Aibu to think the Middle Class have a much nicer Christmas from the run up to the event itself?

[Mincepiesorpigsinblankets]

Just from observing friends & family. The more mc ones seem to have a fabulous, jam packed festive period with lovely events scheduled & nice traditions. Aibu in my thinking?

I think having money does tend to make having fun easier. [But money and class are not that linked now]

I do think working class are much more likely to be working on Christmas day for instance.

I do think there is a vague working class, middle class and upper-class 'cultures' in england still but they are much more jumbled than historically.

I actually think christmas is more unifying than a lot of things that have class hang-up. School kids do nativities, towns have light switch ons, villages have pantos, people go to midnight mass after the pub and christmas dinner is fairly similar in most houses, works have christmas parties.

If I was going to grab a difference I'd say more presents in working class.

I realise I am commenting on one small aspect of this discussion, but...just to say, for those who are interested, the Royal Ballet and Royal Opera House live stream some of their performances at cinemas.

DD and I watched Cinderella yesterday evening for £25 - saw close up detail we wouldnt be able to get except in the priciest of seats, and no dress code.

Money certainly makes life easier. But you don’t need a lot of money to make a house feel festive. If you live rurally or near commons/heaths in a city - you can pick holly & Ivy for free. Candles don’t cost much. Nor do Scandinavian style paper stars. Homemade Christmas decorations are great. Carol concerts in churches a generally free. If you live in London walking around the lights in central London is free.

We've been to an ornament making session at the community centre, the school fair, wreath making at a local urban garden project, the community Christmas fair, an apple cider and carols day at the local city farm, Christmas carols at church, and Christmas parties at different clubs/groups we are part of.

All apart from the city farm were free, and they were all lovely.

Why does it have to be a '£120 wreath making session' or the Nutcracker to be festive?

It's interesting you should say that, because I do think that there's even a class distinction with wreaths and wreath making.
Having not paid any particular attention to wreaths for decades( never had one before), this year I was asked if I'd like to go to a workshop which I recently attended. It was a lovely event run by a local florist in her extremely beautiful very large home, home made canapes, glass of wine etc, all component parts of the wreath natural and sustainable etc, and we all made beautiful wreaths.
Cost £70 each, without exception all the participants were extremely middle class, seemingly charming women( as far as could be detected by accent, clothes, conversation topics etc). Obviously the workshop was open to anyone who could pay for it but it was interesting that the participants were all of a type.
There was at one point a discussion about wreaths and doors and disparaging comments were made about fake foliage wreaths with baubles, pompoms, flashing lights etc( I agreed with this), these types of wreaths are clearly thought to be more working class.

Christmas is what you make of it. I think you are basically confusing Instagram pictures with having a nice Christmas season - they are not the same. Stayed photos at places with high price points are no fun if you are worn out, kids playing up and you are worrying about your credit card bill. It's an illusion of fun.

Make cookies at home, flask of hot chocolate (real cocoa made with milk and cocoa powder plus sweeten to taste), walk around the decorated houses, trip to the local church for christingle and/or nine lessons and carols, keep Christmas dinner simple, don't be afraid to cheat (bisto thank you!). Yes you need a minimum amount to be able to do just this but it's not about throwing money around to pretend you are united in matching pyjamas!

Yes, they do, and they’re great. (Though when I lived in London, I regularly attended the ROH in the cheap seats wearing whatever I’d been wearing at work that day so dress code not an issue, though some people do dress up.) Maybe the film relays are better for ballet, in fact, as I sometimes find the opera closeups disconcerting. You don’t want to be distracted by Madama Butterfly’s fillings.

@WinterFollies because that is precisely what OP means even if they haven't said so. Generally MC type jobs are likely to be higher responsibility and more WFH to get the job done and they are more likely to have moved away from family so dont have that support network and more likely to need to factor in travel over the festive period. They are likely to have had their children later as would their parents so may be doing child and elder care at the same time.

We are WC (or the new Technical Middle if you go off the BBC calculator). Certainly low income compared to MN average but have a good amount of disposable income due to lifestyle choices, live close to family and I and they became parents in our early 20s so everyone is in good health.

We have a lovely Christmastime, it doest have to be all insta worthy trips to Lapland. My DD would hate the hustle and bustle of London to see the lights etc.

This has nothing to do with class or money - the events themselves may be affected by the amount of money available that is all . Traditions don’t have to cost a lot it’s just making the time .

Wreath making is a rip off. The kids aren't terribly interested in doing it either. But lots of years I've got together with friends and we've made wreaths from stuff cobbled together from gardens, allotments and hedgerows. It has cost absolutely zero.

