To ask for your unpopular Christmas opinions?

[GlummyMcGlummerson]

Mine is that a traditional Christmas dinner is horrible
Turkey - bleurgh, so dry
Sprouts - farts posing as leaves
Parsnips - how can anyone put them in their mouth?!
Stuffing - like eating sand
Christmas pudding - sour booze disguised as cake
Christmas cake - way too dry and that much fruit does not belong in a sponge

I'd honestly be happy with a plate of pigs in blankets, a jar of cranberry sauce and a spoon to eat the sauce straight from the jar.

@IrmaFayLear

The point about the Christmas Eve boxes is that they fly in the face of anticipation and excitement.

If you are giving kids a box of presents (even if it is a dvd and a pair of pjs) to unwrap a few hours before Father Christmas turns up, it kind of does away with the magic. Rather than being an appetite-enhancing starter, as PrincessNutNutRoast maintains, it is more of a case of eating a tin of Roses before your Christmas dinner.

And - I agree - you need the help of a Christmas Even box to get kids in the mood? However did people manage before these became a thing? Now that does confuse me!

Well no, the point is that some people find them a spoiler and therefore presumably don't do them, and some people find them an appetiser and therefore do...and neither concept should be too hard for a person of average wit to comprehend. And yet MN is full of people who absolutely cannot grasp that some people like them and find that they enhance the pleasure.

They've actually been a thing for quite some time, albeit not with the same name, as many posters aged 40, 50 and over have told us, many times.

Of course you don't NEED them; the entire point of anything festive is that you get things you don't NEED, otherwise it's just bare minimum for life stuff. But some families find a Christmas-themed film night the day before gets them in the mood and enhances it for them. If this is truly beyond your wit to understand, well...you don't need to do it if you don't want to, that's fine, but it's not a moral issue and you don't get humanity points for incomprehension.

I’ve never done a Christmas Eve box but it does seem to have a lot in common with European Christmas traditions that see one/some presents opened that evening. Lots of Americans with continental heritage have a tradition of selecting one present from beneath the tree and opening it after dinner.

So I’m not sure about the “ruining the anticipation” angle. I think waiting til the 6th January and then getting presents in a shoe sounds like a bit of a let down but it works marvellously for millions of Spanish people!

Gosh, you seem to be very cross about Christmas Eve boxes. Are you a manufacturer? Or maybe a vendor of pyjamas....

Btw, when people say, "I don't understand..." it's a turn of phrase . If it's said, "I don't understand how people voted for Brexit" they don't literally mean that they fail to comprehend how someone managed to physically enter the ballot box and grip the pencil. If we were all to speak/write in absolutely literal terms our conversations would be the poorer for it.

That it is utterly pointless to buy loads of "Christmas food" - I'm talking the crackers, different cheeses, nice pickles etc etc and then refuse to let anyone eat them until actual Christmas Day when you already have a big dinner. Ffs just eat the cheese and buy some more next week!! May as well enjoy December after the year we have had!

That Elf on the Shelf is bollocks. I'm tired of having to pretend to give a shit about what someone's 'elf' did last night. I'm so grateful that my boys are cynical teenagers and see this 'Christmas tradition' (ha!) for what it is - more pointless than baked beans with Christmas lunch.

Baked beans with grated cheese for Xmas lunch in this house!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣

@IrmaFayLear

Gosh, you seem to be very cross about Christmas Eve boxes. Are you a manufacturer? Or maybe a vendor of pyjamas....

Btw, when people say, "I don't understand..." it's a turn of phrase . If it's said, "I don't understand how people voted for Brexit" they don't literally mean that they fail to comprehend how someone managed to physically enter the ballot box and grip the pencil. If we were all to speak/write in absolutely literal terms our conversations would be the poorer for it.

Yes, someone else told me yesterday that I was taking it personally. These boxes bring out two things in people: total cerebral failure (can't understand them!) and accusations of over investment against people who suggest they're not that difficult to grasp, and not a moral issue either way.

I don't do the boxes myself, and I definitely don't think that disliking them is an unpopular opinion on MN. But yes, I am indeed struck by the fact that so, so, so many people choose to express their disapproval by claiming that the concept is just utterly beyond their wit, so completely incomprehensible to them. It's almost as though the true reasons for the level of feeling against them wouldn't really stand if people were honest about them, and claiming utter bafflement is more acceptable...

Christmas dinner is a vile way to waste 3+ hours on a special day.
Christmas pudding and fruit cake is disgusting. Same for anything with thick fondant icing/marzipan or royal icing on.
Gingerbread can get in the bin (blergh)
Being forced to spend “happy times” with people you don’t really like that much (hello family members) and have forced jollity. Whilst you die inside and have to sleep on an air mattress on the floor next to a wardrobe and some shoeboxes because “we are so tight on for space”. And you’re longing for your own queen sized bed and ensuite because it’s 3 flights of Stairs to the nearest loo.
I love a Christmas that’s just me, hubby and the kids, having fun, opening gifts, watching movies that we like, eating what we want to eat and generally not being forced into some form of socialising.

