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?

YABU and miserable. Why does it matter to you how other people make Christmas fun for their own children. If you don't like it don't do it.

New pyjamas can last for months... I would hope that most kids don't just wear them on Christmas Eve Can't see why there is judgement about getting pyjamas for Christmas.

@Didlum

But yes it probably did ruin Christmas for them and they were definitely deserving of pity

😀

Ive obviously done this same

But the 17 year old, 19 year old and 21 year old (with his 24 year old partner) allllllll want Christmas here, so...I’m doing SOMETHING right obviously

(To be fair it’s probably the food 🤔)

why do kids need new Christmas themed pyjamas the night before Christmas when they're inevitably going to grow out of them

The whole point of a celebration is that you don't just stick to what you "need". It's festive, it's a treat, it's more than everyday. Nobody gets a Christmas box because they "need" it. Do you "need" everything that you own?

And yes, kids outgrow clothes. We still buy them though because they'd get cold otherwise.

We don't go ott in ours
Pjs, a treat popcorn and choc.
Mug and hot chocolate sachet ( mug used and packed away each year)
Xmas story for bed.. Again we have a few and these are put away each year.
And an activity to help them unwind in the eve... Coloring /sticker book etc

I'm late 30s and I always had new pjs to open Xmas eve and a new outfit to put on in the morning and a sweet treat.

But there's a clear recreation of Christmas as a holiday focused on material consumption beginning at the end of the 19th century,

Ah - I was assuming you meant more recently than that. Well, I'm not sure I'm very keen on the idea of going back to a pre-19th Century-style Christmas tbh. For starters, I'd probably be expected to actually believe in god. And candles instead of lights are a bit of a fire hazard.

I think it's fair enough to encourage people to think about what they buy and how much they buy. How sustainable it is. Whether presents will really be used etc. But that's even more reason why it seems a bit silly to pick on the Christmas Eve box thing. It's an optional added bit of fun with minimal expense or negative impact. The reactions against it often sound more like snobbery and virtue-signalling than genuine objections.

why do kids need new Christmas themed pyjamas the night before Christmas when they're inevitably going to grow out of them

They grow out of all their other clothes too, but you still need to buy them. Besides, if someone bought your dc a nice t-shirt or jacket for Christmas or their birthday, would you be disgusted if it was something they didn't absolutely need?

@lazylinguist

But there's a clear recreation of Christmas as a holiday focused on material consumption beginning at the end of the 19th century,

Ah - I was assuming you meant more recently than that. Well, I'm not sure I'm very keen on the idea of going back to a pre-19th Century-style Christmas tbh. For starters, I'd probably be expected to actually believe in god. And candles instead of lights are a bit of a fire hazard.

I think it's fair enough to encourage people to think about what they buy and how much they buy. How sustainable it is. Whether presents will really be used etc. But that's even more reason why it seems a bit silly to pick on the Christmas Eve box thing. It's an optional added bit of fun with minimal expense or negative impact. The reactions against it often sound more like snobbery and virtue-signalling than genuine objections.

It's ramped up considerably more recently, spending costs of Christmas are kind of unbelievable.

Someone just mentioned Christmas jumpers as an example of a recent "invented" tradition. I think the box gets mentioned mainly because it seems to be along the same lines as a marketing thing. Now we don't just get the box down from the attic and take out our things which we use from year to year, which was always very exciting, we have to formalise that into something marketable.

And the sense that rather than transferring some of the largess to Christmas eve you still buy as much, but now you also buy the Christmas Eve stuff.

New pyjamas can last for months... I would hope that most kids don't just wear them on Christmas Eve hmm Can't see why there is judgement about getting pyjamas for Christmas

There's getting pyjamas for Christmas and then getting christmas pyjamas the day before Christmas as part of yet another reason to buy things that will hardly be used.

As someone said, many family traditions have been going on long before companies realised they had a captive audience and the opportunity to flog even more stuff at people.

We were always given new pyjamas at Christmas. They weren't christmas themed ones on Christmas eve, or matching family ones to take a few photos in. Many of us will have sat round and watched a film or TV christmas specials on Christmas eve, but it didn't mean we needed a personalised box and extra gifts.

Same for things like Halloween. I remember going trick or treating, carving pumpkins, getting dressed up etc. I'm not entirely convinced the mass of plastic tat, special trick or treat buckets that will get binned and re bought each year, cheap battery powered lanterns that won't last the year, plastic bunting, glittery single use house decorations etc is a good change. Of course, I'm under no illusion that the class warriors will be annoyed that anyone questions whether disposable tat at a quid a pack is a good idea too.

