To wish schools would scrap Christmas jumper day?

[Notspeakingup]

DC2 has a couple of little classmates with difficult home lives, one in particular without much money. There are some Christmas jumper days coming up and I have been thinking about how tough it must be to always be the child with no jumper.

I know as children grow up you can't avoid the inequalities but it would be great if we could at least stop it being an issue at primary school. (And of course there are the families who buy jumpers when they can't really afford them).

It would be much more fun, less expensive and less environmentally damaging if children were encouraged to take in an old sweater and decorate it in art class.

I used to sew tinsel and baubles very loosely to an ordinary jumper for my DC. Then I'd cut them off again once the dreaded day was over so they could just wear the jumpers in the normal manner. I wasn't the only one. It was all a bit tiresome. There was also a Christmas Hat day. I wrapped an empty box up in Christmas wrapping paper and tied it to her head. It was a "Christmas present hat". You don't have to spend anything at all.

Our school PTA collects old Christmas jumpers to sell at the PTA shop & Christmas fair stall for £1 - £3 each. It's a quick and guaranteed way to raise cash for the school. Also, a cheap way for families to update their jumpers cheaply so a win - win scenario.

My kid's school takes in donations via the PTA for resale. I'm fairly sure a few of those donations are quietly redistributed before going on sale.

Sorry - when I say "her", I mean the youngest of my DC!

YANBU. I am so glad our schools have been quite sensitive to this, for both financial and environmental reasons. We have had Christmas accessory days, but the teachers can then just give any kids without some tinsel from the school decorations, so it isn't a pressure. We used the same Christmas hat for years.

Our school encourages parents to send children in decorated jumpers, but for many it’s easier to just buy a cheap one. Children would therefore probably feel left out if they were the only one in a normal jumper either a bit of tinsel attached. It tends to be the parents with ample time who arrange to get second hand or borrowed ones.
That said, my DC get lots of wear out of theirs, they wear it in the run up to Christmas (and sometimes at other times of the year) and usually we get bigger ones so they last at least a couple of years.
The not having to sort out costumes was definitely one of the good things about school closures.

It’s not just the Christmas jumper though, is it? World book day, Harry Potter day, bloody so many dress-up days. (There were a lot more but I can’t remember!)

Environmentally negligent and socially ignorant. Come on teachers, you can do better than this.

I always thought world book day should be bring in your favourite book.

In our DC primary in December we have to provide a nativity costume, a Christmas jumper for Christmas jumper day, a Christmas outfit for class party, £2 each ‘donation’ per child to enter the school fete in the hall plus ‘spending money’, this is during school time.

Our school has scrapped Christmas jumper day, it's 'wear what you like so long as it's comfy and warm' day.
I must say our head is very aware of the difficulties our school community faces and I've started appreciating her awareness of this since COVID.

The PTA in our school asks for donations of any outgrown jumpers and they are there available for any child who has forgotten their jumper if they would like to wear one

Yanbu at all. Something simple like each child wearing civvies and making a paper garland/hat would be great, with a £1 donation for those that can.

My friends DC school is doing Christmas Jumper Friday for the whole of December!

I totally agree with you op. However I have found ways to make it better. Like a fair isle style jumper which my kids would wear all winter, not just Christmas jumper day. Or attaching tinsel to something more plain. Or buying big and wearing for a couple of years then passing on to second child, then cousins etc. Doesnt feel wasteful. I’d never buy a new jumper to be worn once, that’s just awful

@EssexCat

I agree. Our PTA run a swap shop and sell them for £1 (or donation for those more or less affluent to donate accordingly) which is a really good and much less wasteful idea.

Or they just wear non uniform on that day.

This is a good idea!

The whole idea of a Christmas jumper was a crap gift your nan or aunt knitted you.
Now it’s a unecessary cheap supermarket jumper or an expensive designer job that looks cheap.

It’s one of the school dress up days I don’t mind.

