Boo boxes

[CrispieCake]

I know someone will be along in a minute to say you do you, no need to participate if you don't want to, yada, yada, yada, but I've just seen these in a shop window and
...wtf?!!!

What fresh parental hell is this?

It's just box with some sweets, something cozy for autumn etc. I don't see the harm in them. It's not like I don't pick up some sweets anyways and a cozy blanket, game and book is always appreciated. It's just putting some small treats i would have bought dh and ds as a bit of a treat anyway and making it into a cute basket

Boo Boxes?? It just gets more and more ridiculous. suppose you could put a book, some snacks and some socks in it and make it more wholesome…?

That is literally what we do. Making one for dh, just a game to play, a History book, new blanket, coffee scented candle and some sweet. Making ds one with maybe tonie i was going to get him anyway, a mimikyu plush and a book

Back in the day, kids made their own entertainment out of stuff they found around the house and garden, woods etc.
Nowadays parents have to be constantly buying tat to give to them to celebrate every change in the weather.

@FunnyOrca @Rosebold nothing compares to the agony of howking out a turnip to make a neepie lantern. I did resort to getting help from my dad! I can't look at a turnip nowadays without remembering doing this.

Pumpkins. Pahahaha!

Maybe I'm being a bit unfair, but for a lot of people celebrations nowadays seem to be about giving stuff, not doing stuff.

So instead of the traditional Easter egg hunt with Impossible clues, many kids get a basket full of presents and large chocolate eggs just handed to them.

And instead of all the traditional fun Halloween games - apple bobbing, mummy wrapping, treacle scones, fortune telling etc. - many kids just get another box full of stuff.

And where there are activities, they're very staged - i.e. "wander around field of artfully placed pumpkins that we've paid £16pp to enter and take family pumpkin snap".

I'm not normally nostalgic for the past - I think lots of things were shit - but I remember there being more real fun around.

Me neither!

24 books - one gift wrapped book for each day in December 1-24.

I'm sure if dads were in charge of Boo boxes, December 1st boxes, advent calendars, Elfs, Christmas Eve boxes, Easter hunts, Easter crafts etc all these holiday adjuncts would die a death pretty smartish! 🤣
I wonder if these are all designed to stop us silly women having the time to ponder more serious issues? (Joke).
I know everyone will say they enjoy doing all this extra stuff but think of your future tired, stressed self, after 25 years I have only just stopped decorating the house for Halloween and the last 5 years I've only done it out of 'duty'. 👻🎃

I agree with this completely. I’m sure there are people who do both but just giving stuff and not doing anything just seems so superficial.
Most people have the warmest memories of things they did with their family and barely remember the gifts they got (unless it was really outstanding)

Wow !
Id rather leave that special moment of opening presents to one day

So for those parents who do Santa what do they tell their kids ?

Who has room in their house for 24 new books every year. Does each child get their own book?

I've never heard of so much unnecessary rubbish. The world has gone mad!

It is perfectly possible to do both. Not the biggest autumn fan so other then picking a pumpkin and books basket we don't do much that is seasonally special

But December i do go all out, Christmas movies every Friday running up to Christmas, advent calendar (got DS a book one and dh a coffee one so not exactly tat and especially books something i want to encourage anyway. DH built a lovely routine of reading the book to our 9 month old at the time) I did also do the elf and printed the picture so I can build and share the narrative with DS how his elf has grown up with him showing him the photos. We did visit Santa's Grotto. We made Christmas cookies and watched the ballet on tv snuggled together.

I will admit I don't buy DH or DS many just because treats that are not consumables and Christmas gifts are limited to one from the christkind on Christmas eve and then 3 from santa, and use Boo baskets, Christmas eve boxes, Easter baskets, and birthdays as opportunity to give them something they would want/need anyway. I only get DS new toys if he has truly outgrown or is in need of a new one

24 books?

wow! What’s wrong with the library ?

It’s Halloween goodies & costume. In a box.

Not everyone drives and has a walkable library. They are just small mini books and we can reuse them this year i doubt he remembers them. Also in all honesty I am too lazy to faff with tracking to the library with a baby/toddler and needing to be precious about the books. Our books fine chew them if you want knock yourself out mate

I remember that the apples had a tendency to have already gone past their best and weren't very nice anyway. Never been a fan of a pappy apple.

More bloody landfill to suffocate the planet with.

RESIST!

No idea. I never really embraced the notion of Santa with my kids as I’ve never been into lying to them.
Mine are both in their 20s now though and still get very excited about Christmas. No joy or magic lost. Lots of annual traditions in our house but nothing that resembles a trend or instagram fad!

Yes I really don’t like all the recent trends and we’ve always kept it very much as how I was brought up

Our kids are in their 20s too but I still have fun pretending Santas coming and leaving a carrot out. My kids just roll their eyes and have been for many a year 🤣

we generally call him St Nick though

Haha
What a hypocrite!

Maybe people who do boo boxes (fwiw I don’t) prefer Halloween and don’t do the elf and Xmas box shit.

Literally! Count me out

I’ve just looked up brr boxes haha. Nuts. But I wouldn’t mind one. Nice stuff to cheer me up over the cold months.

I didn't think Brrrr boxes were a thing. I thought it was just a PP being sarcastic.

Why can't people just bring out the seasonal stuff without called it a whatever kind of box.

Everything has to be a performance these days and probably filmed for Instagram content that nobody gives a shit about.

Just what I was going to say. It just seems like these Boo boxes are a sanitised and soulless version of what the essence of Halloween is.

Guess it keeps retailers happy though but is horrible to think of all the extra tat that will eventually just become more landfill.

I AM very sarcastic but my 11 year old tells me Brrr Baskets are a thing 😆 she might have made it up though?
Current plans are a chocolate reindeer, Sherpa throw, Christmas-esque book, some Christmas jangly dangly earrings and some festive Percy pigs!

last year we did the beauty advent calendars and this year just looked like much of the same in them so we thought it would be fun for them to have a little basket full of seasonal-ish stuff 🤷🏻‍♀️ I might do a heart one in February, I might do something rabbit themed at Easter, who knows

We do a book advent but it’s the same 24 books each year. They were bought second hand and the kids love each year trying to figure out which one is their favourite. I am conscious that my eldest is probably getting too old for this though so I have swapped a couple of the less popular/more babyish ones out this year for books that I think he might still be interested in - still second hand!

I’ve been thinking about it though and I wonder if social media is making everyone feel like they have to do everything. So we have our book advent because I love the ritual of curling up together every night in December with an old favourite book, but I don’t do Christmas Eve boxes, new pjs for Christmas, boo boxes, brrr boxes, presents for first day back at school or presents for Easter. I technically do a 1st December box because I have a box of Christmas crap that we get out of the loft on the 1st December every year. I think most people probably do or one or two things that make a time of year a bit extra but when you look on social media it might appear that everyone is doing all of the things and then instead of it being something nice you do for your kids, it turns into just more pressure to spend.