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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not understand matching pyjamas and Christmas Eve boxes

154 replies

Fatas · 26/12/2020 23:38

I don’t understand where all these new traditions have come from. Whole families wearing matching Christmas pyjamas and Christmas Eve boxes.

Do you do it? Or are you also confused?

Is there anyone that does not dress their baby up either for Christmas, Easter, world book day or Halloween? I mean what enjoyment does the baby gain from drawing up. I just find all these new norms a little odd, or am I just miserable?

OP posts:

Thewiseoneincognito · 27/12/2020 09:45

The Xmas eve boxes are a bit rough, usually filled with junk bought off Facebook and Primark.

The matching PJs is another try hard thing. All for the insta and Facebook huns. 🤭

dudsville · 27/12/2020 09:48

Let people who aren't you get their kicks in ways that you wouldn't enjoy.

Santaisreel · 27/12/2020 09:48

The Xmas eve boxes are a bit rough, usually filled with junk bought off Facebook and Primark.

Haha, I have never bought a single thing from Facebook, I have a few things from Primark over the years but I can't say any of them featured in a the Christmas Eve boxes.

The matching PJs is another try hard thing. All for the insta and Facebook huns. 🤭

How many people have to say they don't have or post this on social media before you begin to realise that not everyone is doing this for SM?

The need to put everyone down for having a different kind of fun is really sad.

jillypill · 27/12/2020 09:49

Let people who aren't you get their kicks in ways that you wouldn't enjoy.

Maybe this is how the OP gets her kicks though?

Almostslimjim · 27/12/2020 09:49

DS asked father Christmas for "PJ's like mummy's" so I bought us matching ones 🤷.

Christmas Eve box is a way of getting DC to sit down and do stuff and calm their giddy asses. I fill it with a list of tasks, arts and crafts and baking. One parent does those, the other preps for the big day.

Imapotato · 27/12/2020 09:51

It’s all just another way to put pressure on parents to have the perfect social media Christmas. I’ve have never and will never do Christmas Eve boxes and matching pjs.

DinosApple · 27/12/2020 09:51

We don't bother with matching PJs, but I do a Christmas Eve box for the DC.

They get new PJs (they're kids, they keep growing!)
A book - this year - having already spent enough on Christmas - I went with second hand.
And a face pack or bath bomb.

The idea is to get my DC to calm the heck down and go to sleep on Christmas Eve!

BigPlanes · 27/12/2020 09:52

I don’t do it. Mainly because I’d rather spend my money on having a nice lot of presents for Christmas.

But anything people can do to cheer them up on this cold, dark, wet, cold island in the middle of the darkest part of the year can’t be a bad thing?!

HollyGenneroMcClane · 27/12/2020 09:55

I don’t do it. Mainly because I’d rather spend my money on having a nice lot of presents for Christmas.
Im the opposite and like to spread the presents out a little bit. We usually do a second full-on day of food and presents on the 28th with MIL, but covid, They've still got some to come on the epiphany.

madcatladyforever · 27/12/2020 09:58

Because people are stupid enough to fall for every single marketing ploy to part them from their money OP.
Its why christmas is so shit now, because of the relentless pressure to buy everything and for it all to be "perfect".
I stopped enjoying christmas after the 1960s and rarely bother with it now.

Crowncan · 27/12/2020 10:05

So don’t do it and stop looking at social media if you don’t like other people doing it. Maybe your little ones are too young to understand but my 2yo was so excited to be wearing the same pyjamas as the rest of her family especially her big sis and kept exclaiming ‘you look just like me’.

SimonJT · 27/12/2020 10:07

My partner bought us matching pjs, he knows I would hate it, thats why he did it. Sadly these thick thighs didn’t fit the pj bottoms.

Do christmas eve boxes not make small children too excited to go to bed?

MajesticWhine · 27/12/2020 10:10

What is the box - is it different from a present? Or is it also wrapped up? Does it contain other things or just the PJs?

Bluewavescrashing · 27/12/2020 10:12

It's not to my taste- the dads always look a bit awkward in their matching pjs when I see photos of families wearing them. But if it makes people happy, why not?

