Advent box instead of Xmas Eve box?

[MissAtomicBomb1]

Anyone else do this?

My DC haven't been particularly enthused about Christmas Eve boxes and it seems a bit close to the big day to be properly appreciated.
Thinking of putting together an advent box, as something similar went down really well the other year. It seemed more exciting somehow and the gifts could be appreciated in the few weeks leading to Xmas.
Ideas so far...advent calendar (obviously!) Xmas PJs, a Christmas themed story book (read the Christmas pig through Dec last time). tree decoration

Any other ideas? 🎅🏻

We don't do a christmas eve box but do a December 1st one that arrives with the advent calender (fabric one).

It has the christmas jumper/outfit and christmas pjs as well as books and craft things (like make your own cards). It's just a way to introduce stuff she would have received through December anyway.

What is all this naff crap from discount shops? Happy Christmas, here's something a maltreated factory worker in China made with materials produced through deforestation in Brazil, let's use it to celebrate the birth of Jesus who we don't believe in and goodwill to all

Sorry, but it makes me feel quite queasy.

We get the Christmas decorations out and have some Christmas books and blankets and a nativity set that live with them. Don't need mugs, bedding, special pyjamas. It's all so much encrustation.

I'm with you in the Grinch corner @Haroldwilson

And yes, we do still manage a lovely Xmas with plenty of presents on the day and lovely food either side of it.

We do both:

On Dec 1st, I'll change all the bedding to the Christmas sets. Everyone receives a sack with their advent, their Christmas jumper(s) from last year(s), Christmas PJ's, this year will be new ones as little DC have outgrown the ones we've used for last couple of years, plus the Lana kade wooden Christmas toys they have had since babies. There's also a Christmas jigsaw, we have three, rotated each year, which goes out for everyone to contribute to and finish by Christmas Eve. It's nothing other than presenting the stuff we all have throughout December, all in one go, in a little velvet sack as it's family tradition.

On Christmas Eve, we have a box with all the cards from a global card exchange that I participate in, which we all open together and enjoy the well wishing from friends all around the world. Every year, the DC get a traditional wind up toy in their stocking, which goes into the Christmas Eve box when we take the tree down, so each year the collection grows, between them there's around 20 in there which all get wound up and set off to much amusement. It also contains everyone's stocking and the Robert Sabuda Night Before Christmas book, which eldest DC has had since age 2, and this gets read to all, after stockings are hung at the chimney, and all the DC head to bed.

We don't have any crap from discount stores in either of ours.

The only new things most years are the advents, because everything else is stuff we already have. There will be new PJ's this year though, as the littlest DCs no longer fit in the ones that have done the last 2 Christmases.

I do Dec 1st Boxes with useful things - loungwear, underwear, pyjamas, socks
Beauty/toiletries for DD to use in the run up to Christmas
Toiletries for DS - Lush Kalamazoo , nice toothpaste , showergel .

Christmas mug , -used all year

Mine are adults, it is me trying to keep the magic alive.
DD embraces it , DS is a little Bah Humbug

No, we do the classic xmas eve box with new PJs and snacks and a book. Non of it is really xmas themed for us though it just fun supper and new bedtime stuff so they are fresh for the morning.

If you want to do Xmas themed things though then an advent box makes sense, like if you watch xmas themed films or read christmas themed books or get christmas themed PJs or collect baubles etc... then you can use it all month.

The only xmas themed thing we have is jumpers which they get on St. Nicks day (6th December).

No way , an advent calendar and thats it. Presents always Christmas day only. Its all getting over the top.

All those saying "it's too much" or "they get plenty on Christmas Day" etc - do none of you do preparations before the day? Or go to Christmas events like markets or carol services?
All the Christmasy stuff pretty much happens in December - the Big Day is like the end.
What child wants a Christmas themed book or a make your own tree decoration set on the actual day? They won't get chance to make/read it because so much is going on.
The whole of December is the best bit and feels much more Christmasy.
In my humble opinion.

100% agree
The build up from Dec 1st , we don't do a tree because of the cats and I don't decorate till about 10-14 days before Christmas ( definately after my DS Birthday)
We do have Christmas /Winter bedding , cushions, tablecover (oil cloth) some crockery , shower curtain, These come out year after year.
Christmas loo roll , handsoap and straws . Things we use anyway so why not Christmassey .

Some nice days out , theatre , cinema . All in the build up .

When my DD was a teenager and wanted her nice new pyjamas before Christmas I started doing the Dec 1st Box . And something like nail polish and skincare she can use . We're all busy in December it;s nice to have a lift .

