Christmas eve vs 1sr December boxes

[ItsAllBlahBlahBlah]

Hi all. Just wondering what others do as my two boys are only little (3 and 1) so we're finding our way wirh christmas traditions. Last year I did an Xmas eve box with pj's slippers, book etc in. I've just read something about 1sr Dec boxes though with similar items which to me makes more sense as they get more wear. What do you all do? I mean if I put the pj's in for 1sr Dec it seems to rule our an Xmas eve box which was nice... 🙈

No boxes here. Christmas pjs have been last couple of years but there was no specific date we got them out. I bought a nice family set and bought various sizes for our youngest, 12-18 months first time, 2-3 etc… I bought the older ones bigger sizes they could wear for a couple of years. That way we can get a good few years worth out of the same family set.

The Elf’s arrive on 1st December with advent calendars. Lots of people hate the Elf’s but I absolutely love them and get a kick out of the fun we have with them. We are not into them doing naughty things, ours are cheeky and do things like have secret movie nights with popcorn, do a giant conga line with all the DCs toys and Santa’s etc… they also bring extra Christmas gifts, new headbands in time to wear for Xmas jumper day type thing, letter from Santa to say they had been good… We now have a little family of them including one of the giant ones from home bargains 😬 we don’t have the elf on a shelf, that just creeps me out, ours are more like soft toys. Last year on of my DDs spotted an unusual one in a charity shop window, he looks like our elf’s but in very different colours, the cheeky little bugger followed us home and now lives with us.

We have more than 1 advent calendar, the basic cheap 89p chocolate one, felt Xmas tree ones we fill and toy ones. We never use to do toy ones but I treat the DCs to them a couple of years ago, now they are here to stay. But they do go down well. My youngest has had the peppa pig one for the last 2 years and she still plays with it all every day. The toot toot one is pretty good too. My older DCs are into Lego so we get various Lego ones usually. The cost of them it’s like another Christmas present, but the DCs love them and do take care of them so we are happy to do them.

The only Christmas Eve tradition we have is baths, clean Xmas pjs on, setting up snacks and milk for santa and his raindeer, we put the stop santa signs out (I’ve found putting them out too long they get wet and soggy as they aren’t real wood), we sprinkle a bit of raindeer food not (no glitter, just some porridge oats, the Elf’s snuggle up in the stockings ready to go home with santa and then the bedtime story is the night before Christmas.

I almost forgot the DCs hide the presents they get for each other under the tree on Christmas Eve too. I’ve always done the DCs get siblings each a present but last year the older 2 (7 & 9) decided to do secret Santa, basically it was fixed as they wanted certain things so set it up they got to buy for each other so they got what they wanted but didn’t put on their lists 😂 But it was fun and we enjoyed it so will be doing it going forward.

Big HB elf and other less creepy ones.

We don’t do presents as such but on the 1st of December they get a bag with a Christmas survival kit. Pjs not always Christmassy, stockings for Christmas Eve, advent calendar, crafting stuff, a new drinking glass, maybe a Christmas plate. I save the Christmas rubix cube, keyring, pen, mini Lego set, stickers, blanket, Christmas book of things to do and I pull them out every year. Only new thing last year was the Christmas advent calendar. It means being mean and taking all Christmas themed stuff off them to hide away BUT they love getting them back.

Simple, buy PJs but not xmas "themed" ones and then they can wear them nigh on all year round.

For what it's worth, I just put PJs out on xmas eve. Nothing else.

Our Tree goes up the last weekend of November and on 1st December the elves leave a little gift bag for each DS.

Youngest this year has...
Christmas Pyjamas
Books: The Jolly Christmas Postman, The Christmas Bear and Squirrels Snowman
Advent Calander
Christmas Bauble
Christmas Snap
Happyland Nativity Set
Christmas Crafts (cheap on Baker Ross) so he can make Christmas Trees and Hedgehogs (keeps him occupied one afternoon when DM has him)

Christmas Eve is PJs (not necessarily Christmas ones), a dinosaur Bath Bomb, The Night Before Christmas Book and a Christmas Funny Faces Book... Oh and a Hot Choc Melting Dinosaur (Home Bargains have them in now) and a little treat like a Chocolate Lolly.

I’m another one who doesn’t do boxes. We all have an advent calendar to open, and they will be on the breakfast table on December 1st with some mini mince pies and the Christmas jumpers.

When I get the decorations out of the attic, there are various things like the Christmas mugs, books, a big smelly candle, Christmas hats and penguin gloves that come into use. If I were more organised and inclined towards boxes, these are the things that I would put inside. It definitely doesn’t have to be newly bought each year - it’s like rediscovering old friends.

On Christmas Eve we have new pjs, so that they are respectable for the inevitable Christmas morning photos. I don’t always buy Christmas pjs - they are more likely to be themed (and it’s lovely to look back over the photos and remember what they were into at each age) They are worn for months.

