What on earth is a Christmas Eve box??

[Xmasevewhat]

I've suddenly seen 'Christmas Eve boxes' popping up everywhere. In shops, on Etsy, social feeds. Never even heard of the concept and now all of a sudden it's everywhere.

Can someone explain the point? Seems like they are filled with same kind of things you'd put in a stocking. Be honest, is it just another Instagram fad/ excuse to spend money?

Like covid. Follow the science lol

@Bleakmidwinter1977 , what on earth do Christmas Eve Boxes have to do with Covid? And what science is anyone supposed to be following in relation to this thread? Your posts are becoming increasingly bizarre.

We do Christmas eve boxes, it's not to put on social media as rarely post. We love Xmas eve and spend the day at home snuggled up watching films and eating chocolate, so we put Christmas pj's, hot chocolate, crafts, a Christmas book, socks, chocolate and a bath bomb in ours.

Are you all sitting down?

I finally got sick of Christmas Day shenanigans and moved opening presents to Christmas Eve in the evening. After the Christmas Meal which I moved also.

This thankfully left the Day itself for chilling out instead of getting up at silly o clock then faffing in the kitchen all morning.

I also do Christmas bedding sets that are only in use during December and January.
😲

I usually change my bedlinen just before bed on Christmas Eve before having a relaxing shower and hairwash, others do it then or on the Day or Boxing Day, but the dirty linen all gets washed on Boxing Day.

We agreed to trial the change in arrangements for one Christmas and all preferred it so stuck with it.

So much more relaxing!

Whilst I do think that "Christmas Eve Boxes" have become a commercialised commodity in the modern era of showing off on social media, the spirit of the tradition is a lovely one that goes back many years, it's not just some new fad.

My DD has always had a Christmas eve box following the same tradition of the Christmas eve routine that I, and my siblings, grew up with.

Every Christmas Eve as children our mum would strip the beds first thing Christmas eve morning to put our Christmas bedding on, which would then stay on till Epiphany, and we we would be sent out with dad to go out on a family walk to drop off gifts/cards to anyone we hadn't seen in the previous week and wouldn't be seeing on Christmas Day itself so mum could "get the washing done" and also deal with any last minute wrapping/present collecting from neighbours and other friends and family who had kindly stored things as mum and dad didn't have room to hide four kids worth of stuff . We would then come home, have tea then go to the 5pm Christmas Eve church service with mum (she's Irish Catholic, dad was brought up atheist). When we got home there would be gift bags lined up under the tree with new PJs, slippers and some new shampoo/shower gel/bubble bath for each of us. There would also be the little basket that we would leave out with Santa's mince pie/carrots for the reindeer which would have a new Disney video/DVD and a tin of Christmas chocs.

We'd all open our bags, go up and have a bath/shower, get into our new PJs and slippers and come back down to the living room where mum or dad would have set up the living room ready to watch the new Disney film, with the Christmas chocs and warm cocoa/Horlicks for everyone.

When we were little kids and/or when there was a mix of older and younger siblings there was a Christmas story book added to the basket so instead of staying up for movie night, mum or dad would read the Christmas story book to the little kids and tuck them in to bed while the big kids were getting bathed/showered and going down for movie night.

As we all got older and past the Santa stage we'd still get the gift bag but instead of the book/DVD we'd get a board game instead and we'd have a fun evening of opening our gift bags, having a picky tea of buffet buts mum had bought in the supermarket party section, playing a family board game with Christmas music on and a tin of chocs working it's way round the table and then we'd have the option of whether to go to bed or stay up to accompany mum to Midnight Mass. Whether you stayed up or went to mass, before bed you'd get washed and dressed in your new PJs so you looked at least partly presentable in the 5am photos of all the present opening mum and dad took every Christmas day.

With my DD I continued the same tradition - Christmas Eve church service, home to the Christmas eve basket with PJs, slippers, a Christmas story book, a new DVD and a cup of chocolate and churros (when we lived in Spain)/cocoa and christmas cookies (when we moved back to England).

As DD is an only child the only change I made was to give DD her Christmas Eve bag on the morning of the 24th and I'd add a few little craft activities, a small toy, sticker/colouring books etc to the box so that I could keep her occupied through the day if I needed to get any last minute prep jobs done. When we lived abroad and travelled back to England for Christmas we'd often be in a hotel (I preferred having our own base to retreat to if things got too much with the whole family celebration and I am not a fan of sleeping on camp beds/sofas unless absolutely necessary) so giving DD the bag on Christmas eve morning meant I could have a few extra minutes in bed and/or gave myself a bit of time to get organised.

I really don't get the faux confusion and subsequent outrage about what is essentially a nice little treat for children.

I'm not gullible, I actively choose to spend money on making December/Christmas eve as special and magical for my children as I can, they look forward to our traditions, as do I. They'll only be impressed by this kind of think for a little while, I'm making the most of it.

It's not wasting money if it brings you joy, the same could be said for most things - drinking, smoking, or going out for a meal when you have food in your fridge. Optional, unnecessary but enjoyable.

I can maybe understand people being unaware of the various traditions around Xmas Eve gifts, especially if they haven't spent much time in other countries (although there are traditions around it in the UK too) but it's a bit much to act like anyone who does this is somehow doing Xmas wrong.

It's a long standing tradition in other countries, thats caught on for various reasons here. I don't understand the faux bafflement, you have google, use it!

