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?

On this note for my dc I have learnt to buy what they actually want rather than what I think they should want. My daughter has had far more hours of play out of the lol dolls (that I refused to buy her because of all the plastic waste) than some of the more worthy toys I did buy her.

I'm trying but not fully there, but I do think it's a balance.

We do buy DDs Christmas pyjamas but they use them throughout all the winter months so they usually get them end of November. This year I've bought them from Vinted so they're second hand and I'll pass them on once DD2 has grown out of them. The same with Christmas jumpers..... I buy from Vinted.... they're always in excellent condition as they're hardly worn!

They don't have Christmas bedding but they do have blankets, but more of a winter style rather than just Christmas. DD1s is tartan and DD2 has snowflakes on hers. I'm glad of them this year as they'll help keep them warm in bed if we have the heating on less.

I agree with small stockings. DDs have had the same ones since their very first Christmas and they're pretty small. They always get consumables or useful things in there. So a new toothbrush, chocolate buttons, bath bomb, magazine, socks, hair slides, crayons, sachet of hot chocolate etc.

They definitely still like plastic tat but I buy that second hand from Vinted, eBay or Facebook marketplace. This year I've got DD1 a playmobil doll's house from marketplace and DD2 a Frozen playset from eBay. They'll love them but I'm much happier buying that sort of thing secondhand both for environmental reasons and the fact it is much cheaper! They don't care about it being secondhand, I doubt they even notice really as I'll just set it all up on Christmas Eve and put a ribbon on it or something rather than wrapping it up.

Any wrapping paper and tape is recyclable or I keep gift bags I'm given and reuse them the following year. I try and buy wrapping paper in a style that is festive but can be used for other occasions too throughout the year so red, gold, silver, striped, tartan etc.

DH and I agreed a few years ago to only buy useful or consumable gifts for one another. Things like a bottle of booze we may not normally buy ourselves, candles, socks, house plants, things for the garden, chocolate, perfume, a book etc.

I'm quite strict with regifting and do so without a second thought. If any of us are given a nice present but something we won't use or don't need it gets put in the regift box and used another time for someone else. If we don't think we know anyone that would appreciate it, it goes to charity.

Tat is relative isn’t it. Surely what this thread is about is not being wasteful.

Something can be tacky as hell but if it get used/played with and doesn’t break then it’s worth getting. Equally something beautiful, expensive and wooden (which seem to be the criteria for not tat) is a waste if it sits in a cupboard.

it’s less wasteful to buy secondhand but if you think something is tat, why are you buying it, second hand or not?

We’ve reached toy capacity right now - the kids interests havent changed in a couple of years and there’s only so many baby dolls/dress ups/sylvanians you need. So we are asking for experiences/subscriptions to reduce overload of ‘stuff’

Unfortunately nothing stops my in-laws. They have to top up gifts with ‘little extras’ and it’s usually something we already have or very poor quality. It comes from a place of wanting to be generous. In the past we’ve tried to say no to certain things (noisy or big) but it’s generally met with “how ungrateful. We’ll buy what we want”

I've decided that apart from Christmas dinner and something reasonably posh for New Year's Day, we will be eating normal food over the festive season. I'm not buying selection boxes, crisps, party food, mince pies and so on. There is always waste because the novelty of festive eating quickly wears off and you want to get back to eating healthily.

How about a Christmas bauble per child - Wilko and Asda have some good random ones - flamingos etc. Then you build up the range of baubles each year and have memories associated with each.

Define tat.

I don’t ever have tat but of course, we all define it differently.

For the first few years of our children's lives we seemed to get what I class as 'tat' from relatives, it drove me insane! The type of toy they'd play with once and then discard! I think this was partly mine and dh's fault as we didn't previously give suggestions of what people should buy when they asked.... however, we've now learnt our lesson and give general advice of things to get which they children would find find interesting/ useful.

I don't mean to sound like Scrooge but sometimes it feels like the children get too many presents! 😂and end up not playing with the toys they've received that much, especially true with ours as their birthdays are not that that long after Christmas so by the time their birthday arrives some of the toys they received at Christmas have been forgotten about!

To counter act this me and the dh have reduced the amount of presents we give our children and tend to focus on activities/ events type presents

I find it quite sad that quality toys like playmobil are seen as plastic tat. We still have some of the playmobil I played with (40 years ago), the same with Lego. Both have a very high resale value as well. DD has several playmobil items we got second hand.

I remember years of playing with my Barbies(some I got from my several years older sister) and then handing them to my nieces when they visited my parents.

Nothing against good wooden toys, we also have plenty.

Tat for me are items I use once and then discard, mainly because they broke immediately. Or stuff I throw away like plastic decorations after a party.

But proper toys? Lego also offers a recycling programm, so there is absolute no need to throw them away.

If only.

I would do minimal xmas decs. But everyone else around me raises the roof when I try.
I now rope in whoever is around to put them up. Got fed up.