Evacuee/Tudor/Greek/Roman/around the world/etc are all more annoying for clothes that can’t be reworn.

My eldest has had 3 Christmas jumpers in total. She’s still wearing the most recent one - 3rd year now.

Middle child has had 2 jumpers (one of which was her sister’s hand me down), and 3 t shirts, which all still fit (last year for 2 of them, sadly)

Youngest has had a few t shirts, which still fit, and 3 jumpers, 2 of which still fit.

So, across 6 years or so, and 3 children, I’ve bought 7 jumpers, 5 of which are still being worn. Not exactly excessive.

My dc have also chosen well, and are happy to wear their jumpers and t shirts for most of December, so they are not worn just for one day.

I can understand the problem with children from families who cannot afford specialist clothing, but that’s not restricted to this one dress up day at school - there’s so many, often requiring weird and wonderful combinations, or last minute homemade alterations to existing clothing etc. it’s hardly a new thing.

Our PTA was trying to organise a secondhand Xmas jumper stall yo prevent people having to fork out for new ones but we haven't been able to have any events because of Covid ... so DS is being crammed into the same one as last year. And to cap it all the school is now asking for a minimum donation amount. I really really really don't know why the school can't say 'wear something festive / Christmassy' instead

I only have one child so I don't get the multiple uses (although I do try to pass the damn things on)

Yanbu.
Children grow out of them and you have to be on the ball to find one from a charity shop. My teens will get two years out of their charity shop jumpers which is mainly luck.

@GrandTheftWalrus

My daughter needs 4 for school but I bought 2 from the charity shop and they'll do.

How on earth does she need 4? Our school has 12 'official' Xmas jumper days but they can wear them on the days in between too. They don't need 12 Xmas jumpers they just wear the same one on each day!

Buying a brand new jumper to wear one day is daft. My kids have never had a christmas jumper. They just went in a jumper that was red or green or i put a bit of tinsel on. I have bought wintery jumpers though.
Do some schools really police this to christmas only.

I agree, although anything enforced at school or that risks making a child who cannot afford something stand out is horrible, there's no need for it. Plenty of opportunities for people to wear their Christmas stuff at home, or just have a non uniform day and then if people want to dress festive they can, if not then they don't.

“I always thought world book day should be bring in your favourite book.”

^me too. WBD has got ridiculous. I let my daughter go in an Elsa because she had the outfit already.

I think the thing with secondhand items is that it can feel very different to CHOOSE to buy something secondhand, knowing you have the option of buying new, than to buy secondhand out of necessity. It is also the stress of feeling that you are letting down your child by not being able to buy them a nice new jumper and only being able to give them secondhand.

I’m a big charity shopper and regularly buy toys second hand….but I do so because I hate waste and prefer to save money. That’s different from doing so out of necessity.

There are always lots of them given away free or very cheaply on local buy sell groups where I live. I actually prefer this to non uniform days as xmas jumpers tend to be completely unbranded, most come from cheaper stores like Asda (even the better off kids tend to have a supermarket type one) so they are a bit more of a leveller

Our PTA collects donations of Christmas Jumpers and also costumes for dress up days. We have a cupboard in school full of freshly laundered items such as these as well as running the second hand uniform shop including trainers and football boots.
We recently started collecting second hand “labels” clothes to make sure that we have a wide ranging wardrobe of items for non uniform day. We have sports hoodies, trainers, all available for children to come and help themselves so that they don’t feel left out when others look like a JD Sports advert.
Any parent/carer that needs to can request via the school office any of our items for free. We have a box in the office where they come back and we wash them, they don’t have to come back clean.
We also provide free tickets to our events via the school office too, equality of opportunity is really important to us, everyone will get the same chances.
PTA members never know who the people we help are, we just know that we have helped some families and that is enough for us.
We are introducing a Little Library next year too so that children can access reading books.
If you have a PTA at school, ask what they can do to support disadvantaged children.