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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think Christmas Eve boxes are absolutely ridiculous and unnecessary?

999 replies

dressinggownwearer · 19/10/2020 07:14

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?

OP posts:
RufustheSniggeringReindeer · 19/10/2020 17:40

I will be very very honest

I give my children Christmas themed socks and boxers

It really winds me up when they wear their Christmas socks in june

I wear my Christmas socks in December....i feel thats the correct way

EveryDayIsADuvetDay · 19/10/2020 17:42

WTF is "elf on the shelf"?

londonscalling · 19/10/2020 17:44

No Christmas Eve gifts here, although we do make it a special family time!

SpeedofaSloth · 19/10/2020 17:44

Normally I would agree, but on Christmas Eve we would usually host family here then go to midnight mass, and neither are looking very likely this year (our church is currently limited to 30 people, in all conscience I am not going to take a place off someone who goes more regularly than I do, to be honest). So this year I might look at doing Christmas Eve boxes.

Jesscarbqueen87 · 19/10/2020 17:45

@LolaSmiles

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?

Well I would say the vast majority of people reuse the same Christmas decorations each year, the shops are still full of Christmas decs each year.
ShebaShimmyShake · 19/10/2020 17:46

@LolaSmiles

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.

But you aren't questioning it. You're complaining about Christmas Eve boxes, which generally contain stuff that will get eaten immediately or worn for a fair time afterwards. And you're defending pyjamas for Christmas but not in a box the day before! Because one is apparently waste and excess but the other isn't! And now you're trying to make it about personalised boxes for each child as if a) that makes any difference to edible/clothing gifts and b) that's the sticking point for Christmas overconsumption!

Then you complain that it's wrong because people don't wear winter clothes all year round and kids outgrow stuff!

I know what you wrote, I know you denied making it a class thing, but your arguments simply don't make any sense. They just....don't!

ChiaraRimini · 19/10/2020 17:49

My older kids are young adults now but there would be hell to pay if they didn't get the "elves present" on Xmas eve of a box with new PJs, hot chocolate, popcorn and a DVD! It's their favourite bit of Xmas. (Very odd people!)We started it about ten years ago, its all stuff they would get anyway, it just makes it more fun.

LolaSmiles · 19/10/2020 17:52

lazylinguist

Glad he's getting the use from it. It's the wasteful side of things that I find a bit much.

Kid needs new pyjamas, great. Kid doesn't need new pyjamas but the whole family gets a themed set never to be touched again, not great.

Not all things that are bought at Christmas are tat, but there is a lot of tat being flogged at Christmas and it's not harmless. I know companies market and sell things, but part of that is convincing people to buy shit they don't need, they won't last or won't be used in a week. There's a market there because there's enough people buying into the idea that they need more stuff and new stuff that's fairly similar to the stuff they threw out after last Christmas.

There's a cost being paid for cheap plastic decorations, a new set of mugs each year for the Christmas Eve box, a new plate for Santa's food, a bag of glitter to throw in the garden, the themed pyjamas, a new Christmas jumper each year.

There's some posters on here with lovely ideas where they have their christmas things in the christmas eve box and each year the plate comes out, the book comes out, etc. That sounds great. The demand for tat and endless supply of tat shows many people are in buy buy buy mode.

myhobbyisouting · 19/10/2020 18:01

"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."

Why would you know what they all do on Christmas Eve?

Jesscarbqueen87 · 19/10/2020 18:09

@myhobbyisouting

"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."

Why would you know what they all do on Christmas Eve?