I think that these days there’s a huge emphasis on setting up traditions and making memories. But a lot of traditions will creep up on you anyway - with dc, if you do it once, it becomes a tradition because they love repetition. And if you’ve manufactured too many traditions it can be harder to keep up with the ones that evolve organically.

My friend invited his 3 yr old gs to help put up the Christmas tree, and after about 5 minutes he got tired so grandpa gave him a glass of coke and turned on the tv while he got on with it. The next year the little boy was so excited to go to grandpas for his “traditional” Christmas coke and cartoons. These days they’ve progressed to JD and coke and a Christmas movie together.

We don’t do Christmas Eve boxes, just another nonsense consumer modern ‘tradition’ designed to make you spend more money.

We do have Christmas PJs but the kids wear them year round, so makes sense to have new ones at Christmas.

I have also got the CBeebies arts and crafts magazine a few times (something I’ve also done for going on holiday buy DC1 is growing out of it now).

We usually have a low key day and watch a family film or play monopoly in front of the fire. I half expect Christmas to be yet another damp squib this year though.

Well personally I think it's more exciting wearing Christmas pyjamas in the lead up to Christmas than it is to get them on Xmas Eve and the excitement be over in the next day or 2. I didn't say you shouldn't wear them for the rest of the winter, but for us we prefer to have a big build up to Christmas, and love the excitement of what's to come. After Boxing Day we take the tree and decorations down and get back to normal. So 1st December is better for our family.

I used to do the CEH about 4pm to calm them down (and try and get them bathed, dressed in pyjamas, read an annual then bed ) . We used to take them out after lunch to feed reindeer and have a walk , I'd wait till DH was outside with them then I'd "Just check the back door was locked" and put the boxes out

Now they're adults they don't need calming down
I buy them underwear (branded ), pyjamas , loungwear, a bathrobe, socks
Some toiletries
Chocolate Adent Calendar - usually a Cadbury one not a snazzy Hotel Chocolat or anything like that
Jar of sweets

1st December is an exciting day in our home, the advent calendars start, Christmas jumpers come out (second hand or saved from last year) and Christmas books come out (collection built up over the years). That way we can enjoy them all month.

On Christmas eve the kids get new snuggly PJ's and leave out cookies for Santa. Like other posters have mentioned, I don't give them Xmas ones, just snuggly ones they wear all winter.

Definitely good to keep it simple. I do think Christmas themed gifts like stickers, hair clips, pencils etc are best given during advent, if they're recieved on Xmas day they usually don't get used much until the following year.

Mine are teenagers and we tend to do more traditions that repeat every year. 1st December is a reusable advent calendar, the wreath for the door that I made and we swap out our everyday place mats for ones we have used for at least a decade. We have a Christmas table cloth with a runner and we have some Christmas mugs that come out for hot chocolate for them, they don't drink coffee or tea. That is enough until stage 2 which is when the tree goes up and the house gets decorated.

Christmas eve is new pyjamas, never Christmas themed and they change out the advent calendar for their stockings for Father Christmas. Did I mention they are 18 and 15? Those stockings magically get filled at some point before they come down Christmas morning

We have had Christmas books but the same ones not new ones. My two are all about the memories of things rather than new ones. My friend does Christmas duvets which I do find lovely but they are brought out every year, not new.

Never done either

I don't do 2st of December box as my DSs birthday is end of November. The festive book box comes out with the tree and decorations.

Christmas eve box has the standard new pj's (although I'm going to have to get shortie ones or something this year as 4yo has rejected them recently and only sleeps in boxers!) and then it's just things like the stocking and santa plate. A bubble bath and the reindeer food. Mostly recycled year on year (the stocking used to be mine!)

Last year I made a pillowcase with DS and we stamped his handprint on it, i intend to add his handprint every year on Christmas eve. I put his santa letter requested gift in it and he was thrilled. It was just some festive iron on patches, red pillowcase and a gold name sticker but it was a really nice activity to do.

I do both. I buy arts and crafts stuff for the month of December and on Christmas eve we have pyjamas etc

We get woken up really early on December 1st by the elf blasting Christmas songs through Alexa in the kitchen.

A North Pole breakfast is already laid out on the table and December 1st boxes with personalised letters from Santa are waiting.

The boxes always contain the same books from the loft, new pyjamas, Christmas socks and T-shirt's and jumpers if the old ones won't fit, sweets and crafts. There's usually a ticket to a Christmas event in there too.

We don't do a box on 1st or 24th, but we do celebrate St Nicholas on the night of the 5th with a bootful of chocolate and toffee apples, which is also a good opportunity to give new pyjamas or a Christmas jumper.

I like the idea of having a bit of a celebration on the day you put the tree up.