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!)

This Christmas I won't be;

• attending work christmas night out
• taking part in work secret santa
• leaving dhs present till December
  (Done)
• buying into over priced beauty Advent calanders
• going to our local shops christmas Eve (absolute mayhem)
• buying gifts in December ( i plan to use my days of enjoying the month)

Hopefully won’t be taking DD to A&E this year! She spiked a temp and puked EVERYWHERE in the middle of Xmas dinner last year and ended up in hospital on Boxing Day with a severe infection.

we won’t be having turkey (duck for us!) and will be having my mum and the in-laws at our house! They only live a short(ish) walk away but I love when they come to us rather than us having to go out to them. We also won’t be buying DD a “big” present, as in laws decided they wanted to buy her the only thing I’d thought of to get her as a main present.

NOT spending Christmas Day with abusive STBXH…haven’t quite figured out how the DC are going to see him, but there’s time yet !

Working, as Chanukah overlaps it this year.

I won't be wrapping so many presents.
We have built up a good collection of Amazon gift bags from friends/family and I will be using those where possible just within this household so we get to keep them.

Won’t be putting up big Christmas trees. Dh has been unwell and we need to scale back our decorations. Normally we have 2 big Christmas trees, not this year!

Won’t be buying many presents. Dses are now adults, we will be scaling our gift buying right back.

Elf on the shelf, North Pole breakfast, Christmas Eve boxes etc. All the extra stuff that has been added over recent years to make Christmas even more commercial. I do love Christmas but I think kids already get more than enough (ours do anyway). I prefer to buy a few extra toys to give to local charities for kids that won't get much over Christmas.

Me too!

I will also be asking DD what she wants up wrt decorations this year. If she wants a really pared back house this year then we'll do it. She gets a bit overwhelmed these days.

Lifting a finger! I’ll have a very new baby on Christmas Day so my DH, mum, and my sister/BIL are taking care off all the cooking and washing up😁

Hugging my son who died last year 😔

So sorry to hear this.

We are going abroad this year and I can't wait to wave everyone off and avoid the whole thing

• No secret Santa drama
• No worrying about awkward family dynamics
• No traipsing around visiting people
• No elf
• No buying extra pointless gifts to look pretty under the tree

Christmas day will be spent on the beach! I don't actually dislike Christmas, but other people make it unbearable.

Having Christmas at home. With expensive energy costs for just us,

Instead, will travel to grandparents. So one lot of heating costs, so we can all be warm. Will be doing a supermarket shop to her house and taking things so it is not a big cost for them. One oven on, more fo us to eat up leftovers!

No Christmas markets, work nights out, work secret Santa’s. No panto.
instead will use out NT membership for free events, and take hot chocolate in flasks when we go.

Drinking. Cooking. Moving much.

Will be 35 weeks pregnant so playing with the two year old with his new presents and basking on the sofa, eating mince pies, are my limits this year.

Seeing my family. After decades of cooking gargantuan meals every Christmas they have all chosen to go elsewhere. I think we’ll do our own thing every year from now on. I feel used.

i will be careful not to buy too much food like twiglets , cheese footballs etc . We always end up binning some in about March.

Spending all day in the car running myself ragged to see everyone. I'll be at home with my husband and son and everyone can visit us for a change. Having all visits in the morning so we can relax in the afternoon and just enjoy the day

I honestly can't think of anything I've done Christmassy in the last few years that I would change. We are very low key. We have a real tree, send cards, eat turkey and gammon, mince pies, a bit more alcohol than usual, will probably crack out a board game. We do close family gifts.

Just hoping that our well-meaning neighbours who we don't want to socialise with don't invite us out for a pre-Christmas dinner again. We could deploy the covid card if it happens.

I'm so sorry.

I don't do a sit down family meal. I am not into big roasts and the kids definitely are not. I cook a nice gammon in the slow cooker. Buy some pre made nice potatoes and Yorkshire puddings. DH cooks them on Christmas day for himself. I put everything out like a picnic including chocolate sandwiches, pringles, sweets, sausage rolls etc on a fun Santa party table with crackers etc and the kids eat it. They love it.

Last Christmas day various neighbours had a nice chat (half of us merry) while the kids tried out there various new outdoor toys. My eldest and his friend ate chocolate sandwiches in his room and pringles playing games (the boys mum had said he could come over for a while) and we all laughed, relaxed and had fun all day.

Ours played hide and seek last year, went missing for days 😉

Scratch cards are a genius idea! Thank you

Going to my 32 strong inlaws on Boxing Day afternoon , can't be doing with the false forced festive gubbins

I won't be doing last minute wrapping at midnight on Christmas Eve like every other year....I am determined. I have started the shopping already.

I won't be organising our friendship groups Christmas meal. It's a nightmare, no one will agree a date, no one will commit to a venue or menu and then it all gets booked up. I can see in the WhatsApp they are all avoiding it and hoping I do it. I'm not. I don't care if it doesn't happen, I am not being lumbered with it this year! They can come round and eat mince pubs with me but I am not doing all the booking, paying deposits and then trying to change it when one person decides they can't do it that date after all.