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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

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Christmas snobs over here

312 replies

2014newme · 19/10/2017 11:29

This thread is for Christmas 'snobs'.
Proud to be one. 🎩🎅
So if you're not a fan of elf on the shelf or excessive mountains of tat this is where you can hang out and be safe from discussion of boots 3 for 2 gift sets.

OP posts:
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LBOCS2 · 22/10/2017 20:49

Posted too soon but realise that I’ve written a whole essay so I’m not going to add to it 😳

SenecaFalls · 23/10/2017 14:47

Can I just register my one-woman protest against the extreme tackiness of blue Christmas lights, I HATE THEM.

Blue lights in the US are often a reference to Hanukkah.

whiskyowl · 23/10/2017 15:12

Hence why I said "blue CHRISTMAS lights".

whoopwhoop21 · 25/10/2017 08:36

Of Irish descent too & mammy has always called the bearded one Santee. MIL always refers to him as Father Christmas.

whoopwhoop21 · 25/10/2017 08:42

P.S love this thread.

We used to have 2 trees growing up, the adult tasteful one, white soft lights, glass decorations etc in the dining room (which was locked all year except for Christmas). Then us kids would get our one which featuring tinsel, flashing coloured lights, pasta decorations etc in the sitting room.

LosingMyWay · 25/10/2017 12:04

Sounds lovely LB0

Plexie · 25/10/2017 17:50

Now I want a Fortnum's elf hat! Although they also do Nutcracker hats and crowns.

And if you require sweets for your refillable advent calendar, they sell some for a mere £45.

I get a weird sense of appreciation about Fortnum's prices. Nowadays when so much is cheap and affordable to nearly everyone (eg £2 chocolate advent calendar in your local supermarket), seeing £45 for some sweets reminds me that for past generations such things would have been a luxury and possibly even unaffordable (in a street-urchin-with-nose-pressed-up-against-shop-window sort of way). We take so much for granted now.

QuopQuop · 26/10/2017 09:30

I say Santa Claus, or usually just Santa. I don't know why as most people around me say Father Christmas but honestly, it makes me shudder every time. I find it a bit creepy Confused

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 26/10/2017 09:32

I hate those cold blue lights, too. Ditto cold, icy white.
Warm white please, and preferably the old fashioned, soft-light, twinkly ones. The modern ones just aren't the same.

Not sure whether I'm a Christmas snob or not. I don't like tinsel, especially coloured tinsel, nor would I want plastic lit-up Father Christmases etc., outside, but I'm happy to see them outside other people's houses - anything to brighten up dark, dank winter days. I hate it when it's all taken down and you're in miserable January with so long to go till spring.

OTOH I like bog standard crackers with daft plastic tat and silly jokes inside. Plastic vampire fangs were a great hit one year! Can't see the point of posh crackers with 'tasteful' things inside - it's usually just more expensive tat that still ends up in the fruit bowl or the bin by the end of January.

Oh, and we always have to have 'icicles', aka silver lametta, on our tree. They shiver and catch the light. Our (always real) tree is never 'tasteful' as such or colour-themed - we have decorations going back decades, including a few non tasteful but much loved ones from when I was small and only ever had a very little tree that went back in the garden each year, to be dug up again next Christmas. Poor thing never really recovered in between, but was eventually pensioned off and left to grow.

TrickyD · 27/10/2017 10:03

Christmas fanatic here - big real tree in sitting room lots of old faithful ornaments, artificial in dining room, tastefully silver, Grandkids stayng on Christmas Eve, stockings in morning etc etc.

But - very different this year. 19th Dec flying to Brazil; Christmas Eve , newest grandson's christening in local cathedral; Brazilian family Christmas!

Don't really know what to expect, no mince pies or cake or pud, tree or not?

We are very much looking forward to it, but still feelng a little sad about missing what we are used to and not seeing other grandchildren on Christmas Day.

We have invested in a big posh artificial tree which is going up on 4th Dec, and will be having a 'Christmas' lunch for everyone on 11th.

Hope it will all be OK.

Taffeta · 27/10/2017 11:22

I haven’t RTFT - saw the title and thought of one thing.

Have any of you read The Christmas Chronicles? Nigel Slater’s new book.

It is utterly wonderful and the most tasteful guide to Christmas I’ve ever seen.

ElmerFudge · 27/10/2017 11:32

I'm over Christmas already... I live in the middle of a big city. The lights are up, won't be long 'til they're switched on & the shops are full of random tat (I'm looking you, Debenhams). Can't move in the supermarkets for giant stacks of Victoria biscuits in festive tins. Boots can f-off with their fancy shower gel sets, and all...

LBOCS2 · 27/10/2017 12:12

No, I haven’t Taffeta, I forgot that I’d seen it but it is definitely something I fancied.

popcornpaws · 27/10/2017 12:27

I started reading The Christmas Chronicles last night, Nigel Slater is a superb writer, and I am so happy he loves winter as much as I do, he sees the loveliness of the season where most others moan about it and it comes across so well in the book.
It will definitely be one to be brought out and re read year after year.

