To think all of these Christmas boxes are just mindless consumerism?

[hahbumbug]

Yes it’s been done to death and I’m being judgemental but I wish people would stop buying all of this shit. Like most things Christmas, it’s another tactic to guilt you into parting with your money.

I’m being a right grinch but I’ve come across three posts today with personalised helium balloons & entire walls filled with massive balloon arches for the arrival of the elf on the shelf. Also balloon boxes, plastic Christmas water bottles dated & personalised with names, little Christmas toys and so on. No doubt they’ll have more to come on the 24th. What’s annoyed me more is the influx of comments underneath each post with “you’re the best mummy”, “well done mama!” & all the variants of that.

We’re reluctant to start the elf on the shelf, luckily it doesn’t seem to be on our eldest’s radar. I like the idea of a few little bits on Christmas Eve, I’ll probably pick up a Christmas book & maybe a DVD out the charity shop. We’ll make hot chocolates and they can colour in whilst I prep veg.

Bah Humbug

It depends what you do with it. The premise of a Christmas Eve box doesn’t have to be wasteful. I don’t buy effectively single use crap plastic toys, I also wouldn’t buy a Christmas water bottle that would likely break within a week.

I get Christmas pyjamas and they wear them all year round. I purposely don’t choose ones obviously Christmassy so they don’t mind doing this e.g this year they have dogs with hats on. I buy Christmas jumpers on Vinted then re-sell the following year.

I don’t buy balloons at all, even for birthdays anymore because they’re so toxic. I have lots of lovely reusable buntings instead.

It doesn’t have to be awfully wasteful.

We have an elf so my son doesnt feel left out at school, but it only does low key things and it never arrives in an elaborate display. On day 1 it delivers a christmas jumper normally which we buy new each year as they are always outgrown! My son can then wear the jumper throughout the festive season.

I also do a box, but it contains things that are used every year. There is a handful of xmas books, puzzles , little toys and then I always buy a new pair of PJs for christmas eve (but are worn all year round) and a hot chocolate. So we do have a box, but it isnt filled with single use crap and are things we would do anyway, I just think it looks nice presented in a box. I also reuse the same box every year.

I'm not picking on women and I'm not picking on people doing just this one thing. The point is that environmental damage mounts up, one tiny thing by one tiny thing done by individuals, alongside the many big things done by companies and governments. If we all changed our ways to consume less, especially useless tat that ends up in landfill or even worse in our fields, rivers and seas, we'd all benefit from it, and so would all the other species on the planet.

I'm glad my lot are too old for any of this.

Christmas Eve boxes I can just about get behind (my kids were always allowed to open one carefully chosen present on Christmas Eve), but the rest just seems as though people have discovered that kids like being given stuff and want to prolong that perceived joy for as long as possible. But the more stuff they are given, the more they want and expect, and the more joy leeches out of Christmas day itself.

Its all designed to get you to spend more money

A fool and their money are soon parted
Keep your money and stop giving it away to the shops on pointless and unnecessary Xmas rubbish.

My teenage sons have a wooden advent calendar. Its now 10 years old and always a slight panic to find the magnetic numbers. But that's all we do apart from decorating the house. They can open one present Christmas eve and the rest will be opened on the day. Agree with previous posters, s lot of it is now overkill

Advent Boxes?! I've seen it all now. I predict Advent Month Eve boxes in November next year. 🙄

I don’t do it personally for my kids as ones to young and ones a teenager and just not interested.

Part of me thinks its too much the other half thinks who cares if you can afford it, it makes everything magical then why not!

I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone who actually does what you describe (occasionally Instagram will try a show me a mommy influencer who does something similar, but never anyone in real life).

I know a few people who do elf on the shelf, but they use the same one every year and it’s just moving him around a putting him in silly positions so it’s not loads of effort/waste. If they enjoy it and their kids find it funny then it seems pretty harmless.

Same with 1st of December breakfasts/North Pole Breakfasts/Christmas Eve breakfasts etc. Everyone I know who does do it just adds a few festive treats to their normal breakfast or buys crumpets/pancakes in the shape of something Christmassy.

We do both an Advent box and a Christmas Eve box (both of which always get a similar reaction on here). However 90% of the stuff in there are reused every year, and the items are just Christmas themed consumables of things I’d buy anyway.
E.g. our Advent Box had:

• Warm winter pajamas (not specifically Christmassy and will be worn until they grow out of them?)
• The reusable advent calendars (one has wooden figures that make a scene, one has been restocked with chocolate coins)
• Our collection of Christmas books, which we’ll read throughout December and then put away for next year.
• Our Christmas mugs- we got them at a Christmas Market in Vienna the year my son was born and they get brought out every year.
• Some Christmas scented bubble bath/shower gel (we’ll use it up bathing the kids in December, so it’s just being used instead of our regular one).
• Some Christmas themed stickers that the kids will use to make cards for their grandparents and teachers.
• The special tree ornaments that we bought each child when they were born. And the photo frame ornaments that I’ve made for every year since meeting my husband.

