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?

Most people in England do realise that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own traditions.

Perhaps OP doesn’t.

”Cookies” is still an Americanism, though. Leave biscuits out if you must.

Quite! It's surely always juice.
Oh, and it's not a slide, it's a chute 😉

Yup

At least you are upholding the annual MN tradition of moaning about Christmas not being celebrated as you think it ought to be.

I have educated English DH out of "squash" but his parents still talk about "fizzy pop". 😂

Well, our elf isnt naughty, I dont tlknow where that idea has come from

Shes good and comes back every day to keep watch over dd for santa

I use santa and father christmas interchangeably, but its mostly santa

Hasnt it been milk and a mince pie since the 90s? I only remember that being a thing and I was born in 91 - and a carrot for rudolph ofc

I never say anything negative on mumsnet but by God you sound horrible. There is a name for people like you. It's a joy hoover. Going around like NooNoo just sucking up people's little joy moments with your little sucking lemon expressions and your distaste for everything new. Yuck.

Where is that term used? I’ve never heard of it - “fizzy drinks” in this part of England.

I don't know what you mean. I thought my last post made it quite clear that I have listened to the replies telling me many people across Britain - England, Scotland, and Wales - have called him "Santa" for many decades. I don't know how to link the post here but someone even provided evidence that Father Christmas is in fact a newer name than "Santa"! I see our neighbours Ireland call him "Santy". My nanna told us that we shouldn't use "Santa" as it was American and we were to call him Father Christmas, which I believed until this very day, I can see that this information was wrong. I said this on my previous response.

My Scottish great-granny was born in Edinburgh in 1892 and said Santa.

I rest my case.

I'm 55. I grew up in Scotland and it's always been Santa! Nothing to do with America 🙄🙄

I can see why the OP is a little disappointed. The whole point of traditions is that you pass them down to your children who then pass them down to theirs, is it not?

I had a crap upbringing so I feel rather free from having to continue anything from my childhood. Whilst pregnant we spoke of what kind of a Chrismtas we wanted for our toddler. So we are a Father Christmas, mince pie and whiskey, and no elf on the shelf family. But I'm sure there are other things we do that would seem less traditional to others.

We always have brandy, I use it a lot for cooking.

Hard to know sometimes whether these sorts of threads are paid Russian bots getting us to hark back to a Reform-flavoured past life, or a MIL putting the boot into some poor bugger that’s just trying to make their own Christmas traditions with the kids. Make Father Christmas Great Again?

I have no interest in the elf on the shelf, but who cares if other people incorporate it as a new tradition? As for "the old fashioned lessons of behaving as Father Christmas knows if you’ve been good or bad"? In our family, we have children who were adopted. They have vivid recollections of receiving nothing for Christmas. These children have been through significant trauma and have internalised so many negative emotions about themselves. The last thing they need is to think that Santa didn't visit them in their first home due to their bad behaviour.

If parents choose to put out cookies and milk, that’s on them. They are the ones who have to drink it, after all. In our house he usually got sherry or whiskey, depending which parent had their eye on it.

Elf on a Shelf isn’t particularly American, afaik. It started from a book.

thank you. I think people here are being quite nasty.

I understand people who don't drink might leave out something else, though I still think Father Christmas would find milk that's been sat out for 4 hours and slightly tepid revolting and would surely cause travel sickness. As it happens my DIL and DS do enjoy a tipple and have whiskey, rum, and brandy in so no reason why they couldn't leave that out.

Well yes, but when a couple has children then there are usually two families traditions to incorporate, and also new ones to start. Some are bound to get left by the wayside.

I'm 60 and it was always Father Christmas and I still say that rather than Santa, in the South East so maybe regional. We always used to leave out a mince pie and a beer when we were little and a carrot.

When my children were younger thankfully elf on the shelf wasn't about, neither were December 1st boxes or Christmas Eve boxes.

Born in 1969 in England. He has always been known as Santa to me. Of course it isn't an Americanism.

Tradition is peer pressure from dead people.

I do agree with you about Father Christmas. I'm sad that the Norse connections are being lost. Santa is just snappier to say though. And mince pies aren't great anyway. I'll happily let the little things go if we still remember the real meaning of Christmas - a huge dinner with our closest 😋

They are for Father Christmas, who will bring his presents to put in a stocking overnight. Nothing to do with the presents under the tree from Mum and Dad.

Isn't cookie a particular type of biscuit as in Maryland cookies as opposed to biscuits like malted milk, custard creams etc. Maybe in America you only get cookies not "traditional" biscuits?

He was Santa when I was a child in the 1960’s. We never left brandy because we never had any in the house. It was a glass of milk, or a bottle of beer with a slice of Xmas cake. Lots of people don’t do the daft elf on the shelf nonsense. Just because they were your traditions doesn’t mean they were everyone’s traditions.

Does Santa not deliver the parents’ presents? That’s how I understood that most people did it but I might be wrong.

You pass on the traditions you want to pass on, and amalgamate those of your partner and their family if you want to

we do not have any of the traditions of dh family and all of the traditions of mine 🤷🏻

no one but me eats mince pies so i am buying a box just to leave on the plate 😀 not the end of the world as i will force myself to finish the box

dh wanted santa to have a whiskey but eventually we changed it to milk cos santa drunk in charge of the sleigh just didn’t sit right with me (although as he can deliver all those presents in one might I am sure he can have many alcoholic drinks and not get drunk…just not in my house)