Christmas Eve box ?

[CJ98]

Opinion on Christmas Eve boxes…
I haven’t really had a need to do a Christmas Eve box but I have my own daughter now and I’ve always seen people do them. Are they worth it ? Are they worth it for a 6 month old baby ? What do you put in them ? It will be her first Christmas so I’m trying to make it as special as I can..

I'll be doing one for my 6 month old but purely because she has an older sibling who will appreciate that they both have one. Totally ridiculous I know and I will keep it to the bare minimum!

Christmas is about making traditions. In our house we have new Christmassy pyjamas from 1st of December then on Christmas Eve we have a special new book that we open and share.

I must protest a part of this.

Christmas Eve boxes are British through and through.

There's a German tradition of opening gifts on Christmas Eve that many in the US follow (my family does it here in the US - we do a family gift exchange now but when the DCs were young we opened gifts from relatives, godparents, etc). It's not the same thing at all as the pajamas/ book/ bath bomb/ hot chocolate Christmas Eve box schtick.

We go to Christmas Eve Mass followed by a festive dinner, then do the gifts. Santa leaves gifts under the tree overnight to open in the morning.

Not for a baby.

She will have no idea it's Christmas, and she won't remember it.

Pointless.

We have a Christmas Eve box but it is 99% the same exact contents each year that just get bought out on Christmas Eve.

The plate and cup for leaving out for Father Christmas, a selection of Christmas books that we’ve collected over the years, some hot chocolate. I also now add some colouring/sticker books as it keeps dc quiet for a bit whilst we prep the veg for the next day.

My granny (born 1889) did treats on Christmas Eve for her babies and so has every generation of our family since. She was a right social media hungry harridan. She used to get Sam the Etch to take her likeness in charcoal and then would walk up and down Common Side with her likeness aloft her head, shouting "hashtag making memories".

I have carried on the tradition without the etchings because Sam died of the consumptives in '11 and his only son lost his sketching hand at Ypres.

In all seriousness, I say this every year. My Granny Edith did a box of treats on the 24th and it cost her the time it took to bake some shortbread. She was ushering in the season. She was a Victorian. She probably didn't even know where America was, let alone have the prescience to anticipate Instagram.

I could rock up on every thread about holidays and berate people for their carbon footprint and the thousands they drop on a fortnight by a puddle of chlorinated water. But I don't, because I appreciate that they see value in that experience and their money is not my money. So if I wrap a box in paper and stick some biscuits and a book in it, then I reckon I am entitled to do so without the sneering. Right?

I don't misunderstand. What made you think we spend overly long doing so?

Is there a particular reason you are trying to find non issues?

Ffs, some right miserable fuckers on here.

@mathanxiety - I stand corrected, thank you!

@LePetitMaman Im not sure why you are so upset? I just replied to your point about adults loving wind up toys saying it wouldn’t hold my interest….

I finally stopped doing stockings and for my DD last year age 28/23. Advent calendars stopped a couple of years before that because they never seemed to remember to eat the chocolates. I had to help them out.
Xmas Eve boxes would be pointless in this house because PJs are not popular here. Only one out of four of us wears PJs.

I wouldn’t bother for a baby. All the stuff i would put in a Christmas stocking is what people put in a Christmas Eve box so for
me it’s one or the other.

I saw a similar post to this on a mum group on Facebook yesterday, and a mum replied that they have the same stuff in it each year which I thought was really nice. It was where they kept the plate for Santa and the reindeer, the "key" for Santa to get in, their Christmas mug, the "night before Christmas book", and they'd just add in a hot chocolate sachet and some pyjamas. I quite like that it wasn't filled with tat, and was just the box used to store the things they'd use on Christmas Eve, plus some fresh pjs and a nice hot chocolate before bed. I think we'll adopt this idea. We go to a panto on Christmas Eve so typically too busy to fill it with crafts and activities anyway, so I thought this idea was nice, without being overkill.

Didn’t start doing them for dc until about 7 years ago, I don’t go nuts tbh, it’s literally just Xmas pjs, chocolate coins, Christmas ty teddy for dd and roblox voucher for DS, and a lush bath bomb each, with DS also getting someth8ng hot chocolate related as dd doesn’t like it. It comes out of the Christmas budget and keeps them entertained for a while when my attention isn’t solely on them for an hour or so.

Yes, Christmas breakfast! Bacon butties with Buck’s