Yeah- I don't equate something being made out of plastic to it being tat. Mine have also maxed out the Playmobil (Ds still has a sneaky play with the fort he got when he was 5 and he's 12 now, bless him). Tat for me is novelty/joke stuff that doesn't have much use or is destined never to be used, like those glasses with glitter on the rims, aprons with massive norks on them, fake snow in a can, cheapo craft sets that make a foam reindeer that looks like it's got rickets, 99% of secret Santa presents, and novelty gift advent calendars that have tiny versions of things that might be useful if they weren't made for elves. Or stuff that isn't designed to be disposable but is treated as such as it's so cheap, like Christmas or Halloween decorations or new Christmas bedding every year

Well maybe so but that's not my responsibility. I'm sure plenty of people make their living through making and distributing cigarettes but I'm not going to take up smoking to support them. Plastic stuff that goes in landfill after a few weeks is a waste of money for me and bad for the environment, so I try to avoid it.

This is what we started last year. I think I got them from hobbycraft on 3 for 2 or similar, and there were only a couple of things which were too big to be wrapped in fabric.

Santa stocking gifts are still wrapped in (recyclable) paper though.

We pretty much have no tat at Christmas. I buy expensive crackers with nice gifts (no plastic), make my own Christmas cards, wrapping paper and tags, and re-use the same tree decorations each year. I never buy ribbon, just save whatever I receive or others discard. The DC get one present each from us (they also receive presents from other family so are not deprived!) plus a small stocking to include edibles and things like a torch, top trumps, small lego set (I don't consider lego tat!) and book.

We pretty much have no tat at Christmas. I buy expensive crackers with nice gifts (no plastic),

Where do you get your crackers please?

It’s pretty easy for us to have a tat free Christmas. DD(19yrs) turns 20 at the end of November. Big age gap between DH and me and he has a daughter older than me. So we each only buy for each other and each separately for our DD’s. DH I know is getting me a special cushion for my poor back. My DD is giving me some money towards getting my DH a watch. We buy a large box each from Hotel chocolate. Now they do the big vegan boxes. I always buy DD a hoodie and T-shirt from a charity or charities we support. I also get her something for whatever her current art or craft projects are. Latch hook rug making is this year’s favourite.

We don’t do calendars. I can’t figure out why so many adults are willing paying over the odds for them. Half of it will end up in landfill and the chocolate ones are a bit pointless for adults. Just get a box of chocolates and eat one a day for heaven’s sake. Crackers are the definition of tat imho. We use the same decorations but may get some extra outdoor lights this year.

That’s not a good reason to trash the environment which has a bigger impact on people living in poverty than those who are wealthy. Better to not buy the tat and make a donation to an appropriate charity, a homeless shelter, food bank, support for those in developing countries suffering as a result of floods, droughts and other extreme weather conditions worsened by western countries trashing the planet.

For us Christmas tat is all the stuff that gets peddled around the season or things that are done just because other people do or it's an expectation.

For us we don't do Christmas pyjamas unless DC have been given some as hand me downs and we don't do matching family loungewear sets either. If anyone wants or needs some wintery pyjamas/loungewear they get what they need from November onwards.

We don't do Christmas Eve boxes.
I encourage people to get DC fewer presents that are better quality and will last, annoyingly sometimes met with shock that the items I've suggested are more than cheaper versions. It's taken years to explain that one better quality present and no filler presents is better for us than lots of smaller ones and some chocolate filler presents.

We never did pyjamas, eve boxes, Xmas jumpers, and we buy only one good new item a year for the tree. We don't actually spend a fortune on gifts either; the budget has been the same for years.

Some posters are concerned that Lego, Duplo and play mobile are thought of as a tat. I think most people see these things as very good quality gifts that can be passed down generations and accepted by children’s charities with joy. They are plastic yes but they are an excellent use of plastic.

Tat imho is stuff looked at for five minutes and then heads to landfill, cracker junk, fragile stocking fillers from pound shops, unwanted cosmetics from the 3for2 offers and adult calendars. Decorations which are unlikely to last til Boxing Day never mind reused next year. That’s landfill fodder. Lego and similar are a great investment.

No way can Lego and duplo and play Mobil be considered tat! It's a rather expensive investment. I've been scouring charity shops for some and can't find any so I've drawn the conclusion that it's rarely donated because it is kept for years and passed down. No way we will be giving away any Lego here. Tat is cheap plastic stuff that breaks easily, is a novelty and is something that doesn't get played with beyond the initial play.

@Filleto , my Gdd1 was dying for a ‘teenage’ LOL for her 7th. DD urged me to get a 2nd hand one, much cheaper and better for the environment, etc.. Yes, all perfectly true, and I’m very eco conscious myself, esp. as regards waste and plastic - but OTOH she’s still only 7 and they’re not little for very long.
I bought her a new one. In a box. She was delighted.

The problem with the cracker tat is you aren’t stopping it, you are just making it someone else’s problem. Please don’t do this. Children now are the most environmentally aware generation and climate change will impact on them more than anyone else. You are also ignorant of their parents values by sending this into environmentally conscious homes. Schools should be places supporting with this not hindering.

If you don’t want it in your home then don’t buy it. Reward the pupils with praise not landfill fodder.