Companies have sure realised that if they can find a way to market additional stuff they've got a captive audience who will lap it up.

The Christmas pjs come with door one of the advent calendar in our house they get more use!

There's getting pyjamas for Christmas and then getting christmas pyjamas the day before Christmas as part of yet another reason to buy things that will hardly be used.

Why do you think people use pyjamas they get on Christmas Day and not pyjamas that they get one day earlier? If anything, the Christmas Eve boxers get an extra night out of them!

This is bizarre.

I had no idea Christmas Eve boxes were a thing! My eldest is 15 and I don't know anyone who does this amongst my fairly wide circle of fellow parents.

My kids have always been excited enough about getting stuff on Christmas Day, we tend to watch a Christmassy film on Christmas Eve but I don't feel the need to do anything else. If someone else wants to do this it's not my place to tell them not to though.

I agree so so so much!! I think this year I might get or make them slightly more extravagant advent calendars though just because there won’t be much happening this year.

@lowlandLucky

Another excuse to spend money, another excuse to but children gifts they don't need just so Mummy can show off on Fakebook.

Sweeping generalisation maybe?

My DCs had Christmas Eve stuff for about 10 years and I never once posted a picture of one on any kind of social media. Come to think of it, I don’t know if I even took photos of them. It’s just something nice to do to help contain their excitement a bit.

I swear this site gets madder every week. How does a Christmas Eve box in someone else’s house have any impact on anyone else?

ShebaShimmyShake
I'd be fairly surprised if people are getting year round wear out of the thicker winter christmas pyjamas, or the themed family onesies that tend to be everywhere in the shops at that time of year.

We got new pyjamas on christmas morning, but not themed ones. I actually really like what some other posters suggested when they said they get their festive things at the start of advent though.

I've nothing against nice family traditions and there's loads of nice ones in this thread, but I think it's fairly obvious from the amount of throwaway christmas tat in the shops every year that a substantial number of people are buying stuff for the sale of it / for photos. Put it this way, if people really were getting loads of use from the things they put in these boxes then why would the shops be full of the same old stuff every year and why are charity shops full of the same old donations every year? Surely if most people really are doing what a few people in this thread are and reusing things then there wouldn't be a market for millions of hot chocolate kit boxes / festive mugs / themed pyjamas / variations on the same christmas jumper?

There's getting pyjamas for Christmas and then getting christmas pyjamas the day before Christmas as part of yet another reason to buy things that will hardly be used. As someone said, many family traditions have been going on long before companies realised they had a captive audience and the opportunity to flog even more stuff at people.

I don't suppose the companies mind whether you give your dc the pyjamas as part of a Christmas Eve thing or just 'for Christmas'. Or whether they have Father Christmas on them or just a wintry scene.

I'm afraid it still sounds like sheer snobbery. "My Christmas pyjamas were fine, because they were bought as part of a long-standing family tradition."

Other people's Christmas pyjamas are ghastly "Christmas-themed tat, extra stuff which they apparently think they need, and that was flogged to them by unscrupulous companies"

The derision dripping from all that judgemental vocabulary! And all over the same item of clothing given at the same time of year for the same purpose.

Oh I missed a bit - not only awful Christmas-themed tat, but allegedly bought and worn just for the photos! I hope there weren't any photos of you in your lovely traditional pyjamas.

When my son was about 5 he hated the elf and thought he was a creepy, little tell-tale, so we decided to touch him so he lost his magic and could no longer return to Santa! A massive relief as I lost count of the times I'd wake in the night and remember that I'd forgotten to move him! He's up in the box with all the Christmas decorations now so every year we find him again and have a good laugh! We always did new pjs on Christmas Eve which then evolved into a Christmas Eve box. I do like the idea upthread of giving the pjs at the start of December so may do the box earlier instead.

lazylinguist
If you don't think companies have worked out they can flog all sorts at Christmas because there's enough people willing to buy whatever is being peddled then you're either naive or deliberately avoiding the obvious.

I do think there's a lot of tat being flogged at Christmas, just like I think the same is done for Halloween and at many other events, or non events. Look at how many 3 for 2 style generic gift sets get bought, given as gifts and then end up in the charity shops after. Look at how many people must update their whole Christmas decor regularly with whatever the trend is (our garden centre seems to have a new theme every year for us to choose from).

