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?

@TheKeatingFive

the most inane and wasteful consumerism

Compared to fast fashion, the exploitative tech sector, all the throwaway homeward stuff, the insanity of luxury brands, I can’t get too excited about some gifts and chocolate in a custom made box.

On MN though, 4x4s are AOK, but this is beyond the pale. 😂

This. ^

Reminds me of the uber woke Hollywood rich list types, who go apeshit if someone buys 3 or 4 plastic bags per month. But then fly five to ten thousand miles a month, several times a year, (often on a private jet,) to different film premieres, and interviews, and photoshoots.

In addition, they often don't wear the same outfit twice, and go through 50 pairs of shoes a year, and 25 handbags.

@Wearywithteens

Shit - it’s the climate one ffs 🤦🏼‍♀️ Richard... David...you knew what I meant!

We knew.

But it was still funny to rib you a little.

It's all too much

All of you people who hand the eggs over without making your kids work for them are making them soft .

@AnnLouiseB

Yeah, maybe it’s a reaction against coronavirus shittiness!

I think "boxes" and kits of ready assembled bits have taken off in the pandemic with limited shopping

@TheKeatingFive

the most inane and wasteful consumerism

Compared to fast fashion, the exploitative tech sector, all the throwaway homeward stuff, the insanity of luxury brands, I can’t get too excited about some gifts and chocolate in a custom made box.

On MN though, 4x4s are AOK, but this is beyond the pale. 😂

Yeah, especially as its a little wooden crate. Given the timing a few little pots in it and it's a perfect little herb/flower box for the kids to plant up

Boxes are a thing though. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I can add a load of chocolate to my online shop and shove it in a cupboard or can present same chocolate plus a few bits of tat from Poundland and the kids would think it’s amazing. I’m not buying anything off Facebook though.

One of the things I miss from my childhood is visits from the Easter Bunny and the 'nests' created for the Easter eggs. Usually in an old enamel washing up bowl, but remember old cartons being put to use too. That was well over 60yrs ago, so hope all the current young children enjoy the lovely memories being created by those boxes too.

I’ve never bothered with Christmas Eve boxes but I wouldn’t knock anyone else for doing them. I might even do them this year myself.

I LOVE these little Easter boxes though. I’m definitely doing these Thank you op!

@TheKeatingFive talking sense on these topics, like she always does.

This is obviously exactly the same as the Christmas Eve box debate, so all the same things apply. Reusable boxes on national festival days with food, books and maybe some textile goods are so patently not the reason for climate change, crippling consumer debt and the harshness of child poverty that it's very hard to take seriously anyone who tries to claim they are. The heart rending sentiments about disadvantaged children and families who don't care about each other except for money...give me a break.

It's actually distasteful to exploit such things to score points off something so harmless, deflecting from the REAL causes of landfill and wealth divide....which, lo and behold, are often costly things that the middle classes rather like and don't want to give up. Why is that, I wonder.

If you're fortunate enough to have a garden, an easter egg hunt is far more fun than just having a box of stuff

We don't have a garden but we do our hunt indoors. It's perfectly possible to do a hunt without a garden!

We do a hunt and my son gets an Easter box. Just as I did when I was little.

Halloween lover here waiting eagerly for someone to start making these full of spooky stuff- I hate Easter
But seriously, I do like this sort of thing and it makes kids happy. Shame companies exploit mums' recent inclination/ obsession to post these things on social media to charge a small mortgage for a box with a bunch of pick and mix...
I'm not an Easter fan, I prefer Halloween and Christmas and I always make boxes like this but I make my own, personalized for each child and for a fraction of the price. Plenty of ideas on Pinterest.

@GalaKC

*Halloween lover here waiting eagerly for someone to start making these full of spooky stuff- I hate Easter * But seriously, I do like this sort of thing and it makes kids happy. Shame companies exploit mums' recent inclination/ obsession to post these things on social media to charge a small mortgage for a box with a bunch of pick and mix... I'm not an Easter fan, I prefer Halloween and Christmas and I always make boxes like this but I make my own, personalized for each child and for a fraction of the price. Plenty of ideas on Pinterest.

We did our own a cauldron filled with treats instead of trick or treating this year.

Oh I LOVE Halloween, we go all out for that too. Our flat gets decorated for valentine's day, Easter, Halloween and Christmas and we love it.

Anyone irritated by this should check out turtlecreeklane on Instagram

Easter baskets aren’t new, I’m 46 and we used to get one.

This year, like last year, has been a crock of shit so far for a lot of kids, I can’t get annoyed by someone trying to make it less so with Xmas/Easter/valentine’s baskets.

We never celebrate Valentine’s day usually, this year we had a special dinner with the dc (10, 13 & 16) because there’s little else to celebrate, we also did a Chinese New Year dinner, because ditto. In an unprecedented time of dire shitness and severe lockdown fatigue, you’ve got to grab any opportunity to celebrate I think.

Seems harmless to me but I won’t be doing it

YANBU. We don't even do Christmas Eve boxes, they get enough gifts on the day.
At Easter my son gets plenty of eggs, we don't need to spend extra

Are Christmas boxes not for children overseas?

I usually give Easter eggs and possibly a toy.

I don’t do Christmas Eve boxes but I like to make an Easter basket full of summer stuff like water balloons, ball, bucket and spade. I don’t buy the kids random toys only at Christmas, birthday or Easter so if I didn’t buy them for Easter they would never have summer toys because Christmas and birthdays are autumn and winter.

think usability, sustainability, ethically (think about your finances!) - think homemade - think - are the boxes are marketing tool - are they like a movie prequel?

I always buy gifts for Christmas and Easter (would get them an egg and a toy/cuddly bunny etc!) but I don’t do Christmas Eve boxes and this is all going a bit overboard but like they’ve mentioned above maybe people are over compensating because of the Covid situation haha! X

I don’t do Easter boxes, and I keep seeing these. Have done for a few years.
Our Easter is the same as yours I imagine; egg hunt, eggs from the family, Easter bonnets at school. I find the culture of a box a bit much of you buy a new one each year, in terms of sustainability it’s a bit unnecessary. If you reuse the same one it’s nice but honestly I don’t have the space for this.

Personally, I feel it’s quite materialistic and I’m definitely not someone who engages with this kind of thing. New pyjamas on Christmas Eve but not a Christmas Eve box.

We DO something special for special occasions instead of gifting for every special occasions. It’s too much and not the mentality I want to raise my child with. For valentines we made little cupcakes and had afternoon tea in garden. Absolutely loved it