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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Fucking Christmas Jumper Day

195 replies

SkateAway · 09/12/2019 22:49

AIBU and a scrooge?

My work are having a Christmas jumper day. We are a small team so it will be noticed if I don't join in and it has been implied I will be making my team look bad if I refuse.

I don't own a Christmas jumper and I don't want to waste money on something I'll never wear again. The idea is that we bring in a monetary donation and also have a donation tin for clients to donate. I have suggested a local charity for disadvantaged children.

I'd rather put an extra tenner in the donation bucket than spend it on a hideous piece of glittery landfill. I've asked around and nobody has one I can borrow, can't make it round the charity shops before the day and I'm told wearing a festive colour with some tinsel in my hair isn't in the spirit of things.

I don't like Christmas but I'm not outwardly scroogey about it. Unsure if I'm being a total bore and "that person" or if I'm justified in not being arsed with it.

I don't buy my children new ones every year, they have got one each that others have bought them and they wear those a few times over the holidays until they don't fit.

OP posts:
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6
OmniversalsTapdancingTadpole · 10/12/2019 09:07

I fucking hate this consumer driven christmas shit.

More plastic crap for the environment Xmas Angry

CinnamonStar · 10/12/2019 09:09

Just wear the brightest coloured jumper you already have, and maybe pin a decoration to it.

DH's "Christmas" jumper is a maroon coloured one he already owned, which has a (tiny) embroidered logo of a stag on it (renamed as a reindeer for festive purposes)
He wears that, donates to the charity tin, and nobody has said anything. Last year the kids stuck some little white stickers round it as snow, but he has won it undecorated too.

Whattodoabout · 10/12/2019 09:10

It won’t be worn once if your work decides to do this every year though will it. I think it’s an investment personally so you don’t face this nonsense every Christmas.

TheSummoningDark · 10/12/2019 09:12
  1. Wear plain black jumper.
  2. Donate to charity
  3. Explain, with a winning smile and a wink
"It's Father Christmas delivering the presents at night / a child's view under the duvet because they don't want to see Father Christmas by accident".

Alternatively, wear a plain white jumper and say it's a heavy snow storm.

  1. Job done.
TinyTear · 10/12/2019 09:13

pin a bauble to a regular jumper or a bit of tinsel...

Thecazelets · 10/12/2019 09:48

The whole Christmas jumper is such a recent fabrication anyway. I am quite old, so talking about the 1980s/90s, but in my recollection the original and much mocked 'Christmas jumper' was not a purpose-designed acrylic number decorated with robins/reindeer/snowmen etc, but any hideous/itchy/patterned/hand-knitted jumper that you were given (often annually) by a well-meaning relative and were forced by your parents to wear on the day to please them.

Another example of how we've all lost the true meaning of Christmas ;)

Elphame · 10/12/2019 09:55

The one time I was coerced into wearing one of the horrible things I managed to get a black one with a skull wearing a Father Christmas hat.

Funnily enough the next year was optional!

StrangeLookingParasite · 10/12/2019 10:02

spiderlight

Grin
Thehagonthehillwithtinsel · 10/12/2019 10:14

Buy some felt .Cut out a brown circle for a pudding and Holly leaf shapes the put on the top.Pin /tack to any suitable top.Bit of tinsel.Job done.
Or white top and silver tinsel in hair and go as a nativity angel,/ star.

Comefromaway · 10/12/2019 10:25

It was christmas jumper day at dd's part time job last weekend. She said she would be way too hot jumping around all day (she works at a kids activity) so she wore a red top she already had and some tinsel round her neck.

Ds refuses to wear a christmas jumper at school but he loves his christmas socks. He will wear those instead. Dh also refuses to wear one, on christmas jumper day at his work he wears a (very tatty now) Bar humbug black santa hat he aquired years ago.

Thankfully no such shenanigans where I work. I'd just ignore it if there was.

MrOnionsBumperRoller · 10/12/2019 10:33

Fuck it I'd go full on elf, green face, curly toed shoes the works. And skip around the workplace all day pulling mischevious pranks.

SallyWD · 10/12/2019 10:45

Borrow one from a friend or relative?