It’s all either practical, sentimental or reusable, with a couple of small consumable treats. I don’t actually think it’s that common for people who do it to buy brand new stuff every year (I think it’s more of a Social Media thing, by influencers whose job it is to advertise the product).

People have done advent and Christmas Eve boxes for a long time but the consumerism is getting worse with some.

We had a collection of Christmas books and DVDs that came out on 1st December and went away every year when we took down the tree in early Jan. they got well used in that 5-6 week window. (And still do, just less so given busy lives currently).

We also had (and still have) a Christmas Eve box. The storage box holding the books/DVDs got repurposed to hold DD’s plastic Santa plate and glass, and her stocking. When DD was young, there were winter PJs for all 3 of us (DH, DD and I), a Lush bath bomb each for Dad and I (and sometimes a nice shower gel for DH), a Christmas beer for DH and posh hot chocolate on a stick for DD.

Yes, some new things but things we would use immediately over Christmas and PJs we’d wear all winter. So not the same level of consumerism and also very useful for signalling to DD (ASD) the different routine and help regulate her getting to bed and asleep despite the excitement).

I stumbled across a Facebook page today for an elf on the shelf group where people share ideas about what the little bugger can get up to. The posters seemed more American than British and I saw quite a few balloon arches, big tables decked out with huge bars of chocolate, new mugs with kids names on, etc etc, lots of 1 December decorations. They must all have huge houses as I don’t know where it all goes!

Ours is an adults-only Christmas and I am only buying a present for DP and for PILs. The only other thing I’ve bought is a Christmas tree.

I do buy into all the celebrations and partying in December though. It’s not Christmas unless we’ve been royally ripped off at the various Holiday markets and pop-up Holiday bars. 😁

Straight in the bin on the 26th 🫣😂

Isn’t a lot of it down to Instagram? Which I have never done, and nor have dds AFAIK.
I love Christmas, and IMO plenty of us have lovely Christmases without needing a load of new tat every year.

One thing that did rouse my ire this year - and last year too - was my milk delivery service trying to flog a special little bottle for ‘Santa’s milk’. 😱!
Milk for Santa/FC is a pernicious American custom which needs to fuck right off back across the pond!
In the U.K. 🎅🏻 expects a tot of something warming - who the hell wants cold milk on a cold midwinter night?

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g yy to nit bothering with it all. The one year I bought them chocolate ones the youngest stole them all one night! 🤣

we did have that little tree with boxes from Avon. They loved it.

Nowadays I just can’t be doing with any of it. And I hate the ‘ooh aren’t you a grinch!’ Crap. They can fuck off.

Excellent user name, btw 😎

Thanks! Ditto.

Oddly enough, in our house it's my husband who's the Scrooge. He doesn't have much time for Christmas at all, whereas I like it and stick to various traditions like making mincemeat, using that to make our mince pies, making the Christmas pudding and cake, very traditional Christmas Day meal etc etc. If I didn't insist on having a tree it wouldn't happen. Ah well, we're all different.

It’s too much, an advent calendar and new pjs on Christmas eve is enough for me, I never did the elf on the shelf, fuck that little twat.

I was walking through the west end yesterday and saw a bedraggled elf lying on the pavement 😂 I just stepped over him! He’s either celebrated a little too much the first day being out, or someone’s already fed up.

I don't think it's uniquely inspired by Insta-mums or seeing others posting on Social Media - I remember my mum used to read Family Circle every month and that always had lots of pictures of 'How to Decorate for Christmas' and was filled with lists of things to buy. Maybe not to the extremes of elves and their arches or Advent Breakfasts, but it was certainly aspirational.

Torn on this one. On one hand I loathe the elf and balloon arches and generally anything done purely for insta (see also gender reveal, maternity shoots and the like) and would definitely judge and unfollow any friends who did this. (By all means do the elf if that’s your thing but no one needs to see two hundred of them daily on their feed for an entire month). On the other hand, we’re all guilty of overconsumption, I don’t do 1 Dec or Christmas Eve boxes personally but I do buy my kids way too much stuff throughout the year. So as long as it’s not done purely for insta, I’m inclined to say let people do what makes them happy. It’s Christmas afterall.

Where does it stop? How do you make things special if everything ordinary like an elf thing (it was before our time) becomes a moment for a balloon wall. How on earth do you make a 21st or an 18th feel special if you have wasted so much on the every day.

In principle I am all for making life more joyous and fun, but the environmental cost, the financial implications, the societal pressure it creates in those less fortunate and the messaging to children that brash and big is always better - that is an issue for me at least.

You didn’t pick him up? Dust him down and give him a new home then? How unkind of you to just step over the poor mite - tut tut. It has slightly dystopian over tones 😂 A fitting symbol of our times

I agree with you that most of us are guilty of overconsumption in the West to some extent and this is just one part of it. But not everyone is buying tat through the year. More and more people are thinking about their carbon footprint and are mindful about their purchases, what they eat, how they get around etc. This trend really flies in the face of that.

I don’t do a Christmas Eve box. I do a December the 1sr box. No tat really, just new pjs that can be worn all year round, same with slippers. Crafts, a book and some coins.