Were Christmas Eve boxes not enough?!

[AnnLouiseB]

I’ve just seen these advertised on Facebook. Is this a thing now? Must we have a cutesy box for every single calendar event? Where are people keeping these crates as they endlessly accumulate?

I am over 50 we used to get loads of eggs when we were children and presents why not? Will be doing something like this for my g daughters .I think its lovely xxx

My DC Nanna does do them an Easter box/Easter egg hunt. But I personally wouldn't. We don't do Christmas Eve boxes and I definitely don't celebrate valentine's with our DC.

Ok @HauntedPencil, gosh, how posh are you? What kind of eggs did you get I wonder? Crocodile, duck, turkey, goose, ostrich perhaps? Obviously not boring old hen's eggs. Btw I'd have loved a good old fashioned sack, they're dead useful. All we had were placca pokes, totally environmentally unfriendly. Have a nice Easter painting your stones, sounds lovely, you could even sell them on Etsy.

Yep @OhCaptain & @GeordieGreigsButtButtZoom, those who say they've been around "forever" are lying or at least being hyperbolic. I challenge you to find one from the 19th century, or even from the 1930s for that matter.

@Bodynegative

Yep *@OhCaptain & @GeordieGreigsButtButtZoom*, those who say they've been around "forever" are lying or at least being hyperbolic. I challenge you to find one from the 19th century, or even from the 1930s for that matter.

Actually Easter was a huge celebration in Ireland in the 19th century and kids got treats for the clúdóg.

The Easter bunny has been around since pre-Christianity and was incorporated into Christian celebrations since at least the mid-17th century.

It’s not hyperbolic and it’s not even hard to google.

If you’re looking for consumeristic Easter gifts from the 19th century, a Faberge egg would look lovely in one of those painted IKEA crates.

Last Easter was very hot. All the eggs melted in our garden except the ones we'd submerged in a plastic bag in the paddling-pool for DS to find. He enjoyed licking out the foil wrappers (we only did a few little ones for him - not because we're mean but because he was only 2 then). This year we might rise to a chocolate train.

Do people really just hand over the eggs? Kids come downstairs..."Here's your weight in chocolate"... job done. No frustrated children running around trying to find as many eggs as they can before their siblings steal them all? How... tame.

That's what I find most surprising about this thread. If there is any place for Easter boxes, surely it is at the end of a long and arduous egg hunt when they have been earned by sweat and toil.

@MessAllOver mine do an egg hunt, too.

I suggest @OhCaptain that you read the thread rather than failing to be "clever". I'm perfectly aware of the origin of Easter as a pre Christian festival, it was a celebration of fecundity and new birth and don't need to Google it 😂😂. The rabbits came in later, they weren't introduced to Ireland until around the 12th century. There's a story that Eostre had a hare as a symbol, and Fabergé made beautiful decorated eggs however none of these are the boxes which is what I was referring to. The OP asked if these Easter boxes, wooden crates full of gendered stuff, were a "thing" which they weren't in my family or the area we lived in. My mother's family were Irish and they didn't give the children boxes full of tat either but were big on dyed eggs. Enjoy your Easter including the boxes if that's your thing.

I love doing stuff like this. I even do fancy pinterest type lunchboxes every day.
I never had any of this as a child. I wanted this stuff and to feel so special but never did get anything remotely nice so now I do this for my ds. He absolutely loves it. He's so appreciative of anything really so I don't mind it as well.

@Bodynegative

I suggest *@OhCaptain* that you read the thread rather than failing to be "clever". I'm perfectly aware of the origin of Easter as a pre Christian festival, it was a celebration of fecundity and new birth and don't need to Google it 😂😂. The rabbits came in later, they weren't introduced to Ireland until around the 12th century. There's a story that Eostre had a hare as a symbol, and Fabergé made beautiful decorated eggs however none of these are the boxes which is what I was referring to. The OP asked if these Easter boxes, wooden crates full of gendered stuff, were a "thing" which they weren't in my family or the area we lived in. My mother's family were Irish and they didn't give the children boxes full of tat either but were big on dyed eggs. Enjoy your Easter including the boxes if that's your thing.

And again, they have been around for ages and been done by people for ages.

Maybe you were too poor for them. That doesn’t mean they’re new, dear.

I don’t need to pretend to be clever. I’m not the one here who looks like an utter gobshite, believe me.

It's all about the most important thing of all - whether it be Christmas, Easter, Diwali, Halloween, or any time of celebration/commemoration - making money!

@OhCaptain ......And you just sound really unpleasant

The OP asked if these Easter boxes, wooden crates full of gendered stuff, were a "thing" which they weren't in my family or the area we lived in.

They're gendered? Never mind. Crates featured several other posters' childhoods, so your declaration that they haven't been around very long is...weird.