Its something my Mum did back in the 80s, having friends from such countries that did this and she liked the idea. Just a box with some nice jamas, new hot water bottle if one was needed, new book each or a boardgame for the whole family.

It worked well as we often travelled down to our cottage in Wales (oh how cringingly middle class) on Christmas Eve and warm PJ's and hot waterbottles were a handy thing to present freezing cold tired children with in a stone cottage that hadn't had the heating on for several weeks.

Our christmas presents didn't come from santa either, they came from the Cave Fairy who lived in Ogof Fynnon Ddu II and rode a dragon. He did all the mythical fairy/being jobs - teeth, easter eggs, christmas... again, because it amused Mother, and fuck what anyone else thought!

Do other countries give sachets of drinking chocolate, that just seems such an odd thing to do when it is a general grocery item.

@User136921 you could give that theory about any food or drink related Christmas gift.
I get different flavours I don't normally get or a more fancy brand instead of Tesco Basics that I normally buy.

Do other countries give sachets of drinking chocolate, that just seems such an odd thing to do when it is a general grocery item.

I used to go full Green & Blacks HC ( from the cupboard ) decanted into a paper bag and then sealed. And some marshmallows in another paper bag and a tube of squirty cream , which used to practically be the highlight of their Christmas. Simpler times.

The only extra is the £20 snow globe, everything else is just stocking or presents transplanted to the night before instead of the morning of. Agree it’s very over the top a lot of the time, but can be done in a way that spreads the joy over a longer period of time with no extra cost.

MN: where people go to be flummoxed by gifts of consumables. Dear Lord. I presume this kind of ridiculous performative bafflement by the simplest, most normal things fulfils some sort of desired self-image but I'm truly, sincerely baffled myself as to what it might be. Why would anyone go around pretending that having hot chocolate is somehow odd?

It's not odd to have hot chocolate, I have hotel chocolate velvetiser chocolate every evening, DH has Cadbury drinking chocolate sometimes, I wouldn't see it as a gift as it is not a luxury

I think I must have been a very unambitious Mum! We would go to mass at 7pm, home afterwards to jammies and a game or movie. Off to bed to wait for Santa!
No new clothes or books or mugs!

The younger women I work with seem so invested in a whole month of Christmas. They spent ages doing custom Advent calendars. They made the box, the numbered bags with labels, purchased little gifts for each day. Then came up with 24 Elf on the Shelf ideas, with custom outfits and accessories (think tiny little amazon boxes), Organized matching pajamas for the whole family and dog, Oh, I forgot to mention the Elf does a treasure hunt with rhyming clues for the Christmas eve gift.

While I admire their creativity and excitement, it all just seems too exhausting to me to do all that, plus the extensive shopping lists for each child.

I was just coming on to say
The last 2 years it's been a 1st December box on my feed

We've always done them
New PJs, a bath bomb, hot choc stirrer and a book or dvd
When the kids were little it was to calm them down and get them to bed at a decent time, bath clean pjs then chill

I should have known that was coming. "Of course I'm not actually baffled by this very simple thing, I have a very high end version myself that's just my everyday thing and what I actually don't understand is why not everyone is like me."

You're probably for real, too.

I did this for my mum about 11 years ago before it was a thing! I swear it's all my fault! I even made the Christmas eve box out of pallets, painted & decorated. Then a few years later, everyone started doing it. This is the first year I am doing it for my daughter's. Joint box (same wooden box I made my mum) with pjs, hot chocolate, Christmas book ect waiting under the tree for when we get home from lunch with Father Christmas 🎄

My eldest DC is 20 years old and I’ve been doing a Christmas Eve box since his first Christmas. I’ve since added an advent box, and don’t know about the ones you’re seeing but mine contain neither tat nor pointless wastes of money. Out advent box always contains a book, an advent candle, chocolate tree decorations, a jigsaw, and a board game. Each night in advent we sit together, light the candle, eat a chocolate tree decoration, and read the book aloud. The game and jigsaw are used over the Christmas holidays.

Our Christmas Eve box contains new pyjamas, which are worn far beyond Christmas, a book each, and some chocolate. In previous years there was also the Santa plate, a Christmas DVD (remember those?) and other age appropriate things. The plate was reused every year

We used to do them - Xmas jammies, hot chocolate, a Christmas mug, Xmas sweets or shortbread, reindeer food.

I realised that the box then sat in bedrooms untouched over Xmas. The kids loved it at the time but there was too much going on for them due to it being xmas eve 🤣

So we now do a 1st December bag/box type thing. This year this included Xmas jammies, Xmas bedding and an advent calendar.

We have elf on thr shelf so he brings the box when he leaves Xmas eve.

So Xmas eve morning there is no elf as he's gone back to North Pole but he leaves the box of goodies.

It's just new pj's, some reindeer food to leave out and a hot chocolate sachet and chocolate coin.

It helps mine go to bed. Put out the food, pj's on, hot chocolate and sleep

I made my own for my DD one year, just got a cheap box from home bargains and put a few little bits she barely looked at it apart from the new PJ'S I'd put in lol. I've never bothered again, I just give her the new PJ'S and a box of chocolates now.

It's not odd to have hot chocolate, I have hotel chocolate velvetiser chocolate every evening, DH has Cadbury drinking chocolate sometimes, I wouldn't see it as a gift as it is not a luxury

But HC in the box, with the cosy jammies and the book! It's not the individual things, it's the little ritual itself.

Do you have kids?

is it just another Instagram fad/ excuse to spend money?

Yes.
They weren't a thing when DD was little, thank goodness.