What’s downs MN have a against a pile/sack of presents?

[Whodhaveem]

This isn’t necessarily about how much everyone spends on their children, I think we all realise that everyone has different budgets but what does MN have against a present piles/sack

Traditionally Santa/Father Christmas is always shown with a sack or presents for the children, sometimes he empties the contents under the free, or leaves just as it is with the the different shapes of gifts being seen through the material and the crinkly mismatched wrapping paper popping out of the top…

As a parent what’s in the sack has varied through the years depending on what our budget was, there have been years when it’s content hasn’t exceeded £35 and others when when we have been able to spend much more regardless for our children the contents aren’t the most important bit, the apprehension and magic of Santa’s full sack which has came from the North Pole and is full of surprise’s is.

It just seems to me that people like to pick apart this tradition like it’s nonsense and showy but really it’s sticking to the narrative of every movie, Christmas card or image that we know of the magical man in red…

Im interested in everyone’s take of this, is have a pile/sack/bundle of presents really that bizarre?

Of course it does! I'm not projecting.

You are the one justifying it!

Oh bullshit, we have been doing the big Christmas since the 80s when it was JUST me and my mam... literally no one else ever saw it but clearly its just for 'Instagram'.

Literally don't know anyone that has ever posted Xmas present on Instagram, likely you don't either (because most people don't) and as such you actually have no clue how many of your friends, other kids parents from school and co-workers etc... do. I guarantee many will have lovely thoughtful gift filled Xmases with things from places like 'B&M' or 'the Range'.

Whats wrong with B&M and the Range? you do know they sell literally the same brands of stuff as Smyths, Argos, the Entertainer or ToysRUs right?

The elite snob-ism in one post is off the charts.

Justifying what?!

You are being totally judgemental (and wrong but don't let that stop you!)

YANBU. But on mumsnet the only acceptable gifts for children are dictionaries, fruit or recycled cashmere socks. Perhaps a wooden spinning top for the teenagers.
Anything else is the unforgivable: "crass".

I don't find it weird but I do think of it as an amusing Britishism, I'm from America and never came across this before moving here 20ish years ago. I agree with pp that Santa's sack contains ALL the presents (in the manner of Mary Poppins' bag, presumably) not that he has a separate sack for each child. 😅

I feel the same about Christmas Eve boxes fwiw. Not something I ever heard of pre living here.

For us, the stocking is the "sack" containing the fun and usually less expensive, more numerous gifts. Those are from Santa/Father Christmas. Under the tree are the bigger items and you'd better believe I'm getting credit for those - though we try to keep it minimal and also ask family to only give our DD one gift each as well. (If they have small things they want to give they are welcome to add to her stocking, but of course they don't get the thanks then.)

Maybe the people who just want to spoil everyone's Christmas fun could just stay off the Christmas board? So many nice happy threads this week have been turned into angry grinchesque rage fests.

AIBU is that way if you want to be a fun Sponge ⬅️

Snobbery

😉

I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to minismise one's impact on the environment and all the over-consumption we in the first world are so guilty of. I'm not ashamed of that and not a snob either. Look at the constant decluttering threads we have on Mumsnet. Decluttering just means getting rid of things that you have no use for - if you have no use for it, you shouldn't have bought it!

Because the people who put stack of presents under a tree are the same people who whinge on here some years later that they have spoilt, brattish, entitled teenagers.

(edited punctuation)

Maybe the people who just want to spoil everyone's Christmas fun could just stay off the Christmas board? So many nice happy threads this week have been turned into angry grinchesque rage fests.

I absolutely love Christmas & like to make it as magical as possible. I personally don’t buy my dc tons of stuff though.

Well in my home country, Santa always brings all the presents 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️
They are all in a big pile under the tree and there is no stocking either (so no need to buy small, cheap tat that will fit in it)

And it works well.

Which simply shows that insisting on Santa only bringing a couple if things vs THE pile if presents is just as performative as each other tbh.

Some on here don't agree with how we do things but dd gets a stocking (a Barbie, books, notebook, Polly Pocket, lol doll, knickers, chocolate etc) and then one big present under the tree. We say that these are both from Father Christmas.

No big pile under the tree, but definitely an exciting and usually hoped for but unexpected main. It's how it was done for both dh and I when we were little and think it makes it quite magical.

I don't mind how others do it, I think you have to do what is right for you and all families have different traditions. There isn't a right or wrong way.

I absolutely love Christmas & like to make it as magical as possible. I personally don’t buy my dc tons of stuff though.

What a pile if stuff means is very variable though. Just like someone who says they have loads of clothes but another would call that a minimalist wardrobe.

Every adult in my family still gets a sack from my Nan. DP finds it hilarious watching my uncles, one in their 70's, sifting through their bags.

Every family should just do what works for them. No need to worry about what others are doing OR for some to be so bloody judgmental over other people's choices.

No need to put 'cheap tat' in stockings... Very easy not to.

Yes 😂
He doesn’t bring an entire sack for every child, op.
Not even in the movies…

What a pile if stuff means is very variable though. Just like someone who says they have loads of clothes but another would call that a minimalist wardrobe

Well the individual with the ton of presents or clothes may think it’s not a lot but I think most people can agree on what constitutes a lot of something. A multi millionaire might not think he has a ton of money compared to Jeff or Elon but most would recognise he still has a ton of money!

I’m only two generations from an era when you literally got just a stocking with an apple and an orange and a piece of coal and not much more all from Father Christmas. This was my grandparents in the 1920s. The fiction that everything came from Father Christmas was maintained for my parents in the 40s and in our house in the 1970s. We got a pile of presents at the foot of the bed. We got up and unwrapped them usually in pyjamas in an unheated attic and that was that.
Everybody else’s Christmas customs just seem mind-bogglingly complicated.

But, getting back to your question I have no idea.

I remember me and my brother having a pile of presents each under the Christmas tree as a child, and I'm in my sixties so this was a while ago. I was never remotely bratty.

I did the same for my now adult children and they've always been totally well adjusted people and are successful, thoughtful and generous now.

I don't think you can extrapolate that having an exciting pile of presents under the tree on Christmas morning will turn you into a terrible person!

I find I get the Twitch and then chaos begins (can afford too) just like quality over quantity… That huge pile from the Daily Fail, my kids would be bored quarter the way in… no christmas magic with that.

But we try and keep Santa magic alive in WinchSparkles Grotto, we do stockings and a decent but not expensive gift from Santa - own paper and even own tape…. and it’s brill! Having a beautiful autistic daughter helps though as she might be 13, but she believes in the magic ✨✨

@babbygabby And what you think most people ‘constitute a lot if something ’ is variable.

That’s why so many people in here disagree on what is ‘a lot if presents’ just like they disagree on how much it’s ok to spend for Christmas for each child.

I see some lists on here and I’m 😳😳😳 at some items. But that’s normal and ok for a lot if people/most people on those threads. And yet I know other people find our ‘pile’ too much/too big etc….

You got coal in your stocking?! 😮

How bad were you that Santa punished you like this?!

On pretty much every film, TV programme etc each kid asks for one present.

Weve always said that santa brings one thing, but family buys other stuff. After all, millions of kids in the world, elves can only make so much and the poor reindeer can only carry so much!

People get defensive over their own Christmases. There's more than one right way to do Christmas

We always bought our children a lot at Christmas, I’ve never worried about what others think about it and our children didn’t grow up to have bratty or spoilt attitudes.