Fairyliz · 10/12/2019 10:50

It depends op can you honestly say hand in heart there’s not a tiny bit of virtue signalling going on here?
I used to work with a woman who wouldn’t wear a Christmas jumper to save the environment. This was someone who drove a Range Rover and took several foreign holidays a year. She got quite shirty when we pointed this out.

kjhkj · 10/12/2019 10:54

It’s not one day though , worn once a year it will last 20 years. Just store it with the Xmas decorations.

Not when the kids are asked to have them. They grow so quickly that they don't last long at all. Its really appalling for the environment.

tillytrotter1 · 10/12/2019 11:26

Do you have tinsel to sew on an existing jumper - either tie it in a bow and sew to the front or sew loosely round the neck and cuffs.

Why should she? Not everyone wnts to go round like a circus clown. Were I still working my 'Christmas jumper' would be the lovely cashmere polo nack to which I have treated myself!

7Days · 10/12/2019 11:36

Someone up thread has the best idea.
Just say you ordered one but it didn't come in time, and hand them a tenner

DarlingNikita · 10/12/2019 11:40

I hate this kind of shit.
I'd have no qualms about saying to work what you've said here: that you'd rather put extra money in the donation bucket than spend it on something that will go to landfill.

DISCLAIMER I am a miserable moo about Christmas/office parties etc and, although I now work at home alone (yay!), worked in offices for years and, I strongly suspect, had a reputation as being not particularly a 'joiner-in'/'team player'...

Candlebarbara · 10/12/2019 11:42

I just don’t take part. I will put a couple of quid in the bucket, but I just refuse to comply! Most Christmas jumpers are awful scratchy, high necked affairs which look and feel dreadful on me. I refuse to waste my money buying something I hate.

I reckon most companies do it so, like most charity things nowadays, they can take a picture of it to put on social media and tick a box in their CSR targets.

I don’t give a fuck what my colleagues think, no one has ever said anything to me about not joining in.

PBo83 · 10/12/2019 11:56

We do it at our place. £2 donation (of which half is given away in a 'sweepstake' (so basically £1 to charity). You then spend £10-£20 on a jumper so it can cost as much as £22 for a £1 donation of which god-knows what %'age will actually get to the children.

Just take the money and donate to a local cause and, if anyone questions it, say exactly that.

PorridgeAgainAbney · 10/12/2019 13:24

@PaulHollywoodsSexGut cheers for your endorsement Smile. I just don't get the effort that everyone is expecting the OP to go to. If she forgets then she'll just get accused of being a bit scatty, not a Scrooge. No need to give it a millisecond's thought.

By the way I love Christmas, I just hate seeing people pressured into doing something they aren't comfortable with. So many ways that people spend their days being manipulated/bullied in small ways in their workplace Sad.

Original poster
SkateAway · 10/12/2019 14:14

It depends op can you honestly say hand in heart there’s not a tiny bit of virtue signalling going on here?
I used to work with a woman who wouldn’t wear a Christmas jumper to save the environment. This was someone who drove a Range Rover and took several foreign holidays a year. She got quite shirty when we pointed this out.

I'm not virtue signalling, I just object to needless waste. I just told them I didn't have a Christmas jumper. I was more or less told to get one and take part or I'd be letting the team down. My suggestion of wearing something red and putting some tinsel in my hair wasn't good enough.

If it makes a difference, I dont drive a Range Rover and I'm careful with my carbon footprint. I havent lectured anyone else about their choice; just stated that I didn't see the point in buying something I wouldn't use when I could give that money to the charity.

OP posts:
PBo83 · 10/12/2019 14:17

I second that, no virtue-signalling from me either, I just don't want to spend money on something I'll never wear again when I could give that money to a charity close to my heart.

Oh...and I don't drive a Range Rover either but hoping that will change in 2020 :)

nilcarborundum · 10/12/2019 14:27

This might have been said , but most charity shops have tons of Christmas jumpers at the moment, some still with tags on and very cheap. I got one for my DP the other day 😊

GingleJangleScarecrow · 10/12/2019 14:44

most charity shops have tons of Christmas jumpers at the moment

Yes, and the OP has stated numerous times that she is unable to get to a charity shop even providing a detailed account of her working hours as it is apparently not good enough just to say that you can't get to a charity shop

PaulHollywoodsSexGut · 10/12/2019 14:45

It depends op can you honestly say hand in heart there’s not a tiny bit of virtue signalling going on here?

Nah, it’s just the OP being justified in being press ganged into wasteful shit.

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