Christmas things not worth doing

[charlieinthehaystack]

you know the things you think you have to do then after you think why on earth did i bother?
many a time i have spent hours carefully putting the stickers on toys bikes etc to complete it then two minutes after kids open it all the stickers are ripped off!
you risk life and limb not to mention driving miles to get that toy that your youngster has begged for along with most of the kids in the UK but on Christmas day its played with for 2 minutes then discarded never to be seen again
similar to above you have that one guest you want to impress/who is awkward so you spend ages finding food you know they like at great expense then find out when they visit they no longer like it!

Secret santa, elf on the shelf, Christmas pyjamas, inflatables, chocolate advent calendars. Chocolate flavoured Christmas pudding.

But I generally love Christmas - the turkey and trimmings, the pudding, the gifts, cards, the lights, the music (as in carols, not Mariah Carey), the nativities, the Santas, the trees. The busy shops nd expense I could do without but you can'thave the former without.

Every ýear I cure a side of salmon. And every year I seem to be the only one who eats it. By new year I'm wondering guiltily if I should throw it out. Then I do. I need to learn how to get past the fish counter in the run up without succumbing. I also buy far too much expensive cheese and no-one has room for it.

I am a huge Christmas fan, I love decorating and present buying, and the music and lights etc. But I don't see the point in............

Elf on the shelf - what a load of old nonsense!! When my kids asked why we didn't have an Elf visit, I told them only the naughty kids had elves visit as Santa had to keep an extra close eye on them 😁

Spending it with people you don't like, or driving here, there and everywhere to please everyone except yourselves. Hell no! As soon as our eldest was born we stopped visiting others, those we liked were welcome to join us (and many did) but no fucking way am I spending my favourite day of the year with people I can't stand!

Visiting Santa- most kids I've seen look terrified! It's an expensive way to traumatise children with a cheap toy at the end.

@angela1952 if the secret santa is £5 get a £2.50 Christmas themed novel from The Works and a chocolate Santa.
Sorted 🧑‍🎄

Me and my husband drove to get two snow glow Elsa dolls out of our way. The children were happy on the day but they were hardly played with after.

Elf on a shelf, matching Christmas Pyjamas and Christmas Eve boxes are fairly new ‘innovations’. Thankfully, they appeared long after my kids were children. This year, it’s just DH and me (plus dogs and cats) for Christmas Day this year. We’ve decided our Christmas dinner will be home made salmon en croute with potatoes and veg, followed by trifle 🙂

The writing of 50 gift tags per child (3). Now they all have their own paper so when they're looking under the tree, eldest has always had Harry Potter, son (only.boy) dinosaurs/avengers/gaming, youngest Frozen/Bluey/LOL.
It must save me a good 2-3 hours each child!

Gonna echo PPs here. My child isn’t even of the age of appreciating Elf On The Shelf that much but I think that’s an awful invention to add to the parade of things that families have to do in the run up to Christmas. What’s wrong with an advent calendar?! Why is that suddenly not good enough?

My mum always did this and I continued - genius. when my children were small I always did a shared present (eg game, wendy house etc) so that one would be wrapped half and half

The bloody panto! Well actually I’ve not been since I was a child, but even then I didn’t really want to (would have far rather not had to put a smart dress on and go up to London for a horrible formal high tea and sitting watching some nonsense). I wanted to be outside playing with my ponies and dogs and getting muddy.

As an adult I have no desire to sit in a stuffy theatre full of snotty children with colds to catch their germs. My own children have never been to the panto and don’t seem bothered by my cruel disregard for all things ‘mime 😂

I love Christmas and we have the elves and the homemade advent calendars and the 1st dec boxes and stockings etc, just not a trip out to the pantomime.

Christmas Shopping in London

I always think "Oh it's an easy enough trip to Tottenham Court Road on the Elizabeth Line " ......but there it should end .

DD and I went to London yesterday . Had to walk to Covent Garden from Holburn as the Piccadily Line was not open. Fair enough it's less than 10 minutes .
Covent Garden was heaving .
We went back to Oxford Street , there were two shops she wanted .
The crowds , the umbrellas up , people on their phones (not looking where they're going - grrr ) , the number of times the back of my heels were stepped on, car/taxi drivers getting the hump as people just cross roads like lemmings .

