If men were left to organise Christmas themselves

[Fiddlesticks32]

AIBU to think it would be an absolute disaster?

And what would it look like?

Are Christmas Eve boxes quite a new thing? I'd never heard of them before Mumsnet. I noticed a pre-printed box in Morrison's the other day.

I used to work in a secondary school and I don't recall the children every mentioning them.

My kids are 20 plus now but it seems I’ve been depriving them for most of their lives.
I can’t quite remember what was said on a previous thread but they were ‘a thing’ by 2005 ish.

So no, not recent at all.

Christmas Eve boxes and December 1st boxes are new. As are the Polar Breakfasts. Also new matching pyjamas.

We wouldn't have much of a Christmas if DH was in charge. Not that we have a big Christmas now, but I do ensure we have a tree, do fairly minimal decorations, buy and wrap presents, buy and cook food, arrange a few family visits.
If it were up to DH there'd be no tree or decorations, no roast dinner but we'd probably go out for a curry instead. Minimum presents, no cards and no fuss. Which would be ok but a bit joyless.
A few years ago I got tired of buying, writing and sending Christmas cards to my in-laws who live abroad, and handed the task to DH. Obviously since then they have not had any cards from us.

Thank you. I'd never seen them in my part of Scotland until my visit to Morrison's a few days ago.

Think I prefer the sound of your part of Scotland ie Less commercial pressure

Oh, I dare say that - now that the shops are selling the boxes - that families will feel that they have to buy them.

And there’s more @WearyAuldWumman
Polar breakfasts🤯
Matching pyjamas🤯
December 1st boxes 🤯

Another lesson from MN

You can only be pressured if you allow yourself to be.

Nobody needs to do half or even a quarter of the stuff on the "lists" that people have posted on this thread - it's just not necessary.

😂👐

I keep thinking back to Mum telling me that her Christmas was usually an apple and orange in a stocking, together with a sixpence. Once, she got a tiny doll and made a dress out of an old sock for it.

(No, not a Yorkshireman sketch - she was born in the 1920s to a coalmining family.)

Irish family born in 1930s
An orange if they were very lucky and had any money
All they really did was spend a lot of time in Church.

ps dads family were tenant farmers but also worked down the mines in Tipperary

Same with my parents! In our stockings we got an apple, a satsuma and 10p. We got other gifts as well, but they maintained that tradition.

Yes, Mum maintained the stocking tradition with me too.

@WearyAuldWumman and @Corinthiana do you put oranges in your kids stockings
I always have, it’s become a bit of a joke.

As a child I never got a stocking though, it wasn’t something my parents grew up with. Much like me with Christmas Eve boxes I suppose

Let me guess, loads of women take pictures of this pointless shit and flood social media with it in the hope that everyone will say how wonderful a mum they are. No man gives a fuck.

Happy, but not traditional here.

Lots of lovely gifts and great food (DH sorts all food anyway). Stockings might be forgotten and thinks like wrapping the presents from Santa in a different paper wouldn't be done.

What's a polar breakfast?

Almost no woman I know gives a fuck either.

I'm waiting (in vain, I think) for the OP to acknowledge that she hasn't found some grand faultline between the sexes.

I would definitely have done that if I'd had children!

My abiding memory of childhood Christmases (which were lovely and everything) is my mother being in the kitchen from about 6am and popping her head around the door to watch us open our presents, then straight back in again. I always wondered what the hell she was doing in there, because Christmas dinner was just a posh roast. AND my dad used to help out a lot (he'd done National Service was was very domesticated, they learned to cook, clean, darn socks and iron) and I assume Mum just sat in the kitchen out of the way, drinking sherry.

My DH is the one running around all giddy excited to do DS’s North Pole breakfast tomorrow and introduce him to the elf.

I’m the one who doesn’t give a fuck. 😂

My mum always put a satsuma in my stocking too - I never ate it and just returned it to the fruit bowl in the morning

A special Father Christmas North Pole feast!

Well that one came back to bite me
note to self….never assume anything.
apologies for my sweeping assumption.