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Original poster

Where are our British Christmas traditions going?

352 replies

RabbitsNBears · 17/12/2025 16:08

I can’t help but feel ever so sad about the wonderful Christmas traditions we grew up with are disappearing. It's like we are raising our young ones in the USA. Who is “Santa”? In my day he was called Father Christmas. What is this elf on the shelf nonsense, as far as I can tell he teaches our grandchildren that misbehaving is amusing, not the old fashioned lessons of behaving as Father Christmas knows if you’ve been good or bad. And don’t even get me started on how my DIL had the grandchildren leaving “Santa” cookies and milk. What’s wrong with a glass of brandy and a mince pie?

OP posts:
sprigatito · 17/12/2025 16:10

You sound like you need to go and touch some grass. Cultures evolve. Thank goodness, or we’d still be hanging witches and giving babies gin.

noidea69 · 17/12/2025 16:10

i imagine you are a barrel laughs at parties.

CherrieTomaties · 17/12/2025 16:11

I’m 32 years old and always knew him as Santa. You know Santa Claus, the name in Western Christian culture.

Elf on the shelf has been around for a few years now. It’s a bit of fun and magic for the little kids.

And WTF is wrong with cookies and milk? They’re certainly a lot cheaper than brandy and mince pies.

🙄

SoScarletItWas · 17/12/2025 16:11

Ah, it’s a DIL bashing thread.

Allswellthatendswelll · 17/12/2025 16:11

I don't love the elf and intend to swerve it but I really don't like the idea of Father Christmas watching over you to make you behave (and I can't say it was a big thing I grew up with in the 90s). So honestly I don't think these are huge shifts in tradition, more personal preference.

Gettingbysomehow · 17/12/2025 16:11

I must say I feel nostalgic for the Christmases of my childhood. It feels like nothing now with all the Americanisms.

Catza · 17/12/2025 16:12

At lest Elf on the shelf is more honest because, honestly, did you ever give your kids a lump of coal as a Christmas gift when they misbehaved?

tinytemper66 · 17/12/2025 16:13

I bet you are one of those who bleat on Twitter that we can’t say Merry Christmas!

gildurthegreen · 17/12/2025 16:13

Its always been Santa in this part of Scotland. Which as far as I'm aware is still part of Britain. Or do you just mean English traditions?

sprigatito · 17/12/2025 16:14

Gettingbysomehow · 17/12/2025 16:11

I must say I feel nostalgic for the Christmases of my childhood. It feels like nothing now with all the Americanisms.

That’s in the nature of being an older human, though. It doesn’t mean that the changes are bad or that the old ways were better, it just means you have fond memories - so will your grandchildren when they’re older and things have evolved again.

MannersAreAll · 17/12/2025 16:15

Who is “Santa”? In my day he was called Father Christmas.

Always been Santa for me. Brought up by Scottish grandparents and both they and my great-granny always used Santa.

Though no doubt that will be rubbished as an Americanism as so many Scottish, Welsh and Irish traditions are...

mindutopia · 17/12/2025 16:15

We don’t leave alcohol for ‘Father Christmas’ because I don’t want to normalise alcohol consumption. I don’t drink. He gets a mince pie and milk. And the reindeer get a carrot. What’s wrong with that?

Never done Elf on a shelf. I say Santa (because that’s what I said growing up) and Father Christmas interchangeably.

My children’s Christmas is certainly more traditional than mine was growing up. My mum never cooked a Christmas dinner in her life. In about 1990 when we got a Chinese takeaway, we started having Chinese for Christmas lunch. 😂 I did it for so long that it became a tradition and we get Chinese for Christmas Eve with my dc.

Teaandscone · 17/12/2025 16:16

Father Christmas should not be
drinking and driving; although perhaps a hot chocolate might warm
him up more than a glass of milk.

Needmorelego · 17/12/2025 16:16

If there was an emoji of Santa eating popcorn in would use it as my reply 😂
🧑‍🎄

LighthouseLED · 17/12/2025 16:16

I definitely prefer Father Christmas to Santa, as that was the tradition I grew up with. I know a lot of English people who still use that term, which is nice, so that hasn’t completely disappeared.

Milk and cookies (which should be called biscuits anyway) can fuck off. Sherry / brandy and a mince pie (plus a carrot for the reindeer) is the only acceptable offering.

Alittlefrustrated · 17/12/2025 16:16

I'm 56 and it's always been Santa to me, and to my Sisters (61,65).
Is it regional? We are NE England.
We did leave a tipple and mince pie.
My son used to leave a glass of milk, mince pie and carrot. We can't have Santa drink driving!!

ToffeePennie · 17/12/2025 16:16

Thankfully we have moved on. I don’t do elf on the shelf as it has no basis in anything we follow in our home.
That being said most British Christmas “traditions” are from the Victorian era and they belong in the bin, along with locking up autistics in mental asylums and women not having bank accounts or the vote.
I am of both the German and British cultures and as such, we have both Krampus and Father Christmas visit. Should I stop the Krampus visit because we are in Britain? I’ll be in Scotland for Christmas, does that mean I cannot have a “traditional” roast and must have haggis instead??

Notexactlyasplanned · 17/12/2025 16:17

What traditions exactly do you think have gone? Growing up in the 70s/80s I didn’t have elf on the shelf, the idea that Santa was watching you and would punish you by not bringing present s was a big thing. Likewise even then both Santa and Father Christmas coexisted (especially as a child who grew up across southern England and Scotland. My sense is we’ve added a lot of new ‘traditions’ some of which I don’t personally love but others of which (like decorating trees in the front gardens with baubles) I think are charming!

LegoWig · 17/12/2025 16:17

gildurthegreen · 17/12/2025 16:13

Its always been Santa in this part of Scotland. Which as far as I'm aware is still part of Britain. Or do you just mean English traditions?

I know, someone trots out this shite every year without fail. My granny was born in 1904 and she called him Santa, as did everyone else I ever knew. As far as we were concerned “Father Christmas” was something posh English people said.

Needmorelego · 17/12/2025 16:17

Most of "our" traditions are German.....

Dragonscaledaisy · 17/12/2025 16:17

I'm not sure why you feel the need to dismiss other peoples choices as 'nonsense'. You sound rather unpleasant. There are plenty of British traditions that are still going strong but equally, every family is free to pick and choose what works best for them.

JudgeBread · 17/12/2025 16:18

Translation: I don't like my daughter in law and want you all to slag her off with me

SheinIsShite · 17/12/2025 16:20

And it's not Christmas on MN until you get the ignoramus of the year who cannot get their heads around the fact that for people in many parts of the country, the big man has always been Santa.

Scotland, Ireland for starters. Imagine being so parochial that you just can't comprehend that other people do things differently. They are to be pitied, really.

Thursa · 17/12/2025 16:21

I’m 62, it’s always been Santa in our family. And we left out a dram and a mince pie.

CoolFineDoneWicked · 17/12/2025 16:22

This year I've had enough of the maudlin sentimentality of both Santa Claus and Father Christmas, and I'm taking him back to his Yuletide origins as a lord of misrule presiding over the piss-up and feasting. He'll be referred to as Captain Gregory Christmas, as he was in the 16th century.