AppleBarrel · 27/12/2020 10:14

The only thing that is different from what my family did when I was a child is that now often adults tend to join in.
My mum and aunt were buying matching pyjamas for all us cousins at Christmas back in the 80s. Even the babies.
We thought it was brilliant. They weren't ever Christmas patterned, so perhaps that is new, that they are more widely available.
We would all open them on Christmas Eve (they would be wrapped under the tree rather than in a box, but the timing was the same).
Often my great aunt would knit us all a jumper for Christmas too - sometimes they were all completely identical, and sometimes they were the same pattern but different colours for each family.

Probably lots of people had similar traditions- the hand-knitted Christmas jumper is referenced in Harry Potter and in Bridget Joneses Diary after all.

Aggressive marketing of it, and the widespread use of social media just makes more people aware of it.

TheKeatingFive · 27/12/2020 10:16

OP, you sound a bit challenged in the nicest possible way.

What’s ‘confusing’ about this? I don’t see anything very difficult to grasp about people making different decisions to you.

Can you enlighten us?

Moo678 · 27/12/2020 10:16

Oh dear. I bought my three kids the same pyjamas (not Xmas ones) and gave them to them on Xmas eve. I don’t normally do it but I loved the print and the big girls love matching the with the toddler. Then.. I admit... I did put a picture on Facebook because I’m not allowed to see any of my friends or family this year and I knew they would like to see my kids. Luckily my FB is private so all the people who find this repugnant won’t be forced to look at the hideous images of my happy children.

TheNinny · 27/12/2020 10:17

Lighten up. Its a bit of fun. We did one this year with my 1 year old. No matching pjs as hell would freeze over before my husband dawned that..
or any pjs for that matter lol. I took a few a pictures because i have friends and family who actually enjoy seeing my wee one all Christmassy, especially as they havent seen much of her this year. Maybe all my childless pals hate me for it but they always have the option of hiding me or not watching my insta story or whatev. Not your thing? Dont do it. Or do it and don't tell anyone. Dressing little kids and babies up is cute. My parents didnt really do much of that as it wasnt really a thing growing up but i wish it had been. Maybe the odd fancy dress party but it was always stuff from home and looked a bit shit.

TheKeatingFive · 27/12/2020 10:18

I stopped enjoying christmas after the 1960s and rarely bother with it now.

Well aren’t you a ray of sunshine.

Thing is, you have the choice to do Christmas any way you want. No one is holding a gun to your head and marching you to primark.

TheKeatingFive · 27/12/2020 10:20

It's not for fun it's for social media. I imagine it is only a very tiny fraction of families that do this matching pyjamas shite without putting a photo up somewhere

You have absolutely no way of knowing that and all that’s happening is your confirmation bias shining through.

PrincessNutNutRoast · 27/12/2020 10:25

Is anyone else starting to get a bit concerned at the number of adult women who cannot understand pyjamas and boxes? I hope they didn't carve the turkey, that needs to be left to people who can grasp simple concepts.

MrsHugsxx · 27/12/2020 10:31

It is a family tradition of ours to wear new pjs on Christmas Eve. It is for fun and we all like doing it. We don't put pictures of the kids on social media in fact I don't even have Instagram or Facebook, but we send the pic of kids in new pjs to their grandparents. We are not hurting anyone by doing this and if anyone finds this offensive or can't get their head round this then they are strange.

PatchworkElmer · 27/12/2020 10:32

We don’t do Christmas Eve boxes but DS does have a Christmas Eve bedtime story, special bath bomb, hot chocolate etc. I think most families have Christmas Eve traditions like this? The box thing is new but I think most of the ideas in them have been done before.

Matching PJs- it’s just a bit of fun isn’t it!

TheKeatingFive · 27/12/2020 10:32

Is anyone else starting to get a bit concerned at the number of adult women who cannot understand pyjamas and boxes?

Yup

I didn’t realise there were so many hard of thinking out there

Brighterthansunflowers · 27/12/2020 10:32

If you really can’t understand that some people like that stuff then you must be really thick

Which means you do understand and just want to mock people you look down on.

So YABU. There’s nothing to understand, it’s a tradition for some people which they enjoy. Nobody is forcing you to join in if you don’t enjoy it.

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