To feel guilty I haven’t done my DS a Christmas Eve box?

[Redonionsalad]

He’s 7 and we never have really, except a couple of years ago when I did a few sweets and a colour in a bauble kit.
He has new PJs to wear every Christmas Eve. This year I did get them from vinted as money has been tight.

Everyone I know seems to be doing them. I feel rubbish this morning.

We've never done one. Girl is 7 boy is 20 months. We won't be starting it. It can stay in the shop with the bloody elf

No! Don't feel guilty! They get a load of presents the day after. I do give dds new pyjamas wrapped up but only as I used to have new pyjamas on Christmas day and thought how lovely it would be to go to bed on Christmas eve in a fresh made bed and new pyjamas!

They have a hot chocolate with whipped cream, usually a lot of chocolate and cakes. You have to draw a line somewhere, partly as its expensive but also for your own sanity as a parent.

I've never done them or the elf. Daughter is 7 and hasn't suffered.

Why can't people stop denigrating the choices other people make. I say this every year but to enjoy your own Christmas, you don't have to deride somebody else's.

My Victorian granny started our tradition of leaving out home-baked goods on the hearth on Christmas Eve and it's always been a much loved and anticipated moment for all of us.

My DC get some new (2nd hand actually) pyjamas and some home-made cookies, as well as a new Christmas book for our collection. It's not bollocks consumerism or piles of gifts.

I wouldn't dream of making sweeping and disparaging comments about people's summer holiday traditions, their carbon footprints, the fact they don't need a new swimming costume or several outfits every year or a Costa in the airport when they're going on holiday for Pete's sake. Because it's their holiday and their build up and their money. No I don't like tat and waste and plastic and pressure on parents. But nor do I make assumptions about this being the root of other people's traditions.

Christmas Eve is PJs as a present only. That's generous and enough.

Christmas Eve box is unnecessary and ridiculous as Santa is visiting tonight. It takes away from the main event.

Don't compare yourself to people going OTT.

Keep your Christmas traditions simple and workable. Again it's enough.

I feel sorry for those parents that they think they have to buy love and be performative like this.

Out of interest is your son aware of others having them and feeling left out or is it purely your own guilt? Guessing it's the latter. Please don't beat yourself up.

I did a box (with PJs, socks, colouring book & a little Xmas decoration) for a couple of years but stopped the year before last and I can honestly say none of my 3 children have mentioned / noticed not having one - they are all too excited about the next day!

If it will stop you feeling guilty then just do one. I’ve never done one. Don’t know anyone who does them, but if you’re the sort of person that get fixated about what others are doing and associated guilt, then just do one and stop all this handwringing.

Stop with the guilt, why are you doing this to yourself?

I’ve never done elf on a shelf, Christmas Eve box, new pyjamas etc.

As a mother I refuse to jump on trends/follow the crowd. My dc are unaffected, they’re teens now.

Also as a mother I refuse to feel any guilt about what I should be doing. I parent my own way, my dc are happy and that’s good enough for me. It helps that I’m not a perfectionist and don’t strive for a perfect life.

Your ds is perfectly fine and doesn’t need all these extras. Tomorrow will be enough.

Have a lovely Christmas 🎅

I had never heard of this until a few years ago or the beeping elf! Definitely don't compare yourself to others that is never going to end well as there is always someone richer, slimmer, cleverer etc. You are amazing put that on repeat in your head. Your son has new pj's , will have sweets and treats over Christmas, it is all a gimmick to make us spend money you don't necessarily have. You are making memories that's what is important.💕

I think Christmas Eve boxes are a bit OTT .some gifts and nice food treats are all you need.A welll known TV doctors wife says she is not doing presents at all for her children! Too much waste.A bit much the other way I think.

We don’t do one either but we might let DD open a small present from under the tree later this evening.

Lots of people don’t do them, you just don’t know about it because it’s not posted all over social media when people haven’t done them!

We’ve never done them.

Never had them myself - not even a thing when we were growing up - and don't do them now. My kid just turned 8. I wouldn't worry about it at all, OP.

