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AIBU?

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Original poster

Were Christmas Eve boxes not enough?!

307 replies

AnnLouiseB · 15/02/2021 17:27

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?

Were Christmas Eve boxes not enough?!
OP posts:
lollipoprainbow · 15/02/2021 18:58

I did see an Instagram post yesterday where the mum had made valentines breakfast for her kids with gifts etc, I draw the line at that !!

Mylittlesandwich · 15/02/2021 18:59

I think they're cute. I absolutely don't have £25 to spend on one but they're nice if you do. We did get a Christmas Eve box for DS but it only had nice PJ's and a story book in it (he'd just turned one in November).

PatchworkElmer · 15/02/2021 18:59

I like them! I made DH an Easter hamper for our first year together Blush

... He just gets an egg now.

Dontforgetyourbrolly · 15/02/2021 19:02

On my local fb they were selling valentines t shirts for the xmas elves!! Wtaf
I hate it all , sorry I sound so miserable I know .
And yes to all the home made rubbish with bad spelling

ChestnutStuffing · 15/02/2021 19:02

@AnnLouiseB

These are for Easter, so on the main event. These are to Christmas what a Santa Sack/Stocking is.

I guess this is what I find odd - I don’t recall Easter ever being an occasion for gifts etc. We would always have a big family lunch and Easter eggs with an Easter egg hunt at home, but the idea of a box of gifts is totally alien to me. Prepared to be told that I’m in the minority with that though!

This has been the trajectory since the end of the 19th century. Gifts went from being rare, even at Christmas, to being required for more and more occasions, more of them, and more expensive.

It's all to drive the consumer machine. If more isn't sold than last year, GDP doesn't go up. Can't have that.

That's the real objection, IMO. Yes, they can be sweet, and fun, even good quality items, but gods, do we really need more stuff, or to use more resources? Can we enjoy a holiday that doesn't involve getting gifts or stuff?

EuroTrashed · 15/02/2021 19:04

now while I consider that kind of thing to be a load of old consumerist shite, I will happily invite a couple of families over to eat lamb drink lots and be very merry and run round the garden looking for eggs and spend a small fortune in doing so. That to me is worth the small fortune, and not little personalised crates. Horses / courses. (how much loft space do these people have???)

helpfulperson · 15/02/2021 19:04

They are fine in themselves but if you are struggling to put food on the table a societal expectation you will spend £30 one filled Easter box for each child is alot. And no matter how much people say each to their own if your child is the only one without one that feels shit for both you and the child.

theleafandnotthetree · 15/02/2021 19:05

@MessagesKeepGettingClearer

YANBU.

Consumerism at its greatest. Then we wonder why so many people are in debt...

And why the planet is fucked....
EuroTrashed · 15/02/2021 19:07

@ChestnutStuffing I found it interesting and rather a relief that none of the shops went all out for valentine's day this year. Maybe I was too late, but I went to 3 shops on Saturday (WH Smith / Waitrose / M&S) and they had nothing beyond a few cards / a display of rose wines and flowers / awful percy pig themed things and a dine in for £20 respectively. Usually they'd be full of foil wrapped chocolate hearts and a huge selection of different cards and decorations and wrapping paper bla bla bla. It was quite refreshing and I explained to child 2 that it was what the early 80s were like (she was appalled at the lack of shiny stuff, obviously)

Sam1815 · 15/02/2021 19:07

Easter in our family was always about getting new books. We didn’t really do the chocolate or egg hunts. We still do it now as well and I also get my Dd and niece and nephew books for Easter. I’m not even sure how or when it started to be honest

SteveBrexit · 15/02/2021 19:09

totally the kind of things I'd buy as gifts for others, probably not for my own kids. But said kids are drowning in chocolate already from the egg hunt in the garden!

Sammiesnake · 15/02/2021 19:11

I have a cardboard box for each celebration on my loft: Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentine’s Day and New Year. I have a birthday box too which is kept in the kitchen cupboard as that’s used throughout it the year obviously. Each box contains decorations and gift boxes/ baskets etc. It’s not hard to organise and if you buy nice quality items you only buy them once. They’re very treasure and much enjoyed. What’s the issue?

BarbaraofKent · 15/02/2021 19:13

Where are people keeping these crates as they endlessly accumulate?

This is always my first thought when I see the tat that some people get their kids for every occasion? Where are you keeping it all?

GeordieGreigsButtButtZoom · 15/02/2021 19:13

if your child is the only one without one that feels shit for both you and the child.

Why does this never apply to big houses, expensive tech, foreign holidays and things like that? Why does it only ever apply to gift boxes that everyone claims they've never heard of and don't do anyway?

septemberismyfavouritemonth · 15/02/2021 19:15

I've just put a smarties egg in my Tesco shop for my DS, he'll love it, personally I think this is OTT and just sets expectations too high!

peak2021 · 15/02/2021 19:15

I'm with you OP, just no! Stick to a normal Easter egg.

AmIBeingTwatty · 15/02/2021 19:16

I’ve done stuff like this for easter since my eldest was born 7 years ago. If you don’t like it don’t do it for yoguts.

AmIBeingTwatty · 15/02/2021 19:16

Or even; for yours

AmIBeingTwatty · 15/02/2021 19:16

I keep them in the loft along with the Easter & Christmas decorations.

TupilaLilium · 15/02/2021 19:19

I still have my easter basket from when I was a girl. My daughter uses it now.

theleafandnotthetree · 15/02/2021 19:20

[quote EuroTrashed]@ChestnutStuffing I found it interesting and rather a relief that none of the shops went all out for valentine's day this year. Maybe I was too late, but I went to 3 shops on Saturday (WH Smith / Waitrose / M&S) and they had nothing beyond a few cards / a display of rose wines and flowers / awful percy pig themed things and a dine in for £20 respectively. Usually they'd be full of foil wrapped chocolate hearts and a huge selection of different cards and decorations and wrapping paper bla bla bla. It was quite refreshing and I explained to child 2 that it was what the early 80s were like (she was appalled at the lack of shiny stuff, obviously)[/quote]
Well indeed, no one says we have to be dreary joy-suckers who never mark anything but we would surely lose little by going back to even how things were in the 80s. I am old enough - and Catholic enough - to have given up pretty much every nice thing for Lent when I was a child and my God, nothing ever tasted as good as that Easter egg on Easter Sunday morning (apart maybe from tea and toast after giving birth!). While I guess that ship has sailed, I'm not really sure what exactly we are giving our children more crap and tat on top of the chocolate frenzy. Hardly because they have earned or deserved it, most children get so much all year round now that is sort of blurs into one and it seems to me that the more people try to do, the less impact it actually has.

Crookairroad · 15/02/2021 19:20

Just leave people be. If they seller wants to make them and people want to buy let them get on with it. No need for thread after thread after thread.

Angel2702 · 15/02/2021 19:20

@MessAllOver

I object to the boxes because I think children should work for their Easter eggs. When we were growing up, the Easter bunny (aka our father) would come up with fiendish clues which would lead us a merry dance all over the house and garden and usually up the ladder into the loft as well. We'd be exhausted by the end. The clues always involved at least one anagram, one maths puzzle and one map- reading question (compass provided). While he may have taken his role as Easter bunny a bit too seriously, this modern tendency of giving children everything on a plate (or in a box, in the case) is to be deplored!
We do both an egg hunt for little eggs and an Easter bunny shaped egg in a basket to wake up to Easter morning.
BanningTheWordNaice · 15/02/2021 19:21

My favourite thing about Easter was the animal bags you could buy from m and s.

ktp100 · 15/02/2021 19:22

Oh they're cute!

I fall for ALL this shit.