A tatless Christmas?

[AlternativelyWired]

I'm trying to cut back this year and one way is less chocolate for the dc as we still have stuff from last Christmas. The other way is a ban on festive tat and items that are just for use at Christmas. They have festive pjs but I give those on December 1st and they are suitable for the whole of the colder months. They always wear them in the summer too and aren't fussy. I've been wearing my candy cane pjs all year too.
Has you successfully abolished tat?

I decided not to do toy or beauty Advent calanders anymore. Half the items in the beauty ones end up in a drawer. Same with the toy ones, 24 tiny pieces when father christmas is coming on the 24th anyway, I just don't see the point of a tiny plastic treat a day in the run up.

I've only ever done chocolate advent calendars. We have one that I fill every year. I've had it 14 years and it's still going strong. I was thinking of putting Lego in it for ds this year but I'm not sure what to do for Dd. I did think kawaii stuff but it's not going to fit and will cost too much. The compartments are only small.

you have chocolate let over from last year???

Oxfam do crackers you can fill yourself, you can put actually nice or useful things in them

i haven't fully managed it, but i do a few things;

we buy some practical items for our children - character socks, stationery, umbrellas, toiletries, new bedding, which will get used during the year.

'experiences' like cinema tickets, coffee gift cards etc, don't take up space either.

we ask recipients for ideas of gifts they would like and give them ideas as well, so we actually get items that we want.

Watching this thread.
I've asked my children for
Something they want
Something they need
Something to wear
Something to read
Then they'll get chocolate socks etc but NO TAT
It's easier as they're older

It all depends what you are considering to be 'tat'. On here I find one person's tat is another's perfectly normal gift.

Yes,but ours are older now so its easier. Even so,I always refused Advent Calendars with stuff in them,even when they were tiny.
Stockings are practical or consumable- socks,pants toiletries, miniatures,wildflower seeds,shampoo bars,notebooks,candles etc
Some things are second hand

I try and buy locally or on Etsy but obviously for somethings - a particular perfume maybe- I cant. Wrapping paper and tape is recycled/ recyclable,and dont really buy masses of food. Enough for Christmas Eve and the Christmas day dinner,with leftover for Boxing Day then back to normal. Any non reusable food waste goes in composter.

I also make some gifts like chilli oils and plum brandy for foody friends. It all sounds a bit poncy written down but I'm not adding any more to the world's tat mountain if i can help it.

Yes, but it’s not as simple as that morally is it?
Somebody feeds their family through making and distributing your “tat”!

Last year was an embarrassing amount of shite, the dc's dad over-compensated with tat after divorce, this year we would much prefer experiences rather than stuff. We'll see. 🙄

Stocking tat was one of the worst offenders in our house. Our stocking content this year will be 50% edible and 50% practical and 0% plastic tat that lies around the house. On the list already:

Felt pens
Bath bomb
Top trumps game
Packets of seeds
Hello Panda biscuits
Mini tubs Pringles
Can of American Soda
Rolled up magazine
Reuseable straw
Chocolate coins

@Needmorelego true. I think I mean plastic things that are just for Christmas. We definitely need more Lego! I've spent the past week sorting out 18 sets of Lego. Only one complete set in that lot 😩 We love Lego and the Lego magazines are the only ones I'll buy for ds as he will play with the included poly bags a great deal.

There’s a whole a city in China that’s dedicated to making Christmas tat!

I’ve been conscious of tat but not just at Christmas - Halloween isles and Easter shit is also on the rise. It’s the grandparents that need reining in! I think they’re making up for not being able to buy us so much when we were younger but neither of my kids want for much either so it’s a bit excessive. Some is useful like water bottles and socks but nope we do not need yet another pair of snowball deely boopers or a plastic reindeer than poos chocolate rasins please.

Christmas jumpers get passed or exchanged via a school organised swap. PJs I rarely buy Christmas specific and always pass them on so if they haven’t been worn out beforehand.

Baubles I buy some new and swap them around but don’t throw away. I’ve got some Christmas mugs and bedding we bring out each season so don’t count that as tat iyswim.

I love the slow change from autumn to winter, and bringing out the blankets and throws, switching over to the brushed cotton bedding and hot water bottles, lighting candles, pulling curtains. All of these little things extend into January, sometimes February.

I tend to choose winter styles rather than Christmas styles wherever I can. The exception is jumpers because there’s always a school event that demands them but they can be donated (and bought second hand) so I don’t consider them tat.

We do our own crackers (they’re very easy) but I don’t bother with snaps anymore. I’m a dull present buyer as I prefer things that are useful and inflict that on everyone else.

I love, love, love getting the Christmas things out of the attic. I have some amazing tacky plastic things from the 1970s.

