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!

We love all of it 😂
piles of presents for everyone, big dinner, light trails, Panto, Christmas parties, decorations, advent calendars, spending too much. The elf will arrive in a couple of years as we only have an 8mo.

I don't do elf on the shelf but this is lovely ♥️

Thankfully elf on the sodding shelf only started being a 'thing' when my kids were too old to bother with it!
I don't regret anything else really. I love the decorations and the (matchy matchy) tree we have. I love preparing the house for guests (even if it is only my sister and her family!), everything is cosy and everyone is excited/happy on the day (even if it is booze fuelled happiness it counts!).
I spend most of the day cooking an epic Christmas Dinner for it to be demolished in about half an hour, its a lot of effort but I do it because everyone loves it and it makes me happy making them happy!
New years eve can get to fuck though, I don't want to stay up until midnight and I'm usually asleep when all the fuckwits start letting fireworks off....bloody hate it!

Matching pjs - what a waste if you can only wear them a few times a year. Same with Christmas jumpers

Christmas markets - it’s freezing, why do I want to be outside in the cold?

Christmas Day - total anticlimax

This is lovely 💕

My children were too old for elf on the shelf . One thing I have never done is a panto , I really can’t bear them.

Oh hell yes!

I give you …

Thunderbirds Tracy Island, couldn’t find one for love nor money… got one the next year - DS had grown out of Thunderbirds, and never looked at it. Ended up giving it away (as nobody else wanted it by then either🙄)

Various Meccano sets, DS is nearly 40, he still doesn’t like it! Grandad wouldn’t listen and kept wasting his money and time finding ever more complicated sets.

A massive helicopter thing that broke before New Year… tears and upset and the company washed their hands of it😡

Not many food ones…although DS believed all the bloody adverts, including the groaning lavish tables of delicacies… in reality, a can of pop and a sausage roll made him very happy!

My children are very enthusiastic the whole time 🫤

If we forgot DD did it for us 😆. We only started it because she begged for one but I’ve said now she doesn’t believe then they’re not coming back. Well they are for something she wanted to do with her mates but they’re not in the same job anymore lol. I second Xmas markets and driving everywhere getting a toy they’re after. I did that for a ‘hamster in the house’ years ago. She played with it for five mins but to be fair it was crap overpriced tat. Best thing we ever got her was a little live pet bird. We still mess about with it now.

Pop up ice rinks. Awful quality ice, it’s usually more like paddling than skating. Also overpriced and overcrowded. A proper ice rink is a completely different (better) experience.

Was just coming to write that!! 💸🎅🛒

Definitely Elf on the Shelf. Our eldest has outgrown it now but the youngest is too young to get it properly so we've decided to stop this year.

Elves will arrive with a note promising to be extra good this year, no naughty business. And believe me, they will make good on that promise 😂

such a relief to put the days of getting half way up the stairs to bed and going "FFS! the elves!" and having to come up with an idea.

Wrapping presents.

Gift bags all the way!

Kudos to relatives that also do gift bags and don't write on the tags so they can be reused, you're the real heroes.

I have just spent the morning making my Christmas cake, having not done so for a few years, and quite enjoyed doing so.

Sometimes I think all we need is a break from the feeling of being obligated to do things every year.

But if you end up throwing it out TPJB fair enough, it isn't worth your time (here it always gets finished!)

The thing I think is not worth doing is too many gifts - between the adults in the family we do Secret Santa so everyone just buys & receives one

Oh god we’ve hardly ever got involved in most of this stuff on the thread that people have sacked off.
Just never saw the point and had enough expense and time to be spent doing other things!
Never did a grotto, light trail, North Pole breakfast, Christmas Eve boxes, Christmas Eve pyjamas, panto (the in-laws used to take the dc because they got free tickets for years, dh and I used that evening to wrap their stockings), Christmas markets, that bloody elf, haven’t written a Christmas card in 15 years and hate dried fruits so things like Christmas pud don’t get made.

I always focused time and energy on just hanging out with the kids tbh, and doing what they wanted. Which when they were little was going out to the street near us which used to go OTT on decs and had some local charity collection buckets out the front. We baked mince pies for Father Christmas using mincemeat mil made and delivered to us. We had bedroom tidy ups and donated toys they no longer wanted in advance of Christmas.

I’m Not slating anyone who does any of the above, for a long time when we had the 2
eldest we were broke and prioritised our spending elsewhere (home renovations!), I don’t feel like they missed out, we went to their school Christmas Fayre’s and their carol evenings, they had lots of lovely presents to open on Christmas Day but really I didn’t see the majority of stuff as adding any value so didn’t do it.
no regrets!

Christmas Eve boxes
Elf arrival boxes/balloons/other tat
The Elf
Christmas Markets in UK towns and cities
Artificial Christmas trees

How lovely. My DM once said “it doesn’t feel like Christmas unless there’s someone on the piano stool.” Sadly, we’re older parents and most of our relatives are now dead. DS is autistic and finds it all a bit much. These days I buy the dinner from M&S, drink better wine than usual and we have a quiet day doing our new Lego. Good enough for us. 😊

That’s sounds fabulous and the very best sort of Christmas! A really lovely memory.

Third it.

We check into a 5* vibrant city centre hotel on Christmas Eve and leave on 27th December. Everything is taken care of and I do absolutely nothing Christmas related outside of this. No decorations, presents or cards apart from a card for hubby.

To say I find Christmas completely pointless is an understatement. In fact, I find it quite depressing.

Ice skating. Why? Bloody slippery ice, broken bones and A&E in the height of flu season.

Definitely Christmas dinner. Not doing it this year. 3 hours in the kitchen/not relaxing, and an hour clearing up after. OK DH clears up usually, but that's 4 hours wasted on Christmas day. (And an hour to eat it all... so 5 hours really..) DH was a bit disappointed when I said I CBA with Christmas dinner on Christmas day, so I said, 'well you do it then,' and he was like

He wants it but doesn't want do it, so we compromised and said we'd go for a Christmas meal at the pub, (on 20th December) and then have a pizza between us on Christmas day, or a Pukka pie and some peas. Sorted.

I have done it for 30 years, every Christmas day (Christmas dinner, and wasting 4-5 hours of Christmas day on it,) and I am tired of it.

None of our DC live at home now, and we see them for an hour in the morning and then come home at midday. So it's just me and DH. And as I said, he doesn't want to do it, and I'm not doing it, soooooo... the pub it is!

I realised during all the covid shite and Christmas lockdowns that I enjoy the days before Christmas and from Boxing Day onwards but I actually don't like Christmas day. We hosted t least 12 people for years. I found it too much. I hate turkey. Both sons are married now and have their own homes nearby. Eldest son is married to an American and they are going there for a few weeks in December. My brother hosts our mum on Christmas day now. He loves food. My husband and I spend Christmas day on our own eating whatever we want and watching lovely Christmas TV. We see everyone in small groups before the day and we'll go to youngest sons on Boxing Day with my mother to give presents to the grandchildren. We don't exchange adult presents. We don't receive many cards and I only send 5. My husband doesn't send any. I really enjoy Christmas now. My favourite thing is never having to play another bloody board game again.

When my DH was a SHO (it was a long time ago!) in A&E over Christmas, he saw so many injuries caused by festive madness. He picked pieces of shattered baubles out of feet, treated people who’d fallen off ladders or electrocuted themselves putting lights up, countless drunks, and kids with gastritis due to being let loose on All The Snacks since 4am. He’s (notionally) Muslim so he got all the good shifts over Christmas! 😂

One4all voucher then

Yes the best days for me are Christmas eve for the anticipation and boxing day onwards, can just relax with it all.