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.

It’s a load of nonsense and yet another money spinner, never done and DS who is now 13 doesn’t seem hard done by!

I got roped into elf on a shelf for a couple of years after nursery taught them about it. Last few years I've said I don't want an elf.. ds is 7 and no Xmas eve box either!

No worries. I hope your day gets better.

There is 0 need for kids to have extra presents on Christmas Eve if they already have presents the next day. It’s a load of twaddle that has been brought on by social media desire to try and one up other parents with “look at me and how magical I make Christmas for my kids compared to everyone else 🥰”

Mine are 5 and nearly 3. They don't have Christmas eve boxes and I don't feel bad about it at all.
We are cosying up this afternoon with Christmas movies, a box of quality street and a buffet dinner. They are excited enough without a box :)

Seriously? Christmas Eve box??? What's wrong with a large (Christmas) sock, small gifts and a Clementine in the toe? Sheesh .. wouldn't have survived the 70s, idea of Christmas (presents)?!

I haven’t done Christmas Eve boxes for my children. Or elf on a shelf.

I don’t feel guilty. We’ve been to visit Santa, we’ve been to the pantomime, they’ve got some lovely presents. The house is full of magic and sparkle and my kids are happy and excited. We’re good 🙂🎄

No guilt. I don’t know anyone who did them and though I only know a three people with kids that age now none of them do it (nor Elf on the Shelf).

Do not feel guilty. Be proud to have avoided an excuse to spend more. Your DS will end up a better person for not being sucked in to such nonsense.

Add some chocolate and if there’s a book in his presents, that too.

Same and same.

I don't disagree with anything you've said but I do think dismissing something as bollocks because you don't like it, is short sighted. I would never spend tens of thousands on a holiday and if it involves travelling a long way, I have my own ethical and environmental concerns about it as a choice but I would never denigrate somebody else's choices in a sweeping and cruel way.

The only people I know who do "Christmas Eve boxes" just wrap up new pyjamas and provide hot chocolate, maybe some biscuits and a book. I can't see the harm in that. Millions of people will do the same. I just stick it in a cardboard box and leave it on the hearth. It's happened in our family for several generations now. And if it matters, there's no huge present pile tomorrow either. My Christmas isn't really about gift giving so I'm not diluting anything either.

I think I'm just asking people to stop with the sneery assumptions.

@ShowOfHands No I dismissed the commercialised bollocks nature of it.

MN is so sneery about anyone who dares to do anything outside their "norm" for Christmas.

FWIW I'm 37 and I always had a little box to open on Christmas Eve - it had chocolate coins, a book and some new pajamas, and I'd put the pajamas on after my bath and eat the coins watching a Christmas film, then I'd read the book before bed. My parents are probably some of the least materialistic people I know, as well.

By all means don't bother, but there's no need to sneer and be rude towards people who choose to do things differently :)

YABU to feel guilty. YANBU not to have provided a Christmas Eve Box. This is just some made up consumerist nonsense invented by some influencer or other. Forget about it.

Our two (ages 13 and 9) have never had one, and have never so much as mentioned the idea.

I have a 16yo and 10yo, we've never done anything like a Christmas Eve box nor do we do elf on the shelf. Sometimes the kids have new PJs to wear but I've never wrapped them, they've just had them to wear at bedtime.

Never did it, never will - and I don't feel guilty at all. Christmas has become a spendfest.

I said this on the thread a while back 😂 when did this “new PJs every Christmas” idea become a thing?! And Christmas Eve boxes? It’s just one person comes up with a daft idea and everyone else has to tag along. They must be overflowing with Christmas pyjamas! Just have one set and wear them at Christmas each year til they wear out then get a new set? Just constant consumerism and wastefulness.

I loved Christmas Eve as a kid, the most I ever did was attend the christingle! Presents were for Christmas Day, excitement and anticipation are enjoyable in their own right, but these days everything has to be now!!

Never done them, nor elf on the shelf. Mine are now 10 and 13 and seem to have survived

I've never even heard of a Christmas Eve box. Is that a thing now? My DCs are early 20s.

They don't need more stuff at this time of year. It's awful the pressure people feel. We don't do them. They get more than enough.

The pyjamas are the Christmas Eve box in my house. They get pyjamas and chocolate coins. That’s it. Maybe slippers every now and again if they need them. They don’t get Xmas themed pjs either although I have done that for them in the past. They’re older now though (10 and 13) and so I get them a really nice pair that aren’t festive so they last all year

If i read the word 'tat' on MN once more this year, I will scream.
Usually said dismissively with no thought whatsoever to make the poster feel better about choices. It's rude and unnecessary.
My dc will get a pair of pyjamas, a bottle of shower gel and a few chocolates. None of which is useless or tat.

Kids don’t need Christmas Eve boxes. Excitement for the big day is enough. Honestly.

No of course you don't need to. I get mine some PJ's, popcorn and a book (which was 79p on Home Bargains), they are more than happy with that.