I don’t know anyone in my circle of fellow parents who would get so wound up over the idea of a simple Christmas tradition like a Christmas Eve box as some of the posters on this thread and I’m glad that I don’t.
PamDemic · 19/10/2020 18:14

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ToastyCrumpet · 19/10/2020 18:17

Funny, I am too old to have done all this as a child but I often got socks, nightwear and slippers for Christmas. Also chocolate. So I don’t think it’s new, it’s just presented differently. I can’t get worked up over giving kids new pjs and some chocolate on Christmas Eve.

edenhills · 19/10/2020 18:33

I think they were just invented by wannabe Instagram/youtube mums so the kids will have new pyjamas in the sickening opening presents photos.

myhobbyisouting · 19/10/2020 18:36

@edenhills how would that be since Christmas Eve boxes came before the internet

cologne4711 · 19/10/2020 18:44

Just saw this on Twitter - was someone reading MN?

twitter.com/bookbound2019/status/1317902998341885952/photo/1

FiveFootTwoEyesOfBlue · 19/10/2020 18:48

I agree. Conspicuous consumption.

And don't get me started on 'Advent calendars' of cosmetics, alcohol, etc when 'advent' means the coming of Jesus, it doesn't mean 'here's an excuse to buy yourself lots of crap'.

Mimilamore · 19/10/2020 18:52

Awful things....

Mammylamb · 19/10/2020 18:54

I think they’re cute. We just pop some hot chocolate and new pjs in our sons (there is also a DVD in there, but this will be one that’s already in there from
Previous years)

Even back in the 80s we always got new pjs for Christmas

keeponkeepinon · 19/10/2020 18:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Mosschopz · 19/10/2020 18:55

Doesn’t do any harm...I just get my kids a few sweat-shop produced bits...stick it in a box...they love it...does no harm...just heaps consumerism on consumerism...nothing wrong with that...

Create your own traditions and show some bloody imagination.

LolaSmiles · 19/10/2020 18:56

FiveFootTwoEyesOfBlue
I think we have similar views. Smile

I don't mind advent calendars, but find some of them again to be totally pointless. Surely if you enjoy cosmetics then you want cosmetics that will suit your skin tone and make the most of your features, not a selection of products that might be nice but will probably sit in your makeup box all year.

The Zoella one last year or the year before was £50 for tat such as a notepad, pen etc. I love a good notebook, but a calendar from a YouTuber was never going to have good quality items in it.

MerryGoRoundBrain · 19/10/2020 19:02

Just came back to this thread to announce that I’ve just had a bath and I’m wearing Christmas pyjamas (from last year’s Christmas Eve!). I’d post a pic but I’m carrying some lockdown flab, so I won’t.

I fully intend to acquire more pyjamas this year.

After this thread, I might even get a Christmas box, which we’ve never had before. It’s all of a sudden more attractive, now that I know how much it pisses other people off Grin

One2Three4Five6 · 19/10/2020 19:16

YANBU in the sense that you don't like them, therefore don't want to do one.
YABU however on the basis that EVERY single year there are at least 6 threads about it and they basically slate those of us who DO like to do them.

I do a Dec 1st box in my house, it's always for the whole family, and what's in it depends on what my budget is for that year.
It usually contains new pjs (sometimes xmas themed, sometimes not) hot chocolate and some snacks for when we watch christmassy movies, christmas themed arts/crafts/wordsearches/colouring pages etc for the kids to do in the eves after school when it's too dark/cold to go to the park with their mates etc.
A Christmas themed book if I can find one we don't already have/ditto film
Sometimes it contains a new mug, depends whether the kids still have the ones from previous year. Sometimes some Xmas themed bath bombs etc.
That way they get more use out of it.

If you don't do one, that's great, I'm not here to convince you to do one, however I LOVE doing mine the way I do, it can be as cheap or expensive as I choose to make it.
I find these threads have a way of making people feel guilty for whatever they choose to do, when I just wish everyone would adopt the phrase, 'do what makes YOU happy and don't worry about what everyone else is doing' I feel like christmas would be happier for everyone if people just focused on what works for their own family.

QueenofLean · 19/10/2020 19:29

After this thread, I might even get a Christmas box, which we’ve never had before. It’s all of a sudden more attractive, now that I know how much it pisses other people off grin

This is exactly what I was thinking Grin

Coffeeoverload · 19/10/2020 19:30

I have literally never heard of this. Is it a new thing?

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