Watch your bag . Watch your step , Watch your eyes /glasses from umbrellas , don;t imagine you'll find a decent toilet .
It was raining and cold but that's by the by .

Some stations were closed (flooding)
And I know it's going to be busy . But people have no bloody manners . I am waiting at the platform , someone comes along and just barges in front of me . I am here y'know

Christmas Shopping is Officially Over Rated

I’m a grinch too!
hate the commercialism of it all starting in September and the amount of waste it generates. I only buy presents for family children now and for the adults we all go out for a nice meal together instead.
speaking of waste has anyone seen the Netflix documentary “buy now, the shopping conspiracy?
we are filling our planet with absolute shite and Christmas is one of the biggest culprits in my view

I don't bother with:
-Elf on the Shelf (it looked like it could be quite fun, but my DC are older and I don't have the head space to do it for 3 and a bit weeks).
-matching Xmas PJs.
-Xmas Eve boxes.
-paying to go see the Xmas wonderland/light places. We do a walkabout the streets in town that do Xmas lights.
-buying a turkey. We don't like it and prefer chicken instead :)

I have only (in the past 3/4yrs) learned about buying pre-done stuff like sausage rolls, mince pies, puddings, veg, yorkshire puds and roast potatoes. I grew up doing everything from scratch. This was a revelation to me (particularly as I often work over Xmas) and it's bloody brilliant, as it saves so much time! I do still love cooking and baking things from scratch, but it takes the stress off at Xmas buying in pre-made stuff that can just go straight in oven :)

@70isaLimitNotaTarget to be honest unless you are going for Selfridges there isn't much in central London that you can't get somewhere else.
The lights are usually pretty but that's it really.

Yes we were going to Selfridges for something

And the huge AppleStore in Regent Street otherwise it would've been a trip round to Lakeside or Bluewater .

@70isaLimitNotaTarget was it the Jellycat Fish and Chip thing in Selfridges?
I'd possibly brave Oxford St for that 😂

Yeah, my dad said it will be ‘nice’ to take my three year old into central London to go to Hamleys three days before Christmas. I said it absolutely will not be nice 🤣 we live not fair from London Bridge so have been to see the lights along there and they were very nice, there were stalls etc and it wasn’t crowded.

In a lockdown Christmas, my husband and I went into central London on Christmas Eve. No pubs or shops open, but some takeaway food vans for wine and pizza and no crowds, hardly anyone. I have a picture in front of the fountains at Trafalgar Square and it’s just me and a few pigeons. That was a really nice Christmas Eve and we’ve kept up the tradition of Christmas Eve ‘street pizza’ every year since (not from anywhere in central London though!)

I do Elf on the Shelf but in a lazy way. E.g. take the barbie car for a drive with his arm round barbie or reading a book or swinging from a light. He brings the advent calendars, and one day might be found using some new Christmas socks as a sleeping bag. Nothing that takes more than a minute to set up, no big pranks etc.

Not sticking to budget and going into debt.

Spending a lot of money on stamps for Christmas cards (just sending a few this year, giving more in person).

Secret santas! Pointless.

Christmas cake. Chocolate log is better!

No , it was some Charlotte Tilbury - thankfully it was a case of Get In. Find the Beauty Dept . Find the item. Buy it . Find the Exit .

We're probably having sandwiches or microwave meals this year. Unless someone else sorts out dinner.

Matching Christmas pyjamas. They are ridiculous!

@70isaLimitNotaTarget I can never find the bloody exit in Selfridges 😂

I knew I was on the right track when I passed by the same ver' ver' expensive and ornate handbag that I saw on the way in

Elf on the shelf - tried it one year. Both ds and I were bored by the third day and we didn't do it again.

Christmas dinner - I used to make a huge meal but Christmas Day is just me, dh and ds so it was pointless making all that food for 3 people. Now we have pizza and a picky tea with lots of sides. We have guests later in the week and go to see people no Boxing Day so will have roast dinners then but for us as a threesome, nah can't be bothered.