And as for family wreath making? Really? £120! No I'm upper middle class I suppose, elite on that new scale yet I can assure you I've never taken mine to any such things when they were children. Most of these modern ways of extracting money from parents hadn't been dreamed up yet thankfully! We made a wreath (1) in the local village hall each year, these cheap events still exist because I work for a church and we charge £10 per family which included mulled wine/blackcurrant and a mince pie plus wreath making.

I've seen the nutcracker, went with school, I also took my dc to the opera, cheaply, cheaper than the cinema, £15 last time I went). Cultural events are not necessarily expensive, not as expensive as premier league football for instance

I often go to the screenings at my local cinema as there is a real lack of ballet performances where I live. They are excellent, great filming and I enjoy the discussions with directors, dancers etc. Of course nothing compares to being there in the theatre in good seats but for me that means an expensive over 2 hour train to London and a hotel if it's an evening performance, so the screenings are a very good substitute.

I should imagine most people around here would define our family as 'middle class'. But when my DCs were small, the run up to Christmas involved a free trip to see Santa at the local garden centre, driving around the streets of 2 nearby towns to look at the lights on decorated houses, the school nativity carol concerts, and DCs being allowed to stay up late in their PJs on the evening that the Rotary club Santa float visited so they could fling their coats on over their pj's and go and visit the main man.

I never indulged my DCs in the ridiculously expensive marketing Christmas events that people seem to stress over booking and feel that their DCs have missed out if they don't go.

I do prioritse doing things over Christmas and keeping presents low key. I bought tickets for the theatre, the Nutcracker and The Christmas Carol early this year so then I have money for nice lunches to accompany them. I budgeted early on.

I go to the local chapel by an English Heritage site which is the highlight tbh.

I also love walking at night looking at the lights and generally I think keeping things calm and cheeful is important. I haven't started buying presents yet as I don't like it to be the only focus.

Be fair, The Nutcracker is ridiculously Christmassy. It was the only ballet I saw as a kid but it was absolutely wonderful.

Love the holly comment though - too prickly, can’t be arsed.

My shopping delivery contained brazil nuts instead of roasted peanuts, and I didn’t realise.
DD said “if we were Nigella types, we’d whip up bags of chocolate brazils for presents.”
DS - “thank fuck we aren’t, then.”

Surely most middle class just like to meet up with their friends and family at Christmas, like everybody else?

I can't imagine anything worse than building my own wreath when you can just buy one and stick it on the door.

Time and expectations make the most difference.
The last couple of decades Dec has been really stressful.working in hospitality.60 hour back to back weeks.
I'm working class and I'm sure lots of us work harder this month.
I'm currently working less and somewhere classy so I get the refinement of Xmas without the slog.
I don't spend much or receive much yet I enjoy the trees and lights .

Compared to whom? Do the "middle classes" have a nicer time than, say, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge?

I think you mean: "People with lots of money and time tend to spend more of it on events and experiences than people who don't have lots of money and time". Well, duh.

Vacuous minds all in one place. What fun!

It’s what you make it. When DC were younger we used to do advent events but lots that didn’t cost a fortune. Driving around looking at all the lights, local garden centres to look at all the Christmassy things, hot chocolate and a Christmas movie at home. There is a lot of money you can spend on doing all the activities and each to their own but I have lots of memories of when I was growing up that didn’t involve kits of expensive trips

It's the current equivalent of keeping up with the Joneses. I see it in my family it's got nothing to do with actually enjoying the season it's solely about looking good on social media, you have to do this this and this and prove it or you lose social standing. I don't care about social media so don't bother, we'll make our own wreath etc but we'll go into the woods and pick our own greenery. It's a far better way of reconnecting after a busy year than an insta worthy family workshop.

If you've got time to judge someone's wreath...of course a lot of Christmas events are crazily expensive, but not all of them. Planners who do things their families like generally have a better time although not all plans work!

We make the most of Christmas, but being low on the socioeconomic scale, we're hindered in how much we can do in comparison with families with more disposable income, but that's not to say we don't "make the very most of the Christmas season".

Going to see things at Christmas isn't about this. I am not on social media. We just enjoy the festivities and support local arts and theatre.

I’ve actually noticed the opposite in my local town. The working class people all tend to have quite a bit of money (mostly work in the trades) and really seem to focus on “making memories” at the weekend - they’re doing the Santa grotto visits, the panto, loads of lights on their houses, light trails etc. Whereas the middle class it’s more about small drinks parties at neighbours’ houses, carol service at church, school fete. Money and class are not the same!