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!

Oh and Christmas sock/pants as gifts. You can only wear them pre-Christmas to get that Christmas's feel, after Christmas it's a bit sad.

Xmas market in our city centre. Decided to visit it first time as a family. Expensive mediocre/bad food. Drinks were expensive too. The whole place was full of food and drink huts and hardly any one selling non food items.

I have an Elf on the Shelf.
I don't do any of the moving around/causing mischief thing.
I bought him about 4 years ago I think. On December 1st he comes out of his box and basically spends the month hanging out with me. For example if I go to a shopping centre I take him with me and take a photo infront of the tree or something. When I put my tree up at home I pose him a few times "helping" me (ie I balance him in the empty tree) and take photos. I have photos of him sat on the bus.
So far this year I have bought him 4 new little outfits.
Me and him in our December adventures is definitely worth doing.
😂😂😂😂

I used to love cards too, I have memories of trying to fit hundreds in the holder when I was a kid, and then hung the rest on string. Everyone sent them, every distant relative, friend, colleague, school friend, neighbours, then all the milkman, postman, window cleaner etc
Not bothered now as it's not the same

Re Christmas cards. When I was a child, we got loads - school, Brownies/Guides, parents' work, friends and relatives.

Now most of the friends and relatives are no longer around. Parents probably get about 10-15 cards from former colleagues and friends.

At my previous work, I didn't bother sending cards to my colleagues towards the end as colleagues left them in piles in the cloakroom and hardly anyone sifted through them. They also included colleagues who weren't going to be in after a certain date in December, due to surgery or won't return to work for a few months such as slipping on ice breaking arm. I will only send a few of my former colleagues cards now - popping through their letterbox and message them before I post cards, I will include a card for X, pass the card to them.

Can't think of anything, but we do what we want anyway. Buy too many presents (anything that doesn't move gets wrapped) cook a lot, eat a lot, drink too much, watch too many rubbish films. It's great!

I used to host every year, but remaining close family now a distance away and others no longer with us, I enjoyed that too, but it was more stressful.

And after Xmas it feels like downhill to summer.

Our matching pjs get ‘unveiled’ at beginning of dec and my children will just carry on wearing them on the regular until
outgrown. They don’t get put away after Christmas. Christmas jumpers are a bit of a waste but we pass them around our family as they get outgrown so they aren’t just tossed out. But I don’t like them anyway, far too hot!

edit: I do agree about Christmas markets though, and they are always so dreary in this country. Wet and soggy and not what I imagined ~through my rose tinted glasses~

What was great when I was a kid was there were two deliveries. Lovely to hear the clatter of the second delivery at 11am and rush to sort out the cards into piles.

What you could do is to buy a few single cards you like the design, don't write in them and use for display purposes. Can be used year after year.

At my childhood homes, we had double glass doors to the dining room and both sides and doors were covered with cards. They held about 65-80 cards, depending on the size and orientation of cards.

Christmas light trails with teens. Actually, most activities with teens. Much better to instead make sure that they have regular meet ups with friends in the diary and then there is a much higher chance that they will be a nice human when at home with you.
Big group meet ups, particularly involving children. Much better to do it in the summer when they can go outside and play football (or you can go outside and they can stay inside and game). Also, rather than buy meaningless gifts for the children of these friends, just agree that on the day they can all have the biggest ice cream there is and something from the gift shop.

Oh dear, I've got tickets for Kew .....

Christmas markets in Manchester. About 12-15 years ago they were lovely. Now it’s the same tat on repeat (there are maybe six different types of stalls and they just repeat the same stuff), the queues are huge, full of pickpockets, no where warm to sit, and it’s about twenty quid for a sausage in a bun and a beer.

Im a Christmas lover but just can’t face the local markets anymore. They don’t feel festive at all.