If people are getting pyjamas they they genuinely use throughout the year then that's great and I couldn't care less what the design is. I'm just sceptical that those buying family self matching pyjamas for christmas or themed onesies really do wear them year round.

I'd be fairly surprised if people are getting year round wear out of the thicker winter christmas pyjamas, or the themed family onesies that tend to be everywhere in the shops at that time of year

This country has four seasons. Do you get year round wear out of sun dresses and cable knit jumpers?

Besides, I'm about to blow your mind. I buy pyjamas in the winter sales every year, so after Christmas, and I wear them pretty much all year round (jacket becomes a vest in warmer weather and yeah, I might switch to shorts if it's sweltering but that's not much time). I buy them after Christmas, so I get less wear out of them than the Christmas Eve boxers.

Besides, you've still made a distinction between getting pyjamas on Christmas Day and getting them the day before. Wut?

I am reading your posts, I swear, but they truly make no sense. PJs are fine on this day but not that day? There's no point buying stuff for growing children? Traditions are great but only the ones you like? The "same old stuff" in the shops is because Christmas comes every year, and repetition is kind of how tradition works. Plus, as has been said a few times now, it's not limited to Christmas Eve boxes. They're just PJs and film night stuff, pretty useful stuff.

I know you're denying that you have any class objections to this, but none of your claimed alternatives make any sense. Truly, they don't.

I hope there weren't any photos of you in your lovely traditional pyjamas
I said we got pyjamas every Christmas. I didn't say we had 'traditional' pyjamas.

Seriously, questioning the buy buy buy mentality at Christmas really does seem to get defences up.

ShebaShimmyShake
And yet up thread I said:

Nothing to do with class from my perspective. I think that the huge push towards mindless consumerism adds additional pressure on parents to buy more and more shit for an ever growing list of 'celebrations'.

I feel the same way about the growth in cheap plastic dressing up costumes and tat for halloween/world book day / insert other event that apparently requires parents to buy lots of stuff that will probably only get used once

I quite like the sound of boxes where families get the plate out for Santa, read their christmas book, watch a film with hot chocolate.
What I don't like is the idea that each child seems to need their own christmas eve box, usually personalised, christmas pyjamas on christmas eve that they'll have grown out of, a multitude of gifts which are usually short term use that or novelty things that will be discarded and so on.

I have no issue with christmas eve boxes when they're not part of the who buying crap thing, and I've also said there's some lovely traditions on this thread, and seen one that I like more than the one we had as children.

I just happen to think that increasingly christmas eve boxes are another way to push more and more consumption of stuff that doesn't get used.

Family A: gets the christmas mugs out the box, makes hot chocolate and watches a film - great
Family B: each child has their own box, more gifts that will hardly be used between christmas eve and more presents on christmas day, a hot chocolate "kit" with associated packaging, a new mug each year - not good in my opinion

If you don't think companies have worked out they can flog all sorts at Christmas because there's enough people willing to buy whatever is being peddled then you're either naive or deliberately avoiding the obvious.

Newsflash. Companies market and sell things. They even market different things at different times of year. Imagine their cunning! People buy the things the companies sell. People even buy things just because they want to, not because they need to! This is not a new phenomenon or one that companies have suddenly 'worked out' or that is restricted to Christmas items.

I am amused by the emotive vocabulary around this. Flogging, peddling and tat.

I'm just sceptical that those buying family self matching pyjamas for christmas or themed onesies really do wear them year round.

Yep I'm sure you wear your bikini and flipflops all year round. You probably won't believe me, but I've just been putting some of ds' washing away. Including not one but two pairs of Christmas pyjamas which he's worn in the last week or so. One with actual reindeer on (bought by grandparents) the other a big fluffy wintry-themed onesie (bought by us 2 years ago). He's a skinny, slow-growing, cold child. He probably needs more hot chocolate.

No I don't get it at all. My DC are grown up now but we always had a lot of fun on Christmas Eve without a box. We had fish and chips mid afternoon, went to a Carol service, then to the pub with friends , then home to watch Polar Express. We put out carrots and biscuits and a wee dram for Father Christmas and also put the stockings out. There was always plenty to do.

I have always given new PJs and socks on christmas eve and we would watch a Christmas movie with snacks as a family. Like the calm before the storm. Its my favourite part of christmas as usually christmas day im clock watching or cooking dinner or hosting. Now I just put it in a hamper and display it a bit better. I dont see it as extra gifts but more "making a gift" from what we already did when DDs were smaller.