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?

HTH op. From English Heritage 😉

I'm 44 and we called him Santa. My daughter is 7 and calls him Father Christmas because that's what they call him at her school.

We leave sherry and a mince pie out.

Team Daddy Winter over here! 🙋

Goodness, so many replies to keep up with. Interesting to hear so many of you have always called him "Santa", my lovely nanna would give us a rap on knuckles if called him that as it wasn't his proper name, rather it was the American version. Perhaps that is different house to house, much like where you hang your stockings, thank you for educating me.

I love my DIL great, she is a fantastic mother to my grandchildren. I only mention she puts out the treats for Father Christmas with the little ones as my son does shift work as often works late on Christmas Eve so he has the full day of Christmas off. It's a shame he misses out.

I still object to milk and cookies. I don't think anyone would enjoy a glass of room temperature milk, and who wants a boring old biscuit they could have any day of the year when delicious mince pies are on offer!

I am 45 and it was Santa Clause when I was a child. The elf on the shelf being naughty I dont get either. Some of it is funny but some people take it to a ridiculous extreme. Elf's that live in my house are well behaved and naught elf's get sent back to the north pole. We left cookies and whisky out when I was a child to.

Santa always brought the stockings in my house, actual gifts were from mum and dad.

Its because...

[whisper] They are literally made up.
Which means people can make up their own. Because there's no rules stopping them. Because insisting what other people do in their own private lives is fucking batshit.

What traditions?!

Father Christmas or Santa - doesn't matter, same thing just with a different name.

We did leave a mince pie and carrot when the kids were tiny but don't see what difference it makes swapping it out for a cookie.

What other traditions do you miss, or is this just an excuse to tear into Americans?

"Santa" used to enjoy a beer and carrot for rudolph when he came to our house we never had brandy or mince pies.

this is one of the cleverest things i've ever read

It's very presumptuous to assume that your traditions are everyone's traditions OP, or that your way is the best way.

I'm 48 and called him Santa as a child. I think actually Santa and Father Christmas have always been used interchangeably in my family.

No one in my house or my parent's house like brandy or mince pies so why should we buy them just to keep you happy?

Father Christmas is pagan in origin, he wore green robes and was based on feasting and merriment. Had nothing to do with children and gift giving.
Santa Claus is based on the Dutch Sinta Klaus (sp), which the Dutch took to America. He wears the red robes and does the gift giving, Saint Nicholas and all that.
Eventually the 2 merged and are now interchangeable.

So proving Santa is American 😉

I'm quite surprised 1/4 of voters think you are NOT being unreasonable.

That's coming from someone who never did 'Elf on a Shelf', who likes to leave some sherry out for the big man as I prefer knocking back a glass of sherry to a glass of milk , and who calls him Father Christmas.

I, like you, OP, am probably older than average posters on MN, but I am more than happy for traditions to evolve, and for new traditions to develop. You don't have to adopt anything you don't want to. In the same way our adult dc can adopt (or adapt) things they want to.

But there are plenty of traditional things from my childhood that we still do - including Carol services and Nativity services, stockings including an orange and some chocolate coins, decorating the tree together whilst listening to Christmas music, and piling on all the old decorations which all have some history to them, but also adding in the new things as life evolves. We do loads of things that I did as a child, but then, when dh and I got together, there was obviously some merging of traditions from 2 different families and creating our own, and now my adult dc have partners, they will merge both of their family traditions and create their own.

YABVU.

I think you are actually sad that your grandchildren aren't having all your traditions as opposed to that the country are losing their traditions. I think most families do things their own way.
In our house in Wales we always said Santa if not Sion Corn rather than Father Christmas. We dod give mince pie for Santa and carrot for reindeer but no one in the house drank brandy so no brandy.
We didn't do elf on shelf obviously as didn't exist but my children didn't either.
The only thing that really stands out as different to me is that Christmas cards are very much almost gone and while it was very festive it really isn't necessary to waste resources these days when you can wish everyone a merry Christmas on social media, text or phone calls

We’ve always left milk - you’re not allowed to drink and drive, so why should we encourage FC to do it?

DH has Irish ancestry and it’s always been Santy for his family. Father Christmas for mine. It depends who the kids are taking to as to what they use.

Ugh, even English Heritage using "stepped foot".

I wonder if ch5 would show it late night 😀

@RowersDelight

You would think that English Heritage know better than to write "stepped foot".

It is set foot - even though I have seen it more than once today on MN threads.

I’m in my sixties and attended a church school. We were told all about “Santa” as a diminutive of St. Nicholas, patron saint of children.

I’m 62 and it has always been Santa or Santa Clause. (I’m Scottish). My husband is English always said Father Christmas until our children corrected him 😂. I’m with you with elf on a shelf though. Thankfully my children were older when this started.

I’m 52 and always knew him as “Santa”! If someone had called him Father Christmas we’d have thought they were either posh or thought they were! .

We always left out a bottle of Guinness and a mince pie and a carrot for Rudolph!

Sherry not brandy. Good lord, where are your correct traditions?

Well brandy and mince pie is extremely wasteful if mum and dad don’t like brandy or mince pies. In my house, Father Christmas drinks baileys and likes a dairy milk being left out.

my lovely nanna would give us a rap on knuckles if called him that as it wasn't his proper name, rather it was the American version.

Well, we can see where you get your own Christmas cheer and joie de vivre from. Fa la la la la la la la la.