No CE box ever here either for my DC’s.

We didn't have many traditions at all as a family when I was a child, so I started my own for my DC’s. (except our dog always got a wrapped Christmas number 1 single…😂)

On Christmas Eve, I left each of my DC’s a Christmas -themed book wrapped up and waiting on their pillow—a gentle nudge (read: huge bribe 😂) to encourage a peaceful, shared bedtime.

I agree. I am actually getting quite repulsed by all the material expectations being placed on people over this period and I love getting presents, but this is way too much now.

Why stop at Christmas Eve? why not have a Christmas Eve eve box and then Boxing Day presents and then a "day after Boxing Day" box of even more presents since by that time, Christmas Day will have been at least 2 days away. God forbid anyone should go more than a day without more expensive gifts to open eh? 🤮

Never done them. No need. Take him for a nice walk before dinner to see the neighbourhood lights then play a game together.

We used to pretend the elves had gone on ahead and left new pjs and a Christmas book in their bedrooms while they were in the bath.

They're mid teens now. Never asked why we don't do an xmas box. Dd would all like the presents to magically appear tomorrow morning though, whereas I thought we could we could bring them down at a civilised time. Waiting for the dc to go to bed means I have to go to bed too late these days.

I did cave on the elf thing, so we did that for about 4 or 5 years. Our elves were quite dark though. There were wars and burials and drinking and gambling alongside the boring stuff.

I’ve never done Christmas Eve boxes (kids 6 and 9) and they have never asked for one. Ditto the elf. I didn’t have either as a child and Christmas was still magical. None of the bits of Christmas that I remember as a child were related to expensive gifts either - I remember the anticipation, the games with family who didn’t have to rush off to be elsewhere, hearing the sleigh bells on a Christmas Eve walk, having yummy food I wasn’t allowed usually, drinking Shloer on Xmas day.

Concentrate on being in the moment for your kids, qualify family time wins over material gifts every time.

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

Don't feel guilty! This is one of those 'traditions' which someone made up five minutes ago to flog more tat. There are lots of nice little traditions you can have which cost little or nothing - hot chocolate and a film, a Christmassy book (could be from a charity shop), a particular special dinner you have every Christmas Eve (doesn't have to be anything expensive). When mine were littler we used to do a short drive around our town to spot the best 'crazy Christmas house'. I was brought up Catholic and one of my favourite childhood Christmas memories is candlelight midnight Mass on Christmas Eve and-it-was-actually-at-midnight-too.

Don’t think I voted right but you shouldn’t feel guilty!

Your DS will have a wonderful Christmas regardless of whether or not he gets a Christmas Eve Box. We were lucky in that when our DS was little there just wasn’t any of this stuff in the UK. No Elves, no special PJs, no Christmas Eve boxes…so we weren’t feeling pressure from outside to do it all.

Christmas Eve was usually about preparing the snack for Santa, getting the carrot ready for the reindeer, maybe special hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows, we were churchgoers at the time so we did that and he enjoyed it but we could have just as easily watched a special movie, perhaps what we used to call a “floor tea”….an indoor picnic of picky bits in the living room rather than at the table.

You can make your own Christmas Eve ritual that doesn’t have to cost a thing and it will be special because it’s what you do. That’s what he’ll remember. When I remember Christmas Eve as a child it’s a sense of excitement, anticipation, trying to sneak cooked chipolatas out of the lidded pyrex dish in the kitchen without Mum catching us. It’s these things that make memories, not piles of extra stuff.

Have a lovely Christmas…7 is a magical age!

You've forgotten the day before Christmas Eve box (which of course follows the 1st of December box) and the New Year’s Eve box.

Oh and the New Year’s Day box.

We all want to start the new year with positivity! 😂

Just adding another WTF is a Christmas Eve box? Haven’t even done ours a stocking yet! If it’s just more presents then knock it on the head, pronto!

haha! right?

Then by February, we will all be eating gruel and dry bread because we're in so much massive debt from the last two months.