Got 8 Xmas jumpers/sweaters plus two t-shirts. I wore these in December at work as we were allowed to. I refuse to get rid of them. They are kept in two vac sealed bags in the loft - and put in the drawer where my shorts and summer trousers go.

Most colleagues wore them as its cold in the store. Though we needed jumpers in Nov, Jan, Feb, March and April!

Christmas markets. They used to be good but now are just stalls and stalls of tat. Who the hell is buying clocks with a staffies face on, or all those wolf fleeces.

I don’t feed my uneaten home-made boozy Xmas cake to the birds any more. I’ll never forget the year that paralytic squirrels started falling off walls and out of our tree.

Those Christmas markets. Used to be genuine stallholders coming from various European countries just for these. I remember going to one in Leeds and some of the market stallholders' English was poor and I spoke to them in what little German I knew. They came from Frankfurt and only set up stalls in 2-3 places, Now its crap and a rip off.

Friend doesn't go to them now as her DS wanted some sweets - £11 for a small bag of sweets.

It freezes brilliantly in slices that I used to eat straight from the freezer on maternity leave, I have them with a mug of tea for the rest of the spring/summer til I make the next one. Nigel’s recipe is best. Sack off most everything else but I freeze the cake!

Elf on the shelf. Haven't met a parent yet who hasn't regretted starting it.
Christmas markets are generally expensive crap and sooo crowded.
Christmas Eve box - I mean just, why?
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland - now I haven't been but hear it's way overhyped.
Masses of gifts - totally unnecessary and d they really need it all?

Things to keep:
Creating a shoebox gift package to donate for a child the same age as your own
Watching a Christmas movie/tv show a night in December
Advent calendar- not chocolate ones but those lovely old fashioned Victorian/German ones with little pics.
Stockings for your pets with a couple treats and a toy (let the kids pick out what to put inside).
Sending cards - controversial but I love sending and receiving. Cost a bomb to mail though so generally sent to people I will not be seeing with a bit of a catch up inside.
Pic of kids in front of the tree - this will be treasured in years to come. They do not need to be wearing matching pjs!
Traditional dinner - gosh my kids would be so upset if we deviated from the usual Christmas menu ( I would be too).

Elf on the shelf. Haven't met a parent yet who hasn't regretted starting it.

Well you've met one now. I don't regret it at all. 🤷‍♀️

Ditto the one in Birmingham. I wonder how long they will continue to be a thing - although Birmingham Council says it brings in 5 million visitors and is rated as best in country so I suppose it will go on for a good few years yet. Goodness knows why, most of the stalls are selling either metre long hot dogs, hot chocolate with Baileys, Lager, iced doughnuts or spiced nuts. People who visit must be very disappointed at the prices and the lack of variety.

The stall holders get charged a fortune to have a pitch on Xmas markets ( obviously make good money doing it)
But who is buying the spinning wind chimes and those bloody log reindeer ?

Turkey (not the country)

Lapland

Elf on the shelf

I don't really like crackers - but my mum loved them and this will be the first Christmas without her.
Christmas markets - forget that idea.

Oh - and Christmas lights, especially those that flash, they hurt my eyes. Can't stop everyone else doing those tho!

Making Christmas cake. The supermarket ones are perfectly good.
City centre Christmas markets. I enjoyed the Birmingham one the first time it happened. Maybe the second time too, even though I recognised that many of the stallholders sounded no more German than I do. Then I saw identical biscuits and sweets on sale at a fraction of the price in Aldi. I'd still turn up for a Christmas market showcasing local craftspeople, though.
Lebkuchen.
Matching pyjamas and Christmas Eve boxes.
Whamageddon.
Turkey dinners. I don't want my parents to die, but I'm going to mark the first Christmas Day without them by having something other than sodding turkey for dinner.

My children had grown up by the time Elf on the Shelf became a thing. I think I might have been one of those irritating mothers who pushed the boat out regarding elvish shenanigans. And DH and I have a set of glow in the dark Christmas bedlinen.