The weak points for me are advent calendars and plastic packaged side dishes. Ds wants a Lego advent calendar every year and while I can justify its resale value, I know that’s a very dubious argument. And I should and could cook my own sides but the convenience is hard to resist.

We reuse the Lego and playmobil advent calendars but sometimes we have Lego Santa still in the toy box getting played with months later 😆

Yes I stopped doing tat and “filler” presents a few years ago. It just stressed me having all that nonsense stuff in the house that never got used.
So now we have a refillable advent calendar. No Christmas PJs or Christmas Eve boxes, stockings literally have only edible treats that are gone by New Year. And presents are only what I know for sure will be used and appreciated. I haven’t bought new decorations for years.

@Titsflyingsouth seeds! That's a great idea for both children actually for stockings as they love to grow plants and flowers.

A whole city in China devoted to making tat?? Wow, that's crazy.

I like this seeds idea too! What seeds are good for the kids to plant in January?

Re Lego calendars, we got given a calendar with drawers a few years ago, so we buy a Lego kit (around £15-20 usually gives a balance between having enough pieces but being small enough to fit in the drawers) and put one page's worth (plus that day's instruction photocopied) in every other drawer, with a chocolate in the other days.

Determined to try for no tat this year as most presents are being looked for now on Marketplace and Ebay, as well as charity shops. Then I'm hoping I will have time to make a few things as well.

I think I saw an advent calendar somewhere with seeds each day.😍

Following good idea on seeds.

I am definitely getting there as I have been working towards this for a few years. We are digging up our old Christmas tree from the garden and reusing it this year.
We cover the house in chopped up ends of Christmas tree (waste) from the christmas tree growers and buy a huge bundle of them, and tie them together to make garlands and put them everywhere and then decorate them with left over ribbons and pine cones.
We always make our own crackers and this year I will be putting eco very usable items in there. Plus a five pound notes or two for the lucky ones.
Children are learning christmas songs so we can use our piano for music.
I am refusing to buy anything plastic in any form. So it needs to be wool, felt, wood etc or I am not buying it. My dc are older so it is easier, and they are more eco friendly than I am.
We are having some of Christmas around the fire pit, we started this during covid and it was so fun.
Love this thread op, thank you

I only use brown paper for gifts, which I decorate with paper stickers or use ink stamps and tie up with coloured jute string, so no sellotape. Advent calendar is a reusable one (11 years, still going strong) that contains a chocolate or sweets. I’ve more or less given up on Christmas cards except a few to elderly relatives who appreciate them. Decorations are either old or biodegradable. No plastic or glittery stuff.

Stocking fillers are practical or edible and come with minimal packaging - bamboo toothbrush, soap, nice socks or knickers, stationary, a book, lottery ticket, candle, chocolate.

We ask relatives to buy one, single item present for each DC rather than give piles of tat. Luckily MIL, DM and the aunties are good about sticking to that and checking what DCs actually want or giving experiences. Kids prefer experiences to “stuff”. Adults don’t swap presents anyway.

I’m 🙄at many “new traditions” of giving that require expense, like expensive gift containing advent calendars, Christmas Eve boxes (why?!), novelty deeply boppers etc and new Christmas PJs, so don’t bother. Christmas presents under the tree on 25th and a stocking still create impact with mine. We buy lots of delicious special food, locally as possible. Round me that’s dead easy.

For stockings the children loved seeds, cress grows any time of the month, the little heads with grass seed were always well received in our house.
We also gave the children hedgehog homes, butterfly hatching set (to be used in late spring) and insect houses all much used for years.

We had refillable calendars from the DC being small and soon ran out of ideas to fill the little pouches. So I'd spread out what little things I could think of, then put in slips of paper, either with an activity - things we'd have done anyway eg make paper chains, go to the cinema, visit a garden centre to see the trees and decorations, walk around the block to look at the lights etc etc.; or 'lucky dip' slips, wrap things that wouldn't fit in the pocket, put them in a Christmas bag and they could pick one when they got a lucky dip slip. Takes a lot of pressure off!

(If you do go with the activities idea, make a note of which date you've put which activity in, to save having to rummage through if your plans change or you want to swap things around. )

When we were children, we had a traditional advent calendar which simply had a picture behind the window. It got put away and brought out every year and we still got excited about it, even though over the years we knew which picture was coming up!

The Christmas Eve boxes are great, as we put in very warm winter PJs, oats for the reindeers to be sprinkled on the grass, hot chocolate lollipops to be plopped in hot water, an old copy of the night before Christmas that is decades old and eco friendly Christmas bath bomb to encourage early baths and early night. It is honestly a lovely tradition with zero tat.