Just read them a Christmas book, not everything has to be an event/ excuse to buy extra stuff

@Carnationstreet7 isn't that a big part of Christmas though? Buying stuff.
I prefer to buy things like Christmas novels than spend £££ on special food because I have zero interest in a traditional Christmas dinner.
People like different things.
The OP asked for ideas - not criticism.

QUICK! Buy buy buuuuyyyyy!!!!!!

Genuinely foxes me how people have the time, will, inclination, money or energy to get so enthused about buying & assembling needless piles of “cosy crimbo PJ’s / hot choccy / nice smellies / xmassy mugs / new Xmas books / cosy Xmas movies” blah blah blah. It’s just the net result of people swallowing the bollox that “making memories” = perfectly curated lavishment of themed gifts for dreamt-up reasons, and all worthy of Instagram, so everyone can see how meticulously you’ve planned another perfect experience for your little darlings.

🤮

Yes I do.
On 1st dec, the "elf" brings the box with the nativity, our Xmas books, some colouring and some pjs for the kids. He also changes their bedding for Xmas bedding!

@SomeFinElse it baffles me how much money and energy people put into cooking a fancy Christmas dinner.
As I said..... people like different things.

But it’s not either/or in the vast majority of cases. People haven’t dreamt-up Xmas eve boxes & advent boxes as an ALTERNATIVE to Christmas dinner, have they?

My issue is with the relentless spread of the expectation….The constant adding-in of new consumer-based rituals….Invented giving-rituals….Expectations getting higher and higher for kids…. ‘Perfect mothering’ being an internalised sense of needing to spend money and “create perfect memories”…No date being without the association of “buying special bits for them”…. Invented rituals (Black Friday, Advent Boxes, Christmas Eve Boxes etc) that ALL were invented to rinse every last penny out of Christmas…..New costs for households who might not have the money but for whom it’s becoming a “thing” because all the mums of the kids in their class are getting 5 pairs of awful twee matching family PJ’s and doing stupid photo-shoots for Facebook. …New sticks sold to women to insidiously beat themselves with (with the prying eyes of social media focussed on their efforts)….

But yes, people like different things. Call me an old cynic but I tend to question why, and what in society is driving those trends in what people think they like, and whether those trends are healthy for us as a society, and who they’re ultimately benefiting / harming. I know I should just be more “you do you” though, so I’ll 🤐

I do both, but my take on the boxes is that they are for stuff you would do anyway. So the advent box has advent calendars, advent candles, the Nativity set, wreath-making stuff, Christmas books, Christmas cards to write and give out, Christmas biscuit-cutters etc - the stuff that we use in our house to get ready for Christmas.

The Christmas Eve box is full of the things we need to get ready for Christmas day, and to wind down before bed - bubble bath, Christmas stockings, thank you cards, notepaper to write to Santa, pyjamas (not necessarily new) and, in recent years, vegetables peelers so we can all do some prep for Christmas dinner.

@SomeFinElse well I don't spend much.
I mostly do it for me (my daughter isn't that interested) and other than a picture of my Christmas tree when decorated I don't put any of it online.

All sounds way too much. When do you say it's enough?

My experience of advent/Christmas boxes is that they are often the opposite of mindless consumerism. When you don't buy a lot, putting stuff you already own in a box and opening it's on a particular day makes it more special. When you don't buy a lot of new stuff, or go out to cafes a new pair of pyjamas once a year and a fancy hot chocolate do feel like a luxury. I always suspect that as lot of the people needing at the "consumerist tat" in Advent/Christmas boxes actually do far more thoughtless spending. I think my kids managed too go 16 years with a reusable advent calendar with no gifts or chocolate, just a little velcro nativity scene to out together.

@Haroldwilson

kids wear PJ's. Kids grow. So what if someone chooses to buy ones with santa/reindeer on?? Kids can wear them
all winter.

beds have bedding on them, Christmas ones can be used year after year for a good couple of months. Give the normal ones a rest & they last longer. Over, say, 10 years you're not buying anymore duvet covers.

so everything you own is handmade, by well paid works who live locally. Nothing from any regular retail store?

I bet there's plenty in your house others would consider naff.

are you planning on spreading your 'joy' on all the Christmas Threads??

@LePetitMaman

how dreadfully 'naff' & damaging to the world!

NOT!! Sounds lovely ❤️

No it's NOT just people swallowing the 'making memories' bollocks.

its people following tradition, making their home cosy & nice. It's about enjoying things year after year or buying OK's for growing children that happen to have a Christmas theme.

plenty of us don't do SM, do NOTHING to do with insta or anything but pure enjoyment.

sorry that personal enjoyment is an alien concept to you.