Schools - Christmas jumper day - wear an Xmas jumper and raise £1 for charity

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Aibu to be aggravated with notices from two different schools about Xmas jumper day. I would have to buy two Xmas jumpers in order to send in £1 for charity.

It would cost about £40 to send them in with Xmas jumpers and pay the £1 for the privilege.

AIBU to think it’s a tone deaf request from school when people are under pressure with the inflated cost of living?

well, Vinted and charity shops are bursting at the seams with them, so you’d be a fool to buy new, and a fool to not make them wear it again and again over Christmas, and a fool not to get a size up so they wear them next year too…

I picked one up for 75p in a charity shop for my 3 year old and it’ll be grand for a couple of christmases.

so I think YABU.

In general I don't like the potential waste of Xmas jumpers but OTOH if it could be a non uniform/festive day (jumpers expanded to mean red/green/sparkly clothes etc) it isn't too bad. Id probably just interpret like that if we didn't have Xmas jumpers to hand.
I have just got Xmas jumpers from Olio for free and will keep to use each year for stuff like this. Hate the idea of buying them new (though I do often buy Xmas or winter pyjamas - and these are then worn all year, so maybe I'm a hypocrite)

There are hundreds in charity shops at the moment. Or, if your kids already have character jumpers or t-shirts, get some red felt, cut it into a Santa hat shape, and glue it using PVA onto the head of one of the characters. I did this once with a Batman T shirt and my DS absolutely loved it. Or, just sew some baubles or tinsel onto a regular jumper. You don’t need to buy new jumpers.

My eldest's cost £1.50 on Vinted a month ago, will last him a couple of years and then be out away for his little brother. So doesn't have to cost that much. Plus he'll wear it for other Christmas events not just Christmas jumper day at school.

As others said, charity shops have plenty of Christmas jumpers or pin some tinsel to a normal jumper.

Save the Children are selling Christmas Jumper Day kits for £1, which you can use to decorate a normal jumper as a Christmas jumper.

And they're selling preloved Christmas jumpers.

In my experience it doesn't really have to be a "Christmas jumper" - red/green/sparkly, a Father Christmas hat, a bit of tinsel on their head, anything vaguely festive really. At my boys' school they have an elf day - I let them get creative with an old tshirt and some felt tips 🤷🏻‍♀️ no one is going to send them home for not being fully kitted out as an elf.

The obvious solution would be for schools to run 'swap shops' where people donate outgrown jumpers and can buy the donated ones for a pound or two.

Raises funds, reduces waste and reduces costs to parents.

You only have to overcome the 'I don't want to store a jumper from NYD to December so I can donate it' issue and solves the problem all round.

I bloody hate Christmas Jumper Day for exactly these reasons. And at least I don't have to worry about the cost but it still feels so wasteful because they never wear them except for bloody Christmas Jumper Day. I have 2 DDs close together so was never able to hand down Christmas jumpers between them and they rebelled against tasteful Fair Isle jumpers so I often ended up with something that their little brother wouldn't wear either because it was too 'girly'. So glad that they are teenagers and have stopped growing so I only had to get one this year (woo hoo) but DS seems to be in the middle of a puberty growth spurt so I doubt it'll fit him next year even though I have sized up.

Or reindeer/santa hairband or tinsel in their hair ?

DS is about to get his 3rd year out of a £10 one and DD her 2nd year out of hers.

As others have said there's loads second hand.

Do they have anything red, green or tartan that you could stick some tinsel around the cuffs or something like that?

When there’s been days like this for adults I wear my tartan skirt with a plain top and feel I look festive enough to get in on it.

A Christmas headband or woolly scarf would also work.

Absolutely agree with you.
Any excuse to gouge money out of parents.

I see other posters advocating a charity shop jumper - sorry, I’m not a fan, you quite literally don’t know where it’s been. Flame away if you love shopping in charity shops!

They do this every single year. You don’t have to spend a fortune. Go to a supermarket and buy the long sleeved tshirt Christmas tops - usually about £3-£5.

.... wash it??

It’s bloody stupid. The environmental / human labour cost of even a few people in the school buying a shitty, acrylic and glitter Christmas jumper for this purpose would immediately dwarf the few measly quid this will raise for charity. Schools should avoid fundraisers which require people to buy cheap, poor quality clothing or props as far as possible because they put people under financial pressure and do more harm than good.

YABU I got my dc on Vinted for £1 plus postage

Did they not do this last year?

Don’t know where it’s been???? As in rubbed in dog poo?
people are so weird

My daughter hated wearing jumpers so usually wore a Christmas t-shirt instead. They cost very little.
Or as others have suggested - wrap a bit of tinsel around them and wear a £1 Santa hat.
If the school says anything just say "they don't own any Christmas jumpers".
The £1 donation won't be given by everyone. Several will forget. Several their parents will have no cash available. Several will lose the pound coin between home and school.

Take existing jumper/sweatshirt and wrap tinsel around cuffs. If you have time tack a couple of baubles on the front. Now you have a Christmas jumper.

I think most people quite literally don’t care because it’s an item of clothing that has been or will be washed. You’d have to be pretty neurotic to think any deeper about it than that.

Our local primary has a collection point for outgrown Christmas jumper - I presume they sell them for 50p or something towards PTA funds. There have also been a fair number changing hands on Facebook, often free.
The secondary has "wear something Christmassy", which means that some tinsel will do - that seems more sensible.

My mother would have really struggled with kitting four of us out with Christmas jumpers, although after a while we'd have had hand-me-downs. At least now it's been going a while there are plenty of secondhand ones around. When schools first started doing it, that wasn't the case.

It really, you could get a jumper from a charity shop or vinted (or primark) for a lot less than £20, get it big enough to do next year too.
It's also not compulsory.... send them in uniform with no £1 or in own clothes and pay £1 anyway (my eldest DD doesn't want a Christmas jumper this year and is just wearing a green hoody she already has)

I’d much rather it was party wear, or wear red/green, or something more likely to be in people’s wardrobes. Absolutely you can get a Christmas jumper for pennies if you plan ahead/live near a charity shop/use Vinted etc, but clearly many people go to Sainsburys, chuck one in the trolley and job done. Terrible for the environment and not doing anything for charity, if that’s the aim.