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 would be quite happy to not do anything but as a people pleaser I know I'll end up doing all the things to make everyone smile and be exhausted and unmerry, otherwise I'll be full of guilt and be miserable if I don't.

To be honest I'm looking at my bank account and the stress of it all is taking I toll. Even buying costumes for five children is getting me tense. It's so hard to be merry when there is such a financial loom over it all.

I will not be buying lots of presents as all offspring work and earn more than me!
I will not be sending Christmas cards to everyone just immediate family. I think in this day and age they are quickly becoming a thing of the past.
I will be thinking how lucky I am and how grateful I am to everyone in my life. That for me is the very best present 🎁

Elf never have never will

Costumes for Halloween, not Christmas I should add, I haven't quite lost the plot yet 😅

I cannot think of anything really , I have pared things down over the years , some by choice , some because that's what happens

I still do Dec 1st Bags for my DC ( they're adults ) because it gives them useful gifts . Nothing overtly Christmas (except Advent Calendars)
I bought some Hotel Chocolat ones this year , the Cadbury Tower ones last year were a swizz .
Christmas bedding, shower curtain, straws as I have them already

I'll make a smalll cake (for me) I bought some slices last year and they weren't brilliant TBH.
No cupcakes or biscuits , no-one eats them. Maybe brownies ?
I only send cards to my Mum and DBro

I will give DS money which he asks for
DD not sure yet , she'll do a list .

DH and I are going to a Christmas Market (UK) this might be a one-off

No tree since the cats arrived , didn't even attempt it last year !

We won’t be doing our massive outdoor light display this year 😢
it makes me sad as the neighbourhood love it. But we just can’t justify the electric cost this year.

Watching the Queen's message

Paying a fortune to go to see a Santa's grotto. My DC are finally too old. Going to see if there is anything a but nice grown up to do instead

Not overbuying sweets, cake etc as it's taking bloody ages for the weight to come off.
Not buying my friends ridiculously expensive gifts as I'm skint.

Travelling 1 1/2 hours to see in laws for couple of hours, they can come to us for a change 8 years since they've set foot in our house, coz they have dogs, wouldn't mind but so do we. They are retired we arnt. Barely see or hear from them all year, not sure why we pretend to be honest.
Having my parents stay for 10 days last year was too much, hoping to halve it this year (not sure how)I know the previous two were no gos coz of covid but jeez I was worn out.
No to Christmas cards.
Yes to making more homemade food, I fancy trying to make a cake this year, not made one since I was 15 at school, so over 35 years ago.

Buying turkey
Pre ordering marks food
Buying too much food.
Buying too many presents
Going out so much

Not buying tubs of celebrations etc rather buy one or two decent boxes of chocolates

Won't be leaving everything till the last minute...last year I was so ill and hadn't planned enough, early enough, for Christmas Day to go ahead.

I will however be cooking a Christmas roast. It is the most important part if the day for us, all dressed up, late in the day, table decorated, lit candles. Love it.

We're doing the same. Neither of us can be arsed cooking a roast that one quarter of the family won't eat anyway.

Not seeing DH's relations, thank goodness.

@bloodywhitecat making new memories is so important. My husband died in march 2012. We went to my parents at Christmas 2012 (we didn't know Christmas 2011 would be his last)
Last saw my parents for Christmas in 2019. 2020 was COVID and 2021 my brother wasn't as well so couldn't bring them to me then mum died unexpectedly in August. I don't dwell on past Christmases...life is about remembering and moving onwards. I admire your attitude

I won't be travelling to see family on Christmas Day. DDs just want to stay at home and play with their presents and to be honest I just want to sit in my PJs and drink champagne so they can come to us, or we'll see them Christmas Eve or Boxing Day. 🤣

I won't be making my own mince pies this year. I'm not a good enough baker and shop bought are perfectly nice so I'm not bothering.

Last year we tried something different and had venison for Christmas dinner instead of turkey. It was very nice but we actually missed the traditional element of having turkey so we're going back to it.

Knee capping my Christmas Day at 1pm to hand DDs over to my ex.

He’s barely seen them this year, and when he does, it’s only for a day. Apparently he feels he has nothing in common with them. They feel like he has no interest in them.

Well, that’s what happens when you have teenagers who you’ve spent the last decade seeing for one weekend a month, and he never paid attention to my warnings about this.

So, DDs are finally spending an entire Christmas with me, at their request.

I also won’t be

• Dragging myself out to my Aunts for the large adults only family gathering
• Eating leftover takeaway for Christmas Dinner
• Have a hangover on Boxing Day from all the booze I had to consume to make half of my family tolerable

No spending more than 20quid on each adult pressie, we've all agreed to a budget.

No trip to Cologne as we have a very old hound and it's not fair for her to be away.

No failing to check the timings of carol services and then missing them!

Not cooking too. Ds3’s first Xmas so buying steak pie frozen mash n veg. Easy enough for dp to make lol

We won't be going mad on decorating the house - 2 trees is enough!

Buying fillers / extra gifts for our "children " two are mid twenties and the youngest is 17 and doesn't like "stuff"

Or spending too much just for things to open.I've realised we all prefer experiences together throughout the year than things.

Buying chocolate/ sweets as we always get given loads and were still eating them up in June .

Planning too much - just let everyone go with the flow.

I will be Sneaking off with dh for a walk and cheeky drink at the pub on our own away from the full house- preferably with a log fire.

I won't be doing Christmas at all. Well, I suppose I will put up the decorations that I already have, I won't be buying any more.

I'm working the whole of Christmas and won't be doing anything else, I shall be knackered.....

• No elf, the kids don't care anymore!
• No Christmas cake, took ages, the ingredients were quite expensive, wasn't as nice as shop bought and made far too much of it
• No new decs, we have more than enough
• No opening of celebrations / quality street etc until a bit closer to Christmas, we got through quite a few boxes last year 🐷
• No expensive visits to see FC, instead try to do festive low key activities that the kids really want to do
• No visiting loads of relatives when we would rather be at home, will invite them to visit us

Not flogging myself nearly to death in the weeks before at work.

I effectively retired at 63 this year, lucky me. I looked exhausted on the Xmas pics last year.

Sticking to the 'current healthy eating guidelines'.

In our older age, we have had to adopt all sorts of moderate, sensible changes to what we eat and how much we eat.

Our reward is that for the actual day of Christmas, 25th Dec, all constraints are thrown off and we eat whatever we like. Not for the twelve days of Christmas, Not starting early December or November.

Just Christmas Day.

It really adds a special element to the actual Christmas day. We have through trial and error come to the realisation that if we start with chocolate early morning we won't make it through the day unscathed.

Instead, it means a roast potatoes or two, great port with the cheese (and accompaniments, some really good chocolate, perhaps something in the marzipan line. Equally, we have some younger members and neighbours who will be plied with the unattempted treats do that the house is back to normal from Boxing Day.

I recommend the approach to you.