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?

Wasn't Alexander Graham bell scottish?

No. FC just brings stocking presents for the kids. The presents under the tree are the main gifts labelled from family members to other family members.

Oh, you sweet summer child, are you new to Mumsnet?

The great Santa divide is not what you call him but which presents he is responsible for. In some wrongheaded families, he brings everything, whereas other right-thinking folk have Santa bring the stockings only. This way your children aren’t left wondering why you didn’t get them anything, and no one is comparing to see who Santa liked best this year. And they learn early on that Christmas is about giving as well as receiving. I think it also makes it less of a big deal when they find out he’s not real, tbh.

It’s Father Christmas in this house! We don’t have the elf and it’s a mince pie and glass of port (or whiskey if he is having a long night…!).

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

My "nanna" (and my Mum) told me lots of things - but most of them were utter bollocks, and quite easy to disprove.

The glass of single malt left for Santa was one of my first clues that we were leaving it for my dad. It was impressive that he gave the raw carrot a good nibble each Christmas eve though!

My son keeps wanting to leave milk but that would be wasted in our house, maybe it'd go in a hot chocolate. I am trying to encourage the idea of leaving baileys 😃

I've always encouraged the understanding of multiple names of Santa, father Christmas, st Nicholas, even Odin. It's a great introduction to folklore stories.

The great thing about Christmas imo is that each family makes their own traditions.

Tradition is just peer pressure from dead people. Do whatever you want.

It's always been santa to me, when I was little he would left a whisky and peanut cookies (I realise now that those were my dads faves), we leave him a baileys and choc brownie 😅

Yes, my Nana talked some bollocks too, like telling me that if I pushed my baby in her pram across cobbles I’d give her epilepsy 🤦🏻‍♀️, so I took most things she said with a pinch of salt.

I remember taking my children to see Father Christmas and he specifically asked us not to leave alcohol because he might get drunk and fall off his sleigh. Obviously you just haven't seen the real Father Christmas!

This thread is early this year! Usually it’s at least the 20th before we get some ignoramus complaining about Santa being a US import.

I’m late 70s, grew up in Scotland, he’s always been Santa or Santa Claus. The biggest department store had a Santa’s grotto. There was little luxury around in the 1940s/50s, so a Christmas stocking was very much looked forward to! I never really heard anyone call him Father Christmas, except my DMIL who was from London.

When my children were younger the thought of elf on the shelf nearly pushed me over the edge as I was so busy anyway (single parent, full time shift worker plus running a small business.) So I couldn’t cope with it and we didn’t have it in my house but a school mum I discussed this with loved it for her and her children as their dad (her husband) had died the year before so they wanted any happiness and magic they could have. Good for them. So I think everyone can pick and choose their own traditions. I prefer Father Christmas to Santa but each to their own.

We still say Father Christmas,I hated elf on the shelf and we usually leave out baileys and a mince pie for Father Christmas and milk,some carrots and rich tea biscuits(as a treat for the reindeer)it's what my parents did when I was little so we've carried it on for our DC and DGC.

But I love hearing about the different ways people have Christmas and their different traditions,surely it would be tedious and boring if we all did the same.

I'm 61. He's always been Santa to me. When I was a child we left milk and biscuits for him. I'm in the UK. Noone is stopping you doing Christmas your way.

My DC experience all the traditions I did when I was a child, which my grandparents were a huge part of. Christmas carols and Christmas decorations, nativity, mince pie, carrot and milk left for Santa and Rudolph, new PJs on Christmas eve, gifts Christmas morning, traditional Christmas dinner. There's really not much difference at all in what I do now and what I did over 35 years ago.
Traditions tend to be passed down families, what traditions did you have with your DC and what are you continuing with your GC?

I’m not sure you can complain that other posters are being nasty when you started a thread specifically to piss all over other families’ Christmases and assert that your “traditions” are so much better that they must be preserved in aspic. Are you really surprised that people are pushing back on that?

If your traditions had varied massively from those of the father of your children though there would likely have been some changes, to incorporate both sets of traditions. Things evolve through generations and families join together. Maybe OP’s DIL’s parents always left milk and cookies for Santa, and that’s a tradition that she wants to continue. Maybe her son doesn’t have many strong memories of what his family did as a child and therefore he’s happy to go along with her traditions.

Always Father Christmas to me and my family - I don't like the expression 'Santa' at all. I dislike all the 'new' things which have appeared over the last few years - the elf, the Christmas Eve box, the 1st December breakfast, the new pyjamas, hot chocolate, etc. None of them are seen in my house.

"My lovely nanna would give us a rap on knuckles if called him that as it wasn't his proper name,"

You can't even give children a rap on the knuckles now. Where are all our British Christmas traditions going?

AI Summary :

The name
"Santa" or "Santa Claus" became common usage in the UK during the late Victorian period, specifically by the 1880s, when the American version of the character merged with the traditional English Father Christmas.

I'm guessing from this the OP is pretty old.

Bring back the days when kids were lucky not to be up a chimney on Christmas Day, that’s what I say. The children yearn for the mines.

More proof that AI talks mince. And doesn't know the difference between Britsh and English either.

The same hot chocolate that was adopted by the English in the 17th century from other European countries and served in chocolate houses?

How rude to describe the OP as 'pretty old'. She sounds like my kind of person.