To wish we could stop over complicating Christmas

[Beswitched]

Ever more elaborate decorations, Christmas boxes, expensive branded advent calendars, fancy alternatives to the standard Christmas Dinner, competitive posts on Facebook, manic manic shopping, trips to lapland, Secret Santa angst etc etc and the whole shebang starting in November.

Aibu to wonder what happened to a couple of presents from Santa, simple presents for family and friends, putting the beloved and tattered decorations up a few days before Christmas and enjoying a roast dinner together?
It all seems to have become so elaborate these days.

[Mintjulia]

I love Xmas but mostly for the chance to rest, the fridge full of food and the fact I don’t have to rush anywhere & can go cycling with dc.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t do Elf or Christmas Eve boxes. Where I live Christmas Eve is for carols and peeling veg while getting steadily more merry .
And then crawling off to bed at 2am.

[Maddiemademe]

I admit I have done the following:

New decorations
Elf on the Shelf
Fancy Advent Calendars
Christmas Eve Boxes
Christmas Jumpers
A LOT of presents for my 2DC (4,8)
Will try seeing Santa if I am well enough
Outdoor decorations
2 x Trees (tacky one for kids in the family room and more grownup one for the more adult front room)
Tonnes of baking
Hours spent making decorations with the children
Log fire every day of December with hot chocolates
Started all on Dec 1st
Would have gone to Lapland if I was well enough.

Unfortunately I am wheelchair bound and very unwell. It also looks like I may have bowel cancer so just wanted to make it as fun as possible. I know it’s not for everyone and that everyone should make Christmas however they see fit

[AllergicToAMop]

I did my first shopping last week and will pick up the food on the 23rd.

My idea of hell! I sort presents in peace over few months and have them done by the end of nov. I then shop bits for Christmas food like red cabbage, goose fat and other long date stuff whenever I go for normal shopping. Never go to shops after 21st. It's murder in there! I even have my Christmas booze already stored.
Like this, I spread it all and it's quite chilled without too much stress.
Plus. If I forget something, I forgot it🤷 No one is going to die.

Then we just chill, eat and drink for 3 days

[andpancakesforbreakfast]

I never understand why anyone feels "pressured" and needs to join some kind of weird competition. Families celebrate differently, and it's ok to say "no" to your children.

It's such a miserable month, I love that there's so many things available to take the kids to at weekends. It makes it easier to find things to do in January too.
If you prefer being home and do very little you can do that too.

[HowlsMovingBungalow]

Have a lovely Christmas @Maddiemademe

[ActualHornist]

You're not obliged to do any of that.

I'm on Facebook but still have managed to not adopt Elf on the Shelf, Xmas Eve boxes and all the other stuff you mention.

[newbingepisodes]

You do realise you don't actually have to do all that! We don't in our family!

[Xenia]

When the teenagers said they wanted money that cut out having to buy any presents although I have got a few stocking things this year. Keep it all simple. Make it about long walks outside, church (if you go to church), helping others (my mother used to take us as children to see elderly neighbours and give them calendars we had drawn and made for example).

[Andysbestadventure]

The 80's & 90's happened, when it boomed as a retail industry and those children are now adults with their own kids and are trying to do the same for theirs. Well, some of them, the rest of us just do it the normal way you're speaking of.

[Xenia]

Also don't start it all until later. I never really thnk mucn about it until after my mid Dec birthday - I don't even have cards put out until the birthday is over. Christmas starts in theor on 24 or 25 and goes on for teh 12 days of Christmas until Epiphany on 6 Jan when the Orthodox churches actually celebrate it. I think we have shifted it back and back and back so it gets earlier and earlier.

[BlueOooChristmas]

Oh we do most of things posters have described as rubbish in here but we do so because we enjoy it. I don't use social media which is arguably much worse for you than Elf on the shelf.

Christmas is what you want it to be. We do what we like and leave the rest. Live and let live.

[Astrabees]

I remember as a child my very favourite stocking present was a Letts Schoolgirls diary, which I would read at about 5am in the morning. My kfather would come in from work on christmas Eve and we would decorate the tree and put up a few garlands. Standard, but lovely , christmas dinner, modest presents, it was lovely just to be together.

[Fucck]

YABVVU

First off, I don't do anything in your OP so I'm not defending myself here or anything but you really need to Butt Out of what other people do and concentrate on what you do. Simple.
Manage your kids expectations yourself and don't blame others for turning their heads.

[JellyfishAndShells]

I love our family Xmas customs, built up over the years - not extravagant or elaborate but not minimalist either. I enjoy cooking the full Turkey feast.

But we are having our first Xmas this year without DD1 as they are travelling abroad to her DHs family. I told DD2 that I will be happy with whatever she and her DP want to choose to do ie we’d welcome them here, they could chill in their first home together and pop over or they could go to his family for a decent run of time rather than endure halfway driving.

I think they are inclined to the last at the moment andI feel absolutely liberated by it . We’ve had some tricky wider family stuff going on, which has taken all my time and energy, so I have not been Xmas focussed at all so far.

A quiet, nice but simple , lunch with DH - exchange of a book and gift token and a peaceful day. Bliss.

[YouTheCat]

It isn't compulsory.

Our tree and stuff are quite old though we have new (cheap) lights because the old ones broke.

We get nice food in because we like it and it means, other than Christmas dinner, everyone can just graze and I don't have to do loads of cooking.

Presents are reasonably modest and things that people actually want, plus a lot of socks.

We watch Christmassy films and chill out. There's a small amount of visiting but not loads.

[HowlsMovingBungalow]

I grew up in the 80's and had children in the 90s and early 00's - this trend for overspending or adopting elf on shelf or christmas eve boxes traditions is new to me.
A stocking and a 'Christmas outfit' with a main present and a few smaller ones was the norm.
Leaving out a mincepie and carrot and a tot of booze was standard.
Having a traditional open the day to see an image advent calendar normal.

[pictish]

Yanbu. It has become a festival of gluttony and excess, helped gaily along by the media and the retailers.

[LaurieMarlow]

OP, why so invested in what other people do?

Why not conclude 'that's grand, but not for us' and move on with your life?

[Beswitched]

I was looking around a shop at the weekend and I couldn't believe how much stuff had been Christmas-ised. Crockery, towels, cushions, bed linen, loo roll, door mats, loads of nor.mal household things. Mad!

[HowlsMovingBungalow]

and Christmas Duvet covers have become a thing too!

[LaurieMarlow]

It has become a festival of gluttony and excess

I think you’ll find these two things were baked into it from the start.

[Beswitched]

Because #lauriemarlow as I said it's creating pressure and hassle and most of us are affected by the environment around us.

I really hate this 'why are you so invested' comment when someone expresses an opinion about something going on around them on a forum designed for that purpose.

[Maddiemademe]

@HowlsMovingBungalow Thank you 😊 Merry Christmas

[FizzyGreenWater]

I've done nothing

And our house is the wrong pH for elves sadly. Cry me a river!

[pictish]

“Manage your kids expectations yourself and don't blame others for turning their heads.”

But what sort of nonsense is this? It is rammed in our faces, all of our faces including those of our children, everywhere we turn. How is one to stem the tide and manage their expectations?