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?

How so? Who's to say a Christmas eve box can't be sustainable and ethical? I get ds books second hand and while I will get him new jammies this year, every other item of clothing the child has is second hand but in great condition so you'd never know. I just haven't found suitable jammies this year. I'd be buying a new bauble for the tree anyway and when he's bigger he'll make one probably from recycling. Bubble bath again we'd be providing anyway since we like our child to be clean. For me it's really just a way to make going to bed interesting so it's easier to get them down to sleep and excited for the next day. It's a tradition I've done since I was a small child so I don't give two hoots what the Joneses or anyone else is doing for that matter.

I'd say judgemental parents are more "gross" than commercial ones.

Same - the concept of the box might be new but the contents are the same thing we’ve been doing for decades.

Also, for the pp condemning the waste of only wearing Christmas pyjamas over Christmas - do people actually do that? My two get new ones every year but they wear them all the time until the weather is too warm so I don’t see it as a waste, in fact now they’re bigger and no longer growing out of things it’s the only time they get new pyjamas, it’s just a pair to add to the drawer once a year

All of us who did similar as a kid are lying! Didn't you know if someone has experienced something different as a kid, on MN they're always simply lying!

Only on my third Christmas as a mum, so dairly mew to it all too. I like the Christmas Eve box for pjs and a book, plus something for DC to do while I'm getting the bath ready etc. This year the plate for Santa we had done (hand and footprints, so it'll last them a few years of tradition and then we'll treasure it when we're old and they're living their own life). We always had new pjs on Christmas Eve and a new book or game (my sibling, not a reader). So I just see it as that continuing.

From what I hear from my friends and family though, find a way to avoid the damn elf. I'm thinking up plausible reasons for why we don't have one, for when they're old enough to ask.

Yes, they really were.
I had them as a kid. Im 46 this month.
Not in a box but always new pjs and a book.

Also, for the pp condemning the waste of only wearing Christmas pyjamas over Christmas - do people actually do that?

I don't know anyone who would do that, personally.

Are you very new to the internet? It's all the same things people have done for generations. Winter Pj's, Christmas book or movie, maybe a snack or two etc. Not sure why sticking it in a box bothers you so much, be grateful most of the boxes are reusable I guess.

Yeah so much junk. Why do kids need pyjamas and books anyway? Let them sleep in old rags and read the milk bottle before bed 🙄

How on earth would you know? Did you travel the length and breadth of the UK to check?

When did "hot chocolate" become such a thing? When did "hot chocolate stations" become even more of a thing?

I was a child in the 50s and 60s and hot chocolate or drinking chocolate was just an alternative in the winter to milky coffee, cocoa, Horlicks or Ovaltine - as long as your mum could spare the milk (which was delivered daily to the doorstep by the milkman). It wasn't seen as a treat or a seasonal treat or anything special.

Christmas is a period of 12 days, beginning on the birth of Christ on December 25th and ends with the coming of the Three Wise Men on January 6th.
And it has nothing to do with pj's, hot chocolate or boxes given on Christmas eve.

I was young in the 90s. It wasn't in a box but it was still a thing for many families.

And it has nothing to do with pj's, hot chocolate or boxes given on Christmas eve.

It has always been associated with gift giving, from its very origins. What makes you an arbiter of what acceptable and what isn't?

I first read about them on here about 10+ years ago 'Christmas eve bags' so they're not that new. We did them back then with new Pj's (not even Xmas ones, they weren't a thing back then!), a new toothbrush, a small chocolate and 'reindeer food'to sprinkle, once or twice there was a christmas book or christmas dvd. Been a part of our Christmas's for a long time.

Like everything now though marketing and social media got hold of it and now it's a big thing with loads of tat and expense. Eldest DC is an adult now but still loves getting a christmas eve bag 😀.

I’d never heard of Christmas Eve boxes before I joined Mumsnet.

You didn't have one so the concept didn't exist? Maybe they weren't a huge commercial thing, but people have always been capable of putting pjs, chocolate and a book on a box....

Now you can buy Christmas sheets and pillowcases. I bet they don't get used all year round.

https://www.marksandspencer.com/l/christmas/christmas-homeware/christmas-bedding

Now you can buy Christmas sheets and pillowcases. I bet they don't get used all year round.

Who knows. If I had them, I wouldn't put it past me. Perhaps they get used for the month of December for many years though?

We used to get them as children, and I'm nearly 50. It's a pack of all the stuff you do on Christmas Eve, plus anything you need to encourage your child to be calm and help them sleep on what is often a really exciting night.

In our household, it's pretty much the opposite of wasteful indulgence. It's a way of making everyday things and activities (and often of reusing stuff we already have) feel special.

When did "hot chocolate" become such a thing?

One of the earliest mentions of hot chocolate being sold commercially in England is from a London coffeehouse advertisement in the 1670s. By the 18th century, hot chocolate's popularity had skyrocketed.

@paradoxicalfrog people have always had thing like "the good china" that only comes out on Christmas/Easter day. I would say Christmas sheets is just a variation on that.
But who cares? Most people have several sets of bedding.

How many sets of bedding are you allowed to have I wonder?

What I meant was, when did it become something regarded as a treat, in as much as putting sachets into a gift?

Never done them. We always followed the tradition of opening a present from under the tree on Christmas eve night and give the kids Christmas pjs on the 1st day of advent so they can wear them in the Christmas run up as well.

I'm really interested to know what all these people going on about commercialism and useless tat actually buy their kids for Christmas.