Are we the only parents who don't do Christmas Eve boxes?

[User6447482684755]

we have just never bothered, something else for me to think about too!

They've never questioned why they don't get one. They weren't even a thing a few years ago right?

I was Christmas shopping today (I know, early but I don't often get much chance to shop mid week when kids are at school). The cashier picked up on me buying for Christmas and was chatting nicely, she says oh well you give your kids a Christmas Eve box yeah? Just her assuming that all kdis have one. She meant well but I am questioning myself now.

I was like no we don't!

we tend to visit family on Christmas Eve and gifts are exchanged and sometimes opened early (from family). We always have take away on Christmas Eve!

that is our tradition.

we have an elf on the shelf but we do it our own way. Sometimes I wish I never started though.

we also don't bother with the whole matching PJ thing.

we tend to just do things our way without following any fads! That's okay, right?

Busy doing what?

I agree that it's hard to comment on these threads without appearing as though you are 'sneering' at other people's choices.

But the best 'tradition' we have is that there are absolutely no traditions ... we don't tend to do the same thing year after year (apart from attending Church on Christmas Day) and that - for me - is what makes it work. .

As my DS gets older I am well aware that he won't want to spend every Christmas with us (he is an only DC) and I really don't want to be one of those overbearing parents that assumes their adult DC will want to do Christmas 'the same way' year after year.

@catbirddogchild too busy to put your children to bed? That’s sad.

We don’t, however they do get a hamper of sorts on 1st December with their Christmas themed clothes, socks and pjs so they can wear them all month, their advent calendar and a new decoration for the tree.

Not us. I do get a new Christmas shirt for everyone but give it on the 1st so we can wear them to all the Christmas stuff. On Christmas Eve we leave stuff out for Santa and the reindeers. That's it.

No Christmas Eve box or creepy elf here. I bet every parent who started the elf thing ends up regretting it hugely. Who's got time for that shit???

we tend to just do things our way without following any fads! That's okay, right?

Always ok to do your own thing, but not to refer to new things as 'fads' as that is a judgemental term..

This is a brilliant idea - I always find something after Christmas we forgot about.

I don't think every parent regrets it. Lots of people enjoy it.

My kids are older so it wasn’t a thing then. But I think we risk overwhelming children and taking away any specialness . Let alone the ridiculous commercialisation, waste etc….

I think if I had little kids I might have got sucked in. But actually a magical Christmas morning is the best and needs no embellishments . Maybe traditions of doing things on Christmas Eve as a family enhance the experience for kids rather than “more stuff”.

No we don't. I only heard of it a couple of years ago. We don't do Eof on the Shelf either because I keep hearing parents moan about it!

We have a lazy elf, no Christmas Eve box. We do new PJs Xmas Eve not matching just a set from primark and a chocolate advent calendar. Mine our now 13 & 19 and never mentioned they missing out on anything :) We love Christmas in our house, it’s exciting as the family come together and have a wander around seeing Christmas lights etc

Is the Christmas Eve box a take on the way Christmas is celebrated on the continent, ie: on the 24th?
I sort of refused to get into the British traditions when it came to Christmas, I come from a culture that does 3 presents: something you want, something you need and a surprise. Given on the 24th late evening. So by the time we came back from the crib service, mummy’s Santa came. Pyjamas, a book or two, and something she really wanted, like loom bands. Then all my friends and their kids came round or we went around theirs, and all the kids had their presents, all dressed in pyjamas and they played happily whilst the adults celebrated Christmas, having dinner (buffet) and drinks. Because the kids were all in pyjamas, it made it easier for us to just pick them up from wherever they fell asleep and bundle them into cars to go home. And we all got a bit of a lie in on the 25th 😂😂.

Is this where the box came from?

My dc are your age and I've never heard of it! (SE uk)

No 1st December box, Christmas eve box or Xmas pj's. We've always had a fab Xmas with ds at the centre but he's 17 and none of these things were around when he was little. We have a cloth advent calender and I put little gifts and treats in it. We have always done lots of really nice activities during Advent too. Each to their own but I think all the buying into boxes for this and that is quite materialistic and surely children have enough at Christmas already?

I always thought a Christmas Eve box was things for the day to add routine and manage excitement. I used to do it with my eldest when they were little. pjs, bath stuff, hot choc and gingerbread man,bedtime book and cuddly toy. They would have bath and change into pjs, watch a Christmas film with hot choc and snack, then toy to take to bed and a book to read. I don't do it anymore as I seperated from their dad and now do alternate Christmases, but also as I have five so it's a bit too expensive now.

