To think Christmas Eve boxes are absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary?

[dressinggownwearer]

Just that really. Do children not get enough at Christmas without giving them even more the day before?! What are Christmas Eve boxes even for/full of that can't wait until Christmas Day?! Am I being mean and a grinch or do people agree?

Ours has the stockings, the Santa plate, the carrot and mince pie, a nice little mini milk bottle that I found one year that’s perfect for Santa’s drink, any reindeer food we’ve made in December and the night before Christmas book. It’s just all the Christmas Eve stuff basically in a box. I don’t know why people get so worked up on what other people choose to do as traditions for their family.

*sugar overload

No idea where the "bird" suffix came from

@didireallysaythat

I've never got then. You give your kids Xmas pyjamas so they can wear them in the run up to Xmas. Fine but do they stop wearing them when the Xmas tree comes down? Do you put them away for the rest of the year? Do they fit when you get them out next time? I don't get it.

And my kids don't wear pyjamas, don't like baths so have never had a bath bomb, and aren't keen on hot chocolate. So we've never done them. But they also don't do Xmas lists than goodness as they like a terrifying list on MN,..

They don’t have to be special Christmas pyjamas...just new winter pyjamas. My children did used to get Christmas pyjamas when they were little - they loved them and they wore them right through winter/spring every year.

I don't think Christmas Eve boxes were "a thing" when my now adult (27 and 30)DC were young.
We would do a family activity together during the day like visiting Christmas markets and ice skating then home for a early meal before attending the family carol service at the local church. After the service we'd come home ,read a Christmas story together, hang up stockings and leave out snacks for Santa.

How does buying a load of extra glittery tat improve that?

Why are you assuming it’s glittery tat? Books, dvds, pjs, bubble bath, hot choc. I don’t class any of those as tat.

I agree. I love Christmas, but I don't like the excessive consumerism around it. It's just too much, even kids feel overwhelmed by it.
These boxes weren't even a thing ten years ago or so, it's amazing how people will mindlessly follow any marketing strategy to get them to spend more.

"Agree. I think it’s something that younger parents who are caught up in social media have fallen for. Similar to elf-on the shelf."

Well yes, social media does drive consumerism these days but I find this argument disingenuous. There has always been societal pressure to buy things at Xmas, be it talking among friends or just seeing what is available in the shops. Did my parents do Xmas Eve boxes for me as a child? Nope. But I sure as hell got a lot more than they did as kids. My dad often remarks about how his stocking was purely a satsuma and some nuts as a child. My stocking contained those items, plus extra. My kids stockings have more again.

My dad will argue that what I do for my kids is too much. But it's only an increment more than he did for me, that is an increment more than his parents did for him. Why is his increment OK but mine is a step too far?

As for wish lists - when mine were little I didn’t have a lot of money. I wanted to make sure I got them things they really wanted and would really love. They wrote a wish list so that I could get them two or three things off that in amongst their presents. They never thought it was a shopping list or an order form or had any ridiculous entitlement that they were automatically going to have everything on it.

Agree. Don’t do them here, and I’ll resist elf on the shelf for as long as possible.

In our house we just put a stick in a pot and hang a bauble on it (just the one, obviously...that we've had for 20 years).
The kids get a crossword cut out of the paper, a recycled pen and a satsuma. Ah the joy on their little faces.
Anything else is pure commercialism/Americanisation/ waste/Extravagance (delete as applicable)

Ah, why not! In the blue corner, Our Pyjamas Are Clean And Comfy, It Makes The Day More Fun, In Fact We Change Into Fresh Ones After Getting Up. In the red corner, That's Disgusting and Common, Don't Pretend You Didn't Sleep In Them, Your House Needs Fumigating. I want a good clean fight, now, you hear? First round, ding ding!

Noooo! I'm afraid the pyjamas debate requires a whole thread of its own to make sure everyone gets a proper chance to espouse their moral superiority fully and remind us that the way they do Christmas is the way Christmas should be done. It's only fair.

Oh I love it! But I do a 1st December box - same one appears every year and it has advent calendar, pjs if they've grown out of last years, hot choc, their Xmas mugs, activity book, 24 Christmas stories (same one as every year), Christmas tree haribo and lebkuchen.

You'd absolutely hate me OP.

And now I'm doing a North Pole breakfast too thanks to this thread can't wait!

To the PPs that claim this is a new thing, the patronising "I'm showing my age now". Don't be daft. It was a thing when I was a kid in the early 80s.

I think the only thing that’s new is the putting it in a box.

When I was a kid we got new pyjamas on Christmas Eve (so that in the photos on Christmas morning there was no holey PJs) and the book or film was just a way to calm down hyper kids in the hope my Grandparents might get at least a little sleep.

I don’t really get why people get so arsey about what other people do. It makes jo difference to anyone else what we do in my house on Christmas Eve, just as it makes no difference to me and mine what anyone else does.

I really don’t get the constant need to be so judgemental and nosey about things other families do.

@ShebaShimmyShake - Look, it was a genuine question and I did ask if people get dressed when there are visitors. It's just not something I would ever do as I like to dress up at Christmas.

Mine didn’t have stockings and whilst I didn’t put them in a box they always had new pjs, Christmas book and dvd on Christmas Eve. Just like Easter when they had an Easter book or activity to celebrate the occasion.

I buy books and clothes whenever needed so saw it as no different to that, both are essentials in my eyes.

"eek that reminds me i have no idea where the flippin elf is!"

@essexmum777 he's on top of the fridge

Yanbu my son won't be having a Xmas eve box.

children are spoilt now, that is not a good thing. Your "christmas tradition" can put pressure on other families to increase consumption and that puts the future of the planet, so every child's future, at risk.

We always read the Night before Christmas and watched a Christmas movie - no spend, no ramping up consumption every year.

Wow this is a popular topic! I didn't expect this many replies!! But thanks everyone for
Enlightening me to what is included in a Christmas Eve box. Most people's sounds lovely! And for anyone thinking I hate Christmas- I really don't, I love it!

Yanbu it's just more consumerism. More plastic tat for landfill, spend spend spend.

To be honest, unless you wear the same pyjamas, day and night, from Halloween through to NY Eve, then you obviously just don't love Christmas or your children.

@WomenAndVulvas

I agree. I love Christmas, but I don't like the excessive consumerism around it. It's just too much, even kids feel overwhelmed by it. These boxes weren't even a thing ten years ago or so, it's amazing how people will mindlessly follow any marketing strategy to get them to spend more.

So if that’s the case, everyone is following me as DS has been having his box for that long. I fail to see how giving him a pair of pyjamas, a bath or shower product and a film to watch is consumeristic. Could you please explain? I do it in a box as I hate using wrapping paper, it’s the same box he’s always had.

I'm 32 and my parents used to wrap new pyjamas for me and my DB on Christmas Eve, so it's not a particularly new concept in our house.

The DC get new pyjamas and some bath stuff and "Twas The Night Before Christmas" boom comes out of storage but I don't put it in a box or anything.

I think new pyjamas might be a nice idea.

[quote Justwingingmotherhood]@LastGoldenDaysOfSummer you obviously felt it was important enough to make a comment about it? You must be a ball of fun! I'm to busy making a tacky xmas eve box to take a grip.[/quote]
I am a ball of genuine fun.

Not fake imported fun. Spontaneous fun is much better than planned nonsense. But each to her own, eh?

I commented because there are people reading who think this sort of thing matters, like elf on a shelf, and they may feel inadequate because they can't provide it.

It's not what Christmas is about.