To think that Christmas at school is too much?

[GoldieLocks09]

I’ll start by saying I do really love this season, and having young DC it is truly magic to see it through their eyes but my eldest DS has just started reception and I just cannot keep up with the amount of stuff we have to do for school this time of year.

We’ve had a panto, movie night, craft fair, nativity, Christmas gift buying day, after school disco and Santa has been in (I’m sure I’m missing stuff too). The vast majority of these days have required non-school uniform - genuinely we’ve had about 6 in the last 3 weeks, with 2 more this week just because they’re having Christmas dinner and their last day of term, a lot of the time they’re asking them to dress ‘festive’.. I’m quickly running out of festive gear and to be honest the stuff he’s gone in has been covered in mud and slightly ruined for when Christmas actually comes because all he wants to do is play football at break time! Surely non-school uniform should be max once a term?! And a lot of these things require £3 for this, £6 for that, a packed lunch for this, etc. the money doesn’t bother me - the remembering does 😅 desperately not wanting him to miss out or feel like he can’t join in because he doesn’t have his money or doesn’t have the right clothes but feel like it’s a huge amount of pressure to put on parents along with expecting us to be available during business hours for various things when I’m trying to balance a career. Am I just being a Scrooge?!

Get used to it!

It sounds like your school does a lot. Not all schools do this much.

We’ve had nativity (ks1 only, all costumes provided by school) then there’s a carol concert this week plus Christmas lunch with Santa visiting. No non uniform though, but Christmas jumpers are welcome if dc want to wear them (and there’s a school swap shop where you donate old outgrown ones and can get new ones in a bigger size).

It can still feel a bit overwhelming because it’s such a busy time of year but it’s a lot of fun too and brings the community together. I think once you’ve done a school year once or twice through you get more used to the rhythms of it and none of it comes as such a surprise.

I agree. It's very stressful keeping up with it all. This is one of the things that led to my home educating my ASD DS because it was just far too much at the end of each term.

YANBU but also I’ve never heard of a school that does quite so much for Xmas. Ours isn’t as bad as that. It’s too full on though I agree. It’s one of the factors now as to why so many people pack Christmas away on the 27/28th December because the whole month is so jam packed of festive faff that after 4 or 5 weeks of that, nobody can be arsed with the 12 days of Xmas and everyone’s glad to see the back of it. (grumbles away to self)

Yup! It’s crazy how much they do at my daughters school, it’s lovely but exhausting!

You don't have to take part in all of it. The stuff after school hours you can choose which to attend.

It's the lack of routine that causes the stress here. DD needs at least a week on school holidays to recover from all the fun

It does seem that nothing is actually learnt during the entirely of December.

We don’t have a movie night or disco but have the rest. Buy a Xmas jumper an age or two older and get loads of wear out of it! And a tshirt. Check the charity shops or Vinted

It's crazy. For a NT child it's a lot, must be a nightmare for ND children. Plus a lot of parents will be juggling tiny babies, toddlers and bedtimes. Multiply that be possibly several children.

Mine is in Yr2 now and I agree, it’s so full on!
I paid £18 for a panto trip, £5 for Christmas fair, £5 raffle tickets, £2.50 per ticket to watch his class nativity play. We’ve also had Christmas jumper day, Christmas class party with festive clothes and on Friday it’s Christmas dinner with Christmas jumpers.
They had a school trip to a woodland in November too which was another £20 and required hiking boots which was another expense as it’s not something we already had.

I’ve got a system now. As soon as I read a date/info on an event it goes in my phone with all the info and whether I’ve paid it yet or not. I also set money aside at the start of the school year so I’ve got the expenses pot there I can dip into and it doesn’t interfere with my normal monthly budget.

Cheap Xmas long sleeve tops from Asda are £2.50ish and I buy clothes in the next size up in the sales specifically for school event day. He has to wear house colours in the summer, red on St.Davids day etc so I put them away for the next year.

It was beyond mental when my DC were at that stage. I remember them all being in tears on different occasions after “fun” Xmas events at school, they were so overwrought. I loathed it.

YANBU. My ds is now in yr7 and I think he's as relieved as I am that the Christmas stuff has finally stopped now he's left primary! Along with Children in Need, World Book Day, etc,... 😁

Surely they can re wear the same clothes, how are you running out? It's great that they're making it so fun for the children.

You don't have to take part in everything, especially evening events like movie night or craft fairs, they are fundraisers but you pick and choose.

I honestly thought I needed to employ him a PA! Although he's in year 7 now and I'm kind of missing it!

YANBU, our school don’t do quite as much as you’re describing (but have a younger one at preschool which is a whole different schedule of special stuff!), but it’s still overload. All the kids seem to be exhausted, overly emotional and flying off the handle at any given moment! A few of us did suggest pushing the Christmas disco in to January (rubbish month, let’s put something fun in it!) but we were voted down…

Oh also at the beginning of the year ask to donate £20 or whatever to the PTA and then opt out of all the Xmas raffle nonsense and absolve yourself of any guilt because you’ve already done your bit and donated 👌

Wow! Our school just had one Christmas carols afternoon at school and that was it! I couldn't keep up with all of that stuff 😳

I have one in middle school and one in first school and it's a fricking nightmare tbh, I am exhausted by it all. How people cope with more than 2 kids is beyond me!

That does seem like an awful lot. We had a nativity last week, they've been doing some Christmas crafts today and it's a non-uniform day on Weds when they also have Christmas lunch. I think that's it though and they've had all their usual lessons and homework too.

Not to mention their stance on no cash! So you have to log onto this shit, barely functional, e-commerce website to spend 3 fucking pounds a pop.

I'd actually rather get a long list of expenses at start of the year and put down a lump sum of £20 to cover all these pissy little charges.

That sounds ridiculous OP

My DCs went to a RC school in the US.

There was one carol concert done by the junior grades, one carol event by Kindergarten, and one optional tea with Santa event one weekend leading up to Chriatmas. There was fundraising for the sharing parish too - "bring a non perishable food item" for the food bank or make a donation.

I had friends whose kids went to the public elementary schools and they did nothing religious, obviously, but the school band did a winter concert and they did food or toy or donation drives.

There doesn't seem to be the "Christmas Or Bust" frantic, fever-pitched festivity attached to Christmas in schools in the US

In the last fortnight my grandchildren have done the nativity, church carol service, Xmas school fayre, Xmas disco. They're totally wired, wiped out and there's just a Christmas lunch to enjoy.

It's hard on the parents, and the staff.

It’s too much (in my opinion anyway). I have multiple children, each at a different school. Each school is doing multiple different things. At the last count I had 32 things on my calendar between December 1st and the end of term.

The real kicker - we don’t even celebrate Christmas so a lot of these events the only thing I’m doing is leaving work early to collect a child.