The Christmas eve box thread comes up every year without fail, and every year it meets with the same criticism that its unheard of, a box filled with tat and its commercialing Christmas and spoiling children. Yet a thread running asking what advent calanders to buy and advice on how to fill them with bouncy balls, lego, hair slides etc meets no such conflicting opinions. So on MN Elemis and filling your own advent calanders is ok, but a box filled with each year with the same book, mug and only a new pair of pjs is not?

As much as these threads are always filled with the same negative crap I do love reading about other people's Christmas traditions. I absolutely remember reading @ThatsRoughBuddy's posts in years gone by and have always thought it was lovely.

I was very aware when our eldest was about 3 that we were going to be setting Christmas traditions for years to come. Before that it didn't really matter as she wouldn't remember. My eldest DD had American cousins with an elf. So that Christmas we got an elf too. Now we have two girls (7 and 10) and they bloody love the elf. I understand why many find it work but it makes the kids smile and genuinely my husband and I have quite a lot of fun coming up with things for him to do. He doesn't tend to make a big mess of anything but usually takes an interest in what the girls have been doing that year. Last year they had been watching The Floor is Lava so he set up a little course with Lego Santa falling into the lava. They giggled so much when they found it.

The Christmas Eve box replaces a tradition from when I was little where I could pick one present from under the tree on Christmas Eve. It always felt a bit forced "no, not that one" and trust me, nothing saps the excitement for Christmas than opening a hideous pair of gloves from your auntie the night before. 😁

Instead we have Christmas Eve boxes. I decorate the boxes myself in the lead up to Christmas. I always loved arts and crafts and have found that the older I get the less I seem to do. However every year I make a point of spending some evening time on it with a few drinks and a Christmas film in the background. I always have fun and manage to surprise myself at how well they turn out. They are left by the elf on Christmas Eve morning and contain some fun things for the kids - PJs (not Christmas themed but usually nice fluffy ones), sometimes some hot chocolate or fun sweets, sometimes a book or annual, sometimes socks or slippers, a bath bomb then a little cuddly toy - the content changes each year.

We also make a gingerbread house on the 23rd. That is then eaten on the 24th with hot chocolate. It's something that was never a tradition for us growing up but something we wouldn't miss now.

The thing I wish we'd never started - stockings. We both had them growing up but honestly they feel a bit lost on Christmas morning. I think they worked for me because I was usually up at 4am so it gave my parents another hour. Our kids sleep much better than I did! The kids enjoy them but I honestly find them a chore to shop for.

I think the point I'm trying to make is that our Christmas traditions have evolved from what we had and no doubt our daughters will do something different with their families too. That's totally ok.

Finally, just to dispel another myth peddled in these threads, neither my husband or I have social media. We don't do any of our Christmas traditions for likes or comments, we do them for our children and because we enjoy doing them ... well, apart from stockings apparently!

Honestly, I’m no longer a practicing Roman Catholic and I do in fact have another faith that isn’t Christianity and Christmas without Jesus puzzles me.

I still celebrate Christmas as do my family. They do it for me as they know what it is and that it’s what mama was brought up doing and I’ve only ever been able to explain it to them from the Jesus aspect of things. I wouldn't know how to do it any other way.

Christmas without Jesus puzzles me

Christmas in this country is as cultural as it is religious, probably even more so. The midwinter festival is far more ancient and enduring than Christianity which is a baby at only 2000 years old. The lights, feasting, exchanging gifts, music, story-telling, activities, events, decorations, myths and legends which make up the patchwork of my Christmas are nothing to do with the Baby Jesus. I do, sometimes, tell the Bible Christmas story to my dc, along with many other fictions and legends.

How about..

Christmas is a mid winter festival involving food and gifts that spans back millennia and has adopted the name the Christians named the festival period.

Easy.

Yes im sure there was always a midwinter festival, but why on earth would you think that was “Christmas”? By all means celebrate anything you like, whenever you like, but “Christmas” is named for the Christian festival celebrating the birth of Christ.

Christmas is the name Christians gave to a festival that already existed and co-opted it and changed the meaning of the festival.

Christmas is a mish mash of traditions, including things like Yule logs, bringing in nature etc. None of that is anything to do with the Christian Christmas, yet many Christians will happily tuck into a Yule Log.

Christians don't own Christmas just because everyone uses the word they chose for the festival.

I call it Joulu now anyway, which is Yule and not anything to do with Jesus.

Well... This thread is full of Christmas spirit eh? 😂

I don't think OP has even replied after the original post...