Who does a Christmas/North pole breakfast on the 1st?

[UndertheCedartree]

For a few years now I have done my children a 'Christmas breakfast' on the 1st December! We don't have an elf so I don't call it a 'Northpole breakfast' but it is pretty much the same.

I decorate the table and I have silver chargers that I put the food on - Christmas tree crumpets, mini mice pies and gingerbread men. This year I'm doing them a 'candy cane' of sliced strawberries and banana. I always put a little chocolate figure next to their place. They have Christmas plates and bottles I will get out. On the table will also be their Christmas card from me and their advent calendar (traditional picture one). They love it and it gets us all in the festive mood. Anyone else?

Hurrah! @LynetteScavo - someone else who remembers the twelve days and Epiphany!

@vesta - we also remember Epiphany - just because we celebrate the first day of advent doesn't mean we don't. And we probably don't follow some of your 'UK traditions' - we do things our own way - we don't have to all be the same!

This year 1st Dec is the first day of advent. It is not always.

@VestaTilley - Christmas means different things to different people. For us it’s not the twelve days and Epiphany, it’s good food, parties, seeing friends and family and time off work.

VestaTilley imagine very few people do all of those things. People pick and choose the things that make them and their families happy.
By ‘the true meaning of Christmas’ do you mean the birth of Jesus? As surely you know that a lot of people aren’t religious, and celebrate Christmas for other reasons?
Nothing on earth could persuade me to tie myself into an elf, or give more presents on Christmas Eve for example, and my tree will go up sometime mid December. But a special breakfast on Sunday sounds fun, so I might do it .

Oh and we also do the 12 days of Christmas and Epiphany.

Meanwhile the actual message of Christmas gets completely lost...

I’m not sure getting knocked up at 13 then blaming it on an imaginary friend is a message I’m particularly keen to convey to my kids.

Sorry, bold fail.

Meanwhile the actual message of Christmas gets completely lost

What’s that then?

I’m not religious. For me, the message of christmas is about taking the time to enjoy yourself with the people you love. How do North Pole breakfasts and the Elf take away from that? Clue, they don’t.

it's plastic tat mentality

See either people are just deranged or they’re grasping at straws to belittle people’s choices.

Take your pick.

A special breakfast - involves no plastic tat whatsoever.

Our EOTS is cloth and involves no further expenditure, plastic or otherwise.

Yet this is ‘plastic tat’ when crackers, baubles, cards, Christmas jumpers, secret Santa shite all go unremarked upon?

Bonkers.

@beyond - this is true but I think because advent calendars start on the 1st I think non-religious people would see this as the start of advent.

@LaurieMarlow - I think it was all the stuff the poster had (including plastic tat) was not 'plastic tat mentality' but my Christmas breakfast because it was not on her list of approved activities was 'plastic tat mentality'. Yep, bonkers!

Careful LaurieMarlow and UndertheCedartree, she’ll come back and ‘facepalm’ again

I’m so scared

I just find this piling on and belittling of other people’s choices extraordinary. If you don’t like the idea of a NP breakfast, no problem, don’t do it. It really is that simple.

Trying to make others feel bad about perfectly innocuous stuff they do is just dickish.

I’m a bit torn. I love family traditions and celebrations and having fun and novelty pancakes and so on. But I do worry about the stakes being raised by people who want to sell us things. I hate the idea of people feeling worried and inadequate because their budget won’t run to extra stuff. Or whose emotional and mental well being might be damaged because they just don’t have the resources to live up to a whole 6 weeks of Christmas. The Christmas Eve Box is a good example of this. When my dd, who is now 22, was little, my friends thought I was a “daft ha’poth” for doing new pyjamas on Christmas Eve. Now it’s just standard and supermarkets are full of them.
Easter? 10 years ago- an egg and possibly a new dress. Now decorations, trees, presents......
Lovely family traditions are lovely. Pressure from marketing people, less fine.

I don't do it as live alone, but quite honestly am depressed and in pain and anything Christmassy makes me feel better so will be embracing it for the whole of December.

@UndertheCedartree - for us 1 December has nothing to do with the first day of advent but the first chocolate from the advent calendar and the start of the Christmas party season.

I wouldn’t have a clue when advent was and would always just use 1st December.

I don’t really get the hand wringing and I wonder if It’s a British thing. British people can be.... pretty miserable can’t they?

I mean this sort of thing is absolutely American. Americans seem to really know how to celebrate and throw fabulous celebrations/parties for all sorts of lovely reasons and surely they’re all the better for it.

I don’t imagine that American parents are any more pressurised and depressed than the rest of us are. And they have to sort thanksgiving AND Christmas plus any other religious celebration. They seem to just get on with it. More confident than the British maybe?

My version of this is that I cook a goose on the first Sunday of advent. Lots of lovely goose fat for the Christmas potatoes, and it’s a nice way of marking the start of the season. If anyone is growing tired of criticising the op’s breakfast they’re welcome to give out about my dinner instead.

@UndertheCedartree When I was younger, I spent Christmas Day on a psychiatric ward. I am so happy for you that you are able to be home and with your family.xx

@elbeagle

@bertrand - I agree if someone feels pressure to do things they can't afford or have the mental space for it is not a good thing. But I think we have to take responsibility for ourselves. My children aren't getting new Christmas pjs because they still have gorgeous red onsies with peguins on that fit them from 2 years ago and I'm also tight for money. There a lots of things many people do for Christmas and the lead up that I don't do. For example lots of people get lots of alcohol for Christmas day and enjoy getting a bit tipsy. I don't do that because more than a glass or 2 makes me depressed the next day. We can all pick and choose what we enjoy and each to their own.

@parker - yeah I guess it means different things to different people.

@Passthecherrycoke - British people can be a bit miserable. A bit too cynical and sarcastic, at times.

I think it's a bit like being glass half full/empty. Some people hear about my breakfast and think 'Goodness me! Another thing to do! On top of everything else!' And some people think 'Ah, that sounds fun! I'm going to give it a go!' Some people do find Christmas one big pressure. Some people thorougly enjoy all the planning and preparing.

@barb - that sounds lovely