Where are our British Christmas traditions going?

[RabbitsNBears]

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?

America is a multicultural country they say holidays to be inclusive of celebrations i don't think it is a huge deal.

Sorry, just thinking about the China/US question. I think economic dominance and cultural dominance (or influence) are completely different things. It's just happened that the US had both at the same time.

China has made almost no inroads on the cultural front, presumably it sees that as unimportant. Korea and Japan have a lot more cultural influence in the UK than China.

@TheKeatingFive interesting thought, about less “cultural” influence by China. I suppose the Chinese New Year is mentioned sometimes, and which animal it is, but I can’t think of anything else off the top of my head.

I’m 40 next year and I’ve always called him Santa, my DM always gave me new Christmas pjs on Christmas Eve, and I always left milk, a biscuit and a carrot out for Santa and the reindeers.

British traditions are still there, they just evolve and develop with each generation

It’s just ignorance really isn’t it?

The absolute cheek to lecture people on “the true nature of Britishness” without actually understanding it yourself.

I leave Santa a kale smoothie & a protein bar, he needs to keep his energy up.

Santa is certainly very common in Ireland, NI & Scotland.

Why is America (as in the USA) always blamed for everything.
Until several years ago no one in the UK celebrated Day of the Dead or sang Feliz Navidad which are more from South American/Spanish/Latino culture.
Christmas Eve boxes apparently evolved from German traditions.
Easter Trees have become popular thanks to European influences (before Brexit obviously 😁).
Elf on the Shelf was a book that happened to be written by an American but it was based on HER family tradition not an "American" tradition.

As an example, lots of people have horse shoes hung in their houses, but they must hang in a U shape, not the other way round, or all your luck will drain out. Then there's Native American culture. I've just scratched the surface here.
Your comment is very ignorant and typical of someone who does not know North America AT ALL!

Before you call others ignorant, @NewNameforThisPost2025, perhaps educate yourself? Horseshoes as lucky charms dates back to St Dunstan, in the 900s AD in England. Probably with some input from pagans too. Certainly not originating in Tennessee or Kentucky 😂

But both Dia de los Muertos and Feliz Navidad came to the UK via the USA, not directly from Latin America or Spain.

It's a hard fact that people who wheel out this saying, are in fact, the biggest bores of all

Evolving faster and faster

I definitely disagree about the mince pie. I'm in my 40's and always left out a nice biscuit or something. My child logic was "I hate mince pies and biscuits are yummy. Why would I leave FC something I dont like as a snack"

Agree about the elf though. I have a just turned 7 yr old and we've never engaged with that one!

Exactly how I feel. I'm 70, and though I hate the elf on the shelf (fortunately so does my DD!) I actually don't think that all that much has changed since I was a young child in the early 1960s. Santa and Father Christmas were definitely interchangeable for me back then.

And yes, what lots of others have said. Things develop. If they didn't there's a whole lot of awful things that would still be going on.

Feliz Navidad (the song) is by a Puerto Rico singer. So technically American because I believe Puerto Rico citizens are American as it's an American territory (apologies to any Puerto Ricans if I am wrong).
Day of the Dead as far as I know is more of a Mexican celebration (presumably taken there from Spain).
There are a lot of USA citizens and residents who have Mexican roots who will celebrate it but I wouldn't say it's an USA "thing".
It's become more known in the UK in recent years via things like the film Coco - which is set in Mexico.

Re warnings about being good or Father Christmas (as he was known in our house, but no Santa judgement from me) wouldn’t leave any presents…My sister did indeed get a bundle of sticks one year (we didn’t go in for lumps of coal in our house, not sure why as my grandfather was a miner and entitled to free coal from the Coal Board, so we were always knee deep in the stuff). Admittedly she was a teenager, not a small child at the time, and richly deserved her bundle of sticks. However, she had the usual stocking and presents as well, but good old FC just wanted to make a point. It was taken in good part with no lasting psychological damage.

When my daughter was little we told her that the motion-sensor light on the burglar alarm was FC checking on her. Again, she doesn’t seem to have been unduly traumatised. As a family we have always left stockings downstairs in the living room because I do genuinely think children can be quite frightened at the idea of a man they don’t know creeping into their bedrooms in the middle of the night. I think this much more scary for children than being told they should behave or there will be consequences, but what do I know? And some of the horrors I come across could do with being told they need to bloody well behave instead of being pandered to.

I despise trick or treating so why would I learn about the origins of it lol.

Also, Scotland and a big chunk of Ireland are part of the UK.

No one said otherwise.

I certainly NEVER said that horse-shoes as lucky charms ORIGINATED in Kentucky! I talked about the tradition regarding the way they HANG. THEM.

Caps to aid reading comprehension. Maybe it's you who needs to be educated - in how to read!

How can you despise something you don't really know about?

Yes, and also to be respectful of the many people who don't celebrate Christmas but have the time off. There are more Jewish people in North America than there are in Israel, and it's quite a faux pas to wish them a happy Christmas. There are many other people in North America who are not Christian, either. It's nice and inclusive to wish people happy holidays. The other reason is that there's Thanksgiving not long before Christmas, so the whole lot gets smooshed together as "holidays" to cover the Nov-Dec period. Nothing to do with anything nefarious, not an "Americanism" but an American way of doing things, because it's a totally different continent and culture from the UK.

I always ask my Jewish friends and colleagues "What are you doing for the winter break?" and wish them happy holidays. Christianity really isn't the default culture over here the way it is in the UK, and it's considered very rude to act like it is.

Christianity really isn't the default culture over here the way it is in the UK

Want to tell your Presidents that? When are you going to get one that doesn’t refer to God and claim to be a Christian (however unlikely that may seem…)

Tidy

I know what it is in the 21st century but can't be arsed to split hairs about where it originated from centuries ago.

Is that what Trump's said? I don't really keep up with him every day, He should know better than to talk as if the nation is Christian though, as he has a Jewish daughter and three Jewish grandchildren.

And technically, the nation is not Christian, as there is no established state church like we have. (The Church of England.)

Hanging horseshoes with prongs upwards did not originate in America either. That is part of the original tradition. You could at least google before sharing more of your ignorance. Your rudeness only emphasises your total ignorance.