I suppose we could pull apart the use of the word "forever" so that someone can make a victory point on semantics that doesn't actually apply to the essence of the argument. But taking it as the rhetorical device it clearly was, I assumed we had all taken it to mean "with a relatively established history, in that they are not new to this generation". I don't think anyone thought it was intended to mean "they didn't exist in the Ice Age" or equivalent. If that was the intention, I think we can all agree that they didn't. But they did exist in some people's past, your own not being the final and only authority on what all families in history have done, and that's really the point that was being made. For many people, they aren't new. They are repeating their own childhood tradition.

And even if they are new...so what? What's the moral value to it? If you want to moralise about newer things that are bad for us, go after fast fashion, the exploitative tech sector, excessive single use plastics and all the other things that really ARE the problem...or would that require too much change for you?

[quote theleafandnotthetree]@OhCaptain ......And you just sound really unpleasant[/quote]
I honestly, really don’t care.

Why shouldn't the sellers make money though?! They are nice enough things - I'm sure the children would enjoy them and people are often limited for time or lack the crafty skills to make.

I'm really failing to see an issue here

@MessAllOver

Last Easter was very hot. All the eggs melted in our garden except the ones we'd submerged in a plastic bag in the paddling-pool for DS to find. He enjoyed licking out the foil wrappers (we only did a few little ones for him - not because we're mean but because he was only 2 then). This year we might rise to a chocolate train.

Do people really just hand over the eggs? Kids come downstairs..."Here's your weight in chocolate"... job done. No frustrated children running around trying to find as many eggs as they can before their siblings steal them all? How... tame.

That's what I find most surprising about this thread. If there is any place for Easter boxes, surely it is at the end of a long and arduous egg hunt when they have been earned by sweat and toil.

Maybe people all do things a little differently - mind blowing I know.

I like to give mine over and we usually have a day out and do an egg hunt at national trust etc

Why must our eggs melt and we all sweat to have a nice day?

When I was a kid we got our eggs and a few tenners off uncles or aunts and we shoved them into our faces felt a bit green and had a nice day.

@HauntedPencil

Why shouldn't the sellers make money though?! They are nice enough things - I'm sure the children would enjoy them and people are often limited for time or lack the crafty skills to make.

I'm really failing to see an issue here

Because the MN goal is to be perfectly middle class, with refined tastes and a horror of anything "common", while being so very far above thinking about money.

Once you see the anti-box exposition as classism masquerading as moral superiority (as classism has generally always been), using inexpensive gift boxes to deflect from issues like expensive tech, big houses, foreign holidays or gas guzzlers or

Damn, hit post by accident..

...or other such middle class things, it makes a lot more sense.

As for people saying these have "been around forever", they really haven't. They weren't a thing when I was a child nor were they common in our area when my kids were young.

Good grief, it’s just another way of doing an Easter basket. Just because YOU didn’t have them doesn’t mean others who have are lying. I had them as a kid, along with a new Easter dress and egg hunts because that is what my parents grew up with and they are almost 60. My aunts, uncles, and cousins range from 60s - late 70s in age and still talk about these times fondly especially with the younger generations continuing the tradition.

@HauntedPencil. You're right, it's much easier for the parents just to hand the eggs over and let the kids get right into stuffing their faces .

I do find that people (including children) appreciate things much more when they've had to work a bit for them, though. Imo the eggs just don't taste as good if you haven't found them yourself and they've just been handed to you. It's a bit like having a nice hot coffee after a long walk outside...you appreciate it much more than if you've just stayed in all day sitting on the sofa.

[quote MessAllOver]@HauntedPencil. You're right, it's much easier for the parents just to hand the eggs over and let the kids get right into stuffing their faces .

I do find that people (including children) appreciate things much more when they've had to work a bit for them, though. Imo the eggs just don't taste as good if you haven't found them yourself and they've just been handed to you. It's a bit like having a nice hot coffee after a long walk outside...you appreciate it much more than if you've just stayed in all day sitting on the sofa.[/quote]
Yes they are fun - I do make mine do a little sweating don't get me wrong!

@GeordieGreigsButtButtZoom

Damn, hit post by accident..

...or other such middle class things, it makes a lot more sense.

Yes you could be right there - though I just can't for the life of me see the issue with these ones

One year I got them all beakers with their names on with little eggs inside which were nice

I can’t believe egg hunts have now turned into an example of the Protestant work ethic.

Egg hunts aren’t work or an effort. They are a glorious honing of the killer instinct to hunt down more prey than your peers and be cheered to victory.

I was unaware of egg hunts as a child, but my kids loved them, charging around trying to find eggs before their siblings did. I only realised the true depravity of it when a friend visited and said that her kids put all the eggs in one basket and shared them all equally at the end.

@Stripesnomore

I can’t believe egg hunts have now turned into an example of the Protestant work ethic.

Egg hunts aren’t work or an effort. They are a glorious honing of the killer instinct to hunt down more prey than your peers and be cheered to victory.

I was unaware of egg hunts as a child, but my kids loved them, charging around trying to find eggs before their siblings did. I only realised the true depravity of it when a friend visited and said that her kids put all the eggs in one basket and shared them all equally at the end.

Like a chocolate based hunger games