like to not have to say "you're not doing good listening" 4534 times a minute.

OP don't be fooled, when they are at school full-time they will be angels all day and then save the tantrums/arguments/over excitedness for when they get home 😵

Your post made me chuckle OP as I am right with you! However mine is ‘can we PLEASE using our listening ears!’ Mine are 5 and 2 and honestly I just want to go to bed with a bottle of fizz and hide but cannot as I have Christmas magic to create!!!!

I think only bastards say Christmas is more magical with kids. You have to be really mean to say something like that.

Mine are 8&5, so around the golden age of being excited, and their excitement is contagious. It is nicer having children around. Nieces and nephews brightened up the pre-DC years.

Aside from children, I find carols are the most magical thing. The beauty of people singing songs that have been sung each year for years or centuries is pretty special. That's what really puts me in the mood... and pretty lights all over the neighbourhood.

Can parents of school age children just allow me to believe it'll get easier... christmas spirit and all that!!

Wouldn't it be lovely to crawl under a blanket with a bottle of baileys and 5kg of chocolate ... but we need to assemble and wrap a bike once these feral beasts are finally asleep.

We have grand plans to attend the village carol service on Christmas Eve but I'm setting to bar very low and we're prepared to leave after one song!

Mine are teenage and I must say Christmas is a far more pleasant experience with them now they’re older. Plus my dds are the same age as I was in 1988 and 1990, so I’m finding myself living a little vicariously and nostalgically through them as some of my best Christmases were when I was in my early and mid teens. Magical in a different way.

Totally agree, I loved Christmas before becoming a parent, lovely, long meals, civilised celebrations with friends, Church services (not necessarily Nativity performances by over excited toddlers forgetting their lines ), long walks in the fresh air, board games which challenged the mind etc etc. Then the reality with a small child, I so clearly remember one Christmas trying hard to look interested as my DH assembled Mousetrap, thinking to myself ‘is this really what Christmas is about?’. Fortunately DS is now a teenager and it has got much better .

OP we went to Christingle last year on Christmas Eve, it was lovely and we were all having such a jolly time until DS caught DD's hair alight on the candle (accidentally I might add!)

Sorry, it doesn’t get easier 😂 DS is 9 and this year seems to have reached peak excitement levels! It’s true that they keep it all in at school, then release the craziness at home... it’s worth it though!