What WON"T you be doing this Christmas?

[Eleusa]

I love Christmas and enjoy spending time planning the decorations, presents, what I'm going to cook etc. But after years of experience there are a few things that I definitely won't be doing-

• filling my own crackers. Did this one year- it cost an arm and a leg and no one seemed any more pleased with their carefully chosen personal gift than they would have done with the usual dead fish game and mini screwdrivers. Same goes for buying very expensive crackers.
• doing a stocking for my parents who were staying in the house. Dad came downstairs announcing it was "silly" and nearly dropped the "Santa's not real" bomb to DC on Christmas morning. Thanks, Dad!
• making some sort of elaborate Scandinavian baked pastries for Christmas breakfast. They were lush but the kids had already eaten a metric fuck-tonne of sugar after opening their stockings so not much got eaten. Elaborate Scandinavian baked pastries another day, however, are a fabulous idea.

What will you not be doing this Christmas? (Just being nosey about what other people do and don't like- definitely not suggesting that people shouldn't do things just because I don't!)

I won't be buying any new decorations, I have far too many but every year I buy more. It's so wasteful and unecessary. My parents had pretty much the same ones every year for our entire childhood and we loved seeing the familiar decorations. Things were only replaced if they were broken or tatty.

I'm only going to do something with the bloody elf once every few days. I did this by accident last year as we had just moved. The kids were not bothered, in fact they seemed to enjoy the surprise element when the elf had a busy night.

I'm not going to buy in so many nibbles and booze. We always have stuff left over.

Eating turkey. No one really likes it here.

Making Christmas pudding. Fed up of trying to get people to finish it off in February.

Re filling crackers - I usually just put a lottery scratchcard in each one. No one has ever won more than £10 though.

I won't be cooking Xmas dinner on Xmas day. First time in over 30 years. My DS invited us up to his new house for Xmas. Very excited.

Kids have all figured out FC is not real. No more overpriced father Xmas visits and finally feel like I can say no to any weird Christmas presents requests and buying pointless Xmas tat and elves.

looking forward to starting a new Xmas tradition based around family activities like jigsaws and bagatelle etc.

will still watch Elf Xmas eve, that tradition is not going anywhere.

Having turkey. We will be having lamb this year!

filling my own crackers. Did this one year- it cost an arm and a leg and no one seemed any more pleased with their carefully chosen personal gift than they would have done with the usual dead fish game and mini screwdrivers. Same goes for buying very expensive crackers

I buy cheap crackers but open one end and put in a scratch card.

DH is a vicar so the run up to Christmas and the day itself is hectic, and then we usually travel to our families who are several hours away. This year we are not going anywhere until the day after Boxing Day so he gets a break and space to decompress before all the (lovely) family madness starts.

Going to the office xmas party. I just can't be bothered with it all for the sake of a few free drinks.

Travelling miles to spend the day with family we don’t really want to see because it’s expected. Last year it was a real hassle and they gave us Covid!

Doing a roast. I've never done a turkey but this year there will be no roasting of anything going on in my house. Life and Christmas day is just too short for that kind of nonsense.

Spending the whole day in the kitchen. It's my DD's first Christmas and I'm so excited! Nanny and Grandad better roll their sleeves up 😁

Eating turkey or any kind of roast dinner
Seeing any relatives
Putting up a tree or decorations
Eating Xmas pudding
Doing anything "Christmassy", except possibly drink champagne 😂

Perfect!

Normally have dinner out Xmas Eve, it made the evening when we got home too busy, so switching that up to Lunch out this year.

Not buying any new board games, they only ever get played on Christmas day then shoved away in a cupboard!

Potentially not having adult DC on Christmas day, kind of hoping they get invited to their girlfirends families, is that mean??😁

Spending it with my lovely dad as he passed away a couple of weeks ago after an incredible fight against Parkinson’s - will be hard to even celebrate without him but we will try

No alcohol as l am pregnant

No cooking Christmas dinner or dragging myself round the country to see family members. Going out for dinner locally as a nice restaurant -it my last Christmas off for 18 years especially as lm expecting twins. I will do a roast at some point but no game as you’re not allowed when your pregnant apparently

No mad present buying as it’s going to be a low key Christmas

Travelling miles to see family up in London, going back and forth to make sure we see both sets of parents etc. I'll be nearly 39 weeks pregnant on Xmas Day so taking that as the best reason to sit at home and eat chocolate!

Sorry to hear this. Thinking of you

Metric fuck tonne

I won't be making stuffing from scratch. Last time it was such a disappointment, will be having packet sage and onion, pimped with a bit of fresh sage from the garden.

No turkey. I hate turkey and as I'm the one doing the cooking then it won't be happening. Tbf, I don't think anyone is that bothered thankfully.

My condolences @mrsbyers
Hope you’ll have a nice Xmas remembering your Dad.

Cooking Christmas dinner as we have been invited to my eldest child's for the first time ever!!!!!

Stressing.

Just having a nice easy day at home playing with DC. Sod it I can't be bothered this year.

I won't be dragging my 3 kids round a Christmas market or busy town centre for the sake of "feeling festive", instead I'm going to make it an adults-only shopping day (annual tradition which I love, but not when we have 3 neurodiverse kids melting down at various times of the day). I'll take them Christmas shopping for a couple of hours one day, but not to the city that's a couple of hours drive away!

I also won't be going away anytime over the festive period- tried this a few days after Christmas last year, and it just ruined the calm after-Christmas fun times for me.

I'll absolutely not be spending it with the bloody in laws no matter what they may think 🤣😂

Buying loads of presents for my 16 year old. She has made it quite clear that it's money all the way this year 💰 💰 💰

Make the most of it! This is what l intend to be doing in my pregnant state; no alcohol obviously so lots of chocolate and treats