Christmas Eve boxes are a Germanic tradition - we used to do them when we lived there.

Next we’ll be putting up those tacky German Christmas trees!

@HoldMeCloserTonyDanza

Next we’ll be putting up those tacky German Christmas trees!

Unnecessary, consumerist over-indulgences that ruin all the anticipation! Why would anyone need them to get in the mood, how did people enjoy Christmas before we got them! I cannot understand why anyone would do them!

And if anyone responds to me on this, YOU'RE the one who cares too much about them!

I suppose the difficulty with the new trend for Christmas Eve boxes (yes I know they have been a thing before but they have recently gained huge popularity) and Elf on the shelf is that anyone with primary school children feels under pressure to do it too.

If your dc's friends are in school every morning talking about Elf on the shelf or their Christmas eve box, then you buckle under peer pressure and get one too even though you hate yourself for following the crowd

@SmileyClare

I suppose the difficulty with the new trend for Christmas Eve boxes (yes I know they have been a thing before but they have recently gained huge popularity) and Elf on the shelf is that anyone with primary school children feels under pressure to do it too.

If your dc's friends are in school every morning talking about Elf on the shelf or their Christmas eve box, then you buckle under peer pressure and get one too even though you hate yourself for following the crowd

You'll honestly just have to deal with that, sorry. They'll also come back after Christmas and other holidays with tales of expensive gifts and foreign trips that some children won't have had, and yet we don't worry unduly about that. Other people get things we don't; a film night box and an elf soft toy are pretty minor in that regard.

And if anyone responds to me on this, YOU'RE the one who cares too much about them!😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

@ToffeePennie

Christmas Eve boxes are a Germanic tradition - we used to do them when we lived there.

Hmm .. in Germany they open ALL their gifts on Christmas eve, not on Christmas day. So kind of missing the point there ...

I don't get why the (strong) opinion on how everyone else celebrates Christmas - I hear you - you don't want to have a Christmas Eve box or a real tree or why you don't want yorkshire puddings etc...but why do you feel the need to make it the law that everyone follows when it doesn't impact you at all.

I don't think anyone's trying to make it the law OP just asked what we don't like about Christmas.

I hate the pressure with gifts. It has calmed down a lot now I am older but relatives still insist on buying loads for the kids. I find it so stressful having a deluge of things they don't want or need that then sit around the house for several months / years until I get rid of them. And the kids end up expecting loads of stuff too. Such a waste!

the problem with elf on the shelf etc is that they are presented as 'magical' and from the north pole etc.
its easy with fancy gadgets and exotic holidays to tell your child that you cant afford it/dont want it/dont want to go to disney etc but how so you tell a 5 year old that the magical elves that everyone else has appear isnt coming to yours without telling them that none of it is real?

@BrieAndChilli

the problem with elf on the shelf etc is that they are presented as 'magical' and from the north pole etc. its easy with fancy gadgets and exotic holidays to tell your child that you cant afford it/dont want it/dont want to go to disney etc but how so you tell a 5 year old that the magical elves that everyone else has appear isnt coming to yours without telling them that none of it is real?

It's your job to handle this sort of thing. Other parents aren't responsible for it. Many houses are from other backgrounds that don't do Christmas at all. I doubt your kids think that Santa doesn't like Jewish or Muslim children. What do you tell them?

Why don't you try telling them that this time of year has lots of magic in it and it appears in different ways in different houses? In Jewish homes, through Chanukah, or Diwali for Hindus. Some houses do elves, some do trees, and it all comes from the same spirit.

How do you explain Santa bringing a £500 Xbox to another child when he gave yours something much smaller?

I like to do a Christmas Eve box for the grandkids. There’s nothing like seeing the anticipation and subsequent disappointment on their little faces when they open it to find a WH Smith book token and a set of grandad’s old false teeth dipped in bacon fat and crushed Wherther’s originals.

@draughtycatflap

I like to do a Christmas Eve box for the grandkids. There’s nothing like seeing the anticipation and subsequent disappointment on their little faces when they open it to find a WH Smith book token and a set of grandad’s old false teeth dipped in bacon fat and crushed Wherther’s originals.

Just like eating an entire box of Roses before Christmas dinner, that is! Nothing left to enjoy after that, job's fucked.

draughtycatflap bwah haha

That you shouldn’t put presents under the tree till Christmas Eve night , regardless of who they’re for .

I once casually told my grandad that I didn't understand how he enjoyed watching football. That is 20 minutes of my life which I will never get back. It was still less tedious than watching people on here pretending that "I don't understand" isn't a commonly used turn of phrase. It's picking an argument where there isn't one.