Taffeta · 27/10/2017 13:37

It’s awesome! He has CANDLE RECOMMENDATIONS.

I love the language he uses. He visits the Christmas markets early December, and speaks of them so evocatively.

My favourite entry: “9 December - my first Christmas card arrived yesterday. A trifle too early, I feel.”

Grin
GherkinSnatch · 27/10/2017 14:09

I want/need that book Grin

LBOCS2 · 27/10/2017 14:20

I just bought it on prime now 😳

It was the candle recommendations that did it.

Taffeta · 27/10/2017 14:24

Problem is I now want a £60 candle.

He talks of individually hand picked cards, the best trees, decorations, and of course divine food and drink.

Sigh.

Ladymayormaynot · 27/10/2017 14:39

Someone enlighten me please, when did Christmas Eve boxes become a thing? Also like PP has asked, wtf is elf on the shelf about? Is it an ornament? When did theses become traditions? I’ve never heard of them.

ShiftyMcGifty · 28/10/2017 09:10

Instead of hating elf on the shelf, you need to upscale the idea, daaaahlings.

Purchase an adorable and ridiculously overpriced Maileg Pixie. Destined to become the next generation's heirloom, of course.

A pixie isn't a creepy fucker who watches children from afar. He or she is a loveable helper to dear old Father Christmas who fills the day's empty wooden box of your lovingly crafted wooden advent calendar each night.

Bonus points that your pixie closely resembles the costumes of the Elves in Lapland (or for those who cannot get away, the make-so Lapland UK).

Christmas snobs over here
ShiftyMcGifty · 28/10/2017 09:18

Those fortnum hats are by Meri Meri. Also stocked in Homesense and TK Maxx

FlaviaAlbia · 28/10/2017 09:46

OK, I have to know, are those liberty decorations supposed to be ironic or something? Because I can't find one that isn't hideously tacky.

craftsy · 28/10/2017 10:04

Instead of hating elf on the shelf, you need to upscale the idea, daaaahlings.

I did that before I ever even knew the Elf was a thing. My brother who lives in Sweden gave me a Tomte (a Scandinavian Christmas gnome) years before DS was even born. I used to place him on the top of my Christmas tree and when I was pregnant I had the idea that when DS was older I'd write him a book about it and make it into a fun December activity where the gnome would play tricks and leave treats (which plays into the fokelore of the Tomte).

I got a long pocket banner advent calendar and each night of December the Tomte comes down from the tree, leaves a note about a Christmas craft we'll do that day or 'tickets' for an event I've planned and then gets up to some mischief about the house that's usually related to the day's activity. Like he'll be riding out the door in a toy bus if we are getting the bus to see Santa.

I wrote a story about how the Tomte wanted an adventure so he snuck into a traveller's bag and came to live with the traveller's nephew and what he gets up to. I'm not the most artistic so to illustrate it, I arranged special photographs and altered them to look like watercolours. I added the text of the story to the pictures and had it printed as a photobook. The Tomte shows up on the 30th of November with the book and banner calendar and the fun starts from that night until he leaves breakfast on the 24th of December.

He's not a spy because I never make Santa's visit conditional on good behaviour. He's just a magical guy who likes DS enough to have fun with him. What's really fun was during this summer when we skyped my brother and DS asked him if he'd seen the Tomte and my brother showed him his identical one and DS was floored by the idea that the Tomte really had returned to Sweden after Christmas. Now that Christmas is nearing, he occasionally asks me if I think he'll be able to come back this year.

Christmas snobs over here
TealStar · 28/10/2017 10:23

Christmas snob here, thanks to my dm and a long line of family tradition which goes back a while.

At least, I thought I was a snob until I read this thread Grin

I insist upon:
Decorating the cake with home made marzipan and royal icing; I don’t like that ready to roll stuff.
Making my own mincemeat and shortcrust pastry.
Having a real Christmas tree with clear lights and a predominantly gold theme. Every year I’ll buy some new, unique additions in the sale so there’s an eclectic mix of beautiful detailed baubles up.
Presents after lunch. Always.
Bucks Fizz and canapés on Christmas morning.
Brunch of eggs benedict either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Lots of dog walking and mulled wine.
Home baked ham and braised red cabbage after Christingle on Christmas Eve.
Crackers from Liberty.
All meat from the local farm.
Waitrose delivery on the 23rd.
Carols from Kings on Christmas Eve.

However I have a few confessions:

I have an artificial wreath which I then decorate with fresh seasonal foliage (you’d never know and it’s so much easier than making your own Wink)
Christmas Eve boxes. I started them last year, as we have two teenage daughters who LOVE them. They are however filled with Jack Wills and Joules items —and stuff from urban outfitters—
Naff films such as Muppets and Wonderful Life.
Yankee Candles (I know I know, they are so sickly and ‘orrible but I do like to have them in my candle stash - which also includes more tasteful varieties Grin)
A hessian sack rather than a stocking for the dds which is then filled with teenage tat.

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