Christmas bliss...?

[astralweaks]

www.dailymail.co.uk/home/index.html

There's nothing like child-free, selfish festivities... and secretly, says ELLEN MANNING, I think all you parents are jealous!

I realise this is from the much revered Daily Mail but do you think this woman has a point? Do you envy the freedom afforded by a child free Christmas?

I can see where she’s coming from. Are you able to honestly say you can’t?

www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7806947/Theres-like-child-free-selfish-festivities.html

The above is a bit Incoherent, in Mail style, but at least it’s a link!

NOPE I can honestly say Christmas without Children is utter crap- I dont really understand adults getting excited about presents. Our family dont even do presents for adults. If you had the money and wanted to you could do a big roast and exchange presents anytime of the year. Christmas is about the magical side for the children imo.

btw im not saying christmas without your own children- just being amongst children. Before having my child the only excitement I felt at xmas was seeing my niece and nephew open their presents and stockings etc.

i agree that children make christmas better!! i've had christmas before kids and it was a bit meh to be honest, lots of food and drink.
Kids means rediscovering the magic, doing the whole santa thing etc

Christmas is one of the few things that is massively improved by having children...don't take that away from us!

I couldn't give a shit if I never celebrated Christmas again...only bother for the kids.

Her life doesn't appeal to me. I love the mess. the presents. The kids being excited. The random TV. The early starts. The magic. It would be far too quiet for me that. I am not a party girl either. Don't go wild so that helps me not relate!

I only do Christmas because of the children. If I didn't have children (my own/related or friends) I wouldn't bother with Christmas at all.

Well, we had several all-adult Christmases in our twenties, and our children and niblings are approaching adulthood so we're probably due quite a few more in the next decade. Yes, I enjoyed them a lot. For many of the same reasons that I enjoyed Christmas as a child, and enjoyed Christmas with our children.

I never spent Christmas Eve "wrestling with [my] over-excited children" because we didn't hype them up to fever pitch in the first place. We didn't get "high-pitched shrieks" ruining our lie-in because the children have always been perfectly well aware that high-pitched shrieks first thing in the morning are a no-no.

We had a "gratifyingly yummy breakfast" of smoked salmon, "a Buck's Fizz or two" and then a short stroll to church (didn't need to have a long dog walk because we've always been clear we prefer being dog-free: who's jealous?)

To be frank, this is simply yet another tedious yammering from someone who feels the need to justify her decision to have no children (which, fair enough, she's probably pestered about all the sodding time) by telling us that her life is better that way. Just with a specific Christmas focus.

when mine were Christmas age I loved them getting up on Christmas day opening the presents it made Christmas day, yes it was work getting the presents right, buying them, hiding them, cooking Christmas day dinner for all of us, but it was great, now the kids have left home, my daughter has taken two of my grandchildren to Jamaica on holiday over Christmas, it will be just my partner and my two grown up sons on Christmas day, nice but not the same as when they were young

no, i don't give a shit about christmas. this year i am more organised and marginally more festive thanks to Ds appreciating it for the first time. this isn't necessarily a good thing as obviously christmas is bollocks but as you can't beat them it's easier to join them so i feel like less of an alien this year!

Kids def improve Christmas 🎄 I sometimes think back to my Christmas Eve’s spent getting drunk at the pubs..but prefer the cosy Xmas eves now..summer at the beach? Different story 🙈😂

I love Christmas as an adult, I love getting presents and I love having a day of fun with family (we don't get together that often due to geographical distance).

I am also really looking forward to doing things with my DD in the future at Christmas time and making it magical for her and us as a family.

Oh I love adult Christmas! A lovely lie in. Lots of drinks because I’m not in charge of a child. Eating my dinner in peace without trying to coax a child to eat. Relaxing on the sofa without being pestered to play with toys. Watching whatever I want on tv. Dozing off to sleep whenever I feel like it. Eating cheese and snacks for days on end and not worrying about having to provide proper meals. Children are a pain when you want to chill out.

Well we couldn’t have children. But we still enjoy our Christmas. If that makes us selfish and childish so be it.

A lovely lie in. Lots of drinks because I’m not in charge of a child. Eating my dinner in peace without trying to coax a child to eat. Relaxing on the sofa without being pestered to play with toys. Watching whatever I want on tv. Dozing off to sleep whenever I feel like it. Eating cheese and snacks for days on end and not worrying about having to provide proper meals

Surely you can do this any weekend?

Neither I nor DP have kids so Christmas day is very low key and relaxing - apart from feeding all the animals we do sweet FA all day except eat, drink (lots!) play scrabble and backgammon and watch TV. When you live on a farm it's blissful

It’s fine to enjoy whatever

Well we don't have children and love Christmas and tbh, the years when my nephews come we are quite glad to see them go early evening. They are totally over excited and exhausting. 🤣 I can't have children so I make the best of it.

We eat and do things we don't normally though, so it does feel different to a usual day - not least because my DH actually has some time off. Also we do get excited over presents as we like spoiling each other as we don't buy much during the year.

But equally I understand that others love seeing their children having a great day and that is the focus for them. I think the key is trying to set things up to have a nice day however you spend it really.

I think you have to have really enthusiastic adults in order to make a child free Christmas better. Not impossible of course but quite rare. Christmas would be a bit crap in our house without children.

Posted too soon in a cough

It’s fine to enjoy whatever Christmas your circumstances allow but it’s not fine to write a newspaper article announcing that parents will be jealous. I wonder if the writer is trying to convince herself that she’s happy with her circumstances?

I wouldn’t swap seeing my children’s faces on Christmas morning for ten million pounds but even without our children, cocktail parties, excess hangovers and bbqs in December have never really appealed to me. Each to their own I guess.

If I didn’t have children I don’t think I’d bother celebrating Christmas tbh. I definitely wouldn’t be arsed with decorations, why even bother? I only make so much effort for my children’s sake.

Children make christmas.

We still have the same traditions even though ours are older now but it just isn't the same.

Why does it have to be an either/or?

Christmas is lovely without children (like before I had them and now that they're grown up and can't always be here for it) and lovely with them.

I do remember talking to someone at a Christmas party (before I had children) who was bereft that it was her first Christmas without her children. I thought how incredibly sad it was that she couldn't enjoy it by treating herself and her partner to a lovely day.

I still think that.

Christmas with only other peoples children wouldn't be such fun. Perhaps that's where she's coming from.

Apart from seeing their faces when they see presents, then yes other peoples children wouldn't improve christmas for me.