If men were left to organise Christmas themselves

[Fiddlesticks32]

AIBU to think it would be an absolute disaster?

And what would it look like?

Am I the only one that read your list of cupboard items to the tune of 12 days of Christmas?

My DH obviously physically CAN do these things (he actually does all the cooking in the house) but he just wouldn't even think too do without prompting. He gets all the 'must do' jobs in life done and leaves everything else.

My DH is very functional in day to day (much better than me thanks to my disabilities) life but the point is Birthdays, Christmases, Halloween, Events, Holiday etc... AREN'T day to day life they are the extras on top which take more effort.

There would be no birthdays for the kids, annual holiday planning/booking, no summer activities, Christmas etc... without me planning it out because thats the stuff he would gloss over while hyper focusing on the everyday daily stuff.

The house would be decorated with more tat then a pound shop. The living room floor would be overtaken by his collection, yes collection, of Christmas train sets. Presents would be odd, cheap and practical with a slice of humour. Food would be simple but fine though his Dad would like make it in which case simple and delicious.

Honestly I could sit it out

This.

He wouldn't bother with decorations and would hand ds his presents unassembled (ds is getting a desk and chair for Christmas and no way would dh put them together).

He'd cook a lovely meal though with all the trimmings and plenty of puddings. Can't fault him there.

It would be minimalist,

DH does not consider family traditions or of making memories for the kids. So it would get done with no trimmings. And he's find it extremely stressful.

I do too much for others, family gatherings, making sure the kids have some magic moments, thoughtful gifts, extra special dinner. He'd just suit himself.

Sorry, I don’t understand - why isn’t he capable of doing things on special occasions?

Would be great in our house! He sorts all the decorations and we put up together. He does all the food / booze shopping and all the cooking. Sorts the presents for his side of the family and alot for the kids. I basically sit around and drink mulled wine / prosecco for most of the time 🍷. The one thing that wouldn't really happen is social activities as I mostly organise those

We would have no tree up , presents would be in the boxes they come in (we do this anyway and just use our big sacks) there would be loads of meat and very few veggies to be seen other than potatoes and old episodes of morecambe and wise on the tv - I’m not well at the moment and to be honest this might just happen but finding it hard to be concerned - just me and him so no kids to consider and we just like being together

Clearly not true from the whole theme of the thread...

Dh does most of it. He loves it. My previous dh didn't do anything except cook. He had to work one Christmas and organised a private chef as a surprise. I can cook! But it was nice to concentrate on the babies and not worry about lunch.

I'm good at making sure everyone gets on.

*Oh look another man bashing thread on mumsnet.

In response to your comment, given that Christmas was revived in the mid Victorian era by men, hardly.

Without Dickens there would be no family centred meal.
Without Prince Albert (and his German influence) there'd be no tree.
Without Sir Henry Cole inventing the Christmas card, there'd be no card.
Without all the male songwriters there'd be next to no Carols (no "Deck the halls", Welsh melody published by Edward Jones and lyrics by Scotsman Thomas Oliphant, no "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" published in Bristol by Arthur Warrell, no "First Noel" (among others) published by William Sandys in Christmas Carols Ancient and Modern).
Without Thomas Nast there would be no Santa Claus
Without David Lewis inventing the Christmas grotto in his department store in Liverpool, there would be no grotto w/ kids meeting Father Christmas/Santa.

And in the 20th/21st century, without John Hughes there is no Home Alone, without Ronald Neame there is no Scrooge, without Richard Curtis there is no Love Actually etc etc. Bascially no Christmas films.
No classic festive pop songs: no Fairtyale of New York by the Pogues, no Last Christmas by George Michael, no Wizzard, no Slade, basically no Christmas number 1 race (previously a big deal). No Do they know its Christmas (and by extension no Live Aid or Freddie Mercury at Wembley).

If it were all just left to women there would be next to nowt, that's what we would have at Christmas (oh, we'd have that Mariah bleedin Carey dirge 😂)

In my house, we would have a very bare bones Christmas. There would be one decoration that took less than 5 minutes, gift cards handed out, restaurant for dinner. DH does not believe in Christmas cheer.

He is capable (he does do it) but he wouldn't do it without being told though. Its really not a hard concept.

You sound like your quite ignorant of the fact that different people have different functional abilities though.

But that’s not because he’s a man is it? (Which is what this thread is about?)

Was kneeling on the floor in the office, cutting up boxes, recycling paper, packaging etc for different outside bins today. OH wanders in saying WE!! spend too much money on Christmas. WE!!???! I buy and wrap all the presents bar the three he buys for our sons and one each for the grandchildren at my insistence.

He's such an eejit.

Heavy on the pigs in blankets low on the broccoli

Well, we're a lesbian couple so we'd just have to wander the dark, cold streets like little Dickensian orphans, staring wistfully into the festive windows of houses with men in them.

Sounds perfect

It would be fine, but quite last minute. The tree would absolutely not be up before Dec 20th.

DH would do it, but he'd only think about it on Xmas eve, so we'd end up with whatever was left at the supermarket. He'd also put off gifts until I did it, or told him what to buy, as he 'has no idea', apparently.

He is very capable & heads up the organisation of an annual fundraising concert for his hobby group - which is all male. It just has to be something he is interested in.

So men ARE capable, they just have to be motivated.

It's not "some women", its "Mumsnet women".

The organisation comment is hilarious. If we take away the fact almost everything we use/enjoy at Christmas was created by men, they have organised the biggest sports events (FiFA World Cup by Jules Rimet, Olympics by Pierre de Coubertin), the biggest music events (Live Aid by Geldof and Ure, Glastonbury by Michael Eavis), but men cannot organise a family Christmas? My dad definitely put up the tree and the decorations, and also did the role of you know who, while mum cooked the meal. Oh but could men cook a roastie? I dunno I mean every Michelin chef is a woman afterall, yes?

Fine here my DH is the one that cooks I'm the useless one when it comes to cooking hate it.
He always cooks and has always done our Christmas dinner.
Only thing he would find stressful is buying the kids presents I get all that sorted a few months before Christmas so I think he would end up rushing around last minute or struggle to remember everything our young children have mentioned.

Also I set up the decs and tree another thing he would hate doing 😂 but I don't think it would be awful if it was left to him.

We would eat and drink well and no money would be wasted on over the top gifts. I’m learning from my DH and do less and less every year and nobody complains.

There would be 3x more chocolate and 10x the alcohol. The food would be plentiful and good - but we'd all be pissed by 2pm and forget to cook so dinner would be ready maybe 10pm. There would be a tree, possibly without lights, but it would be decorated, at least. We would play games then go to the park for a drunken stumble to clear our heads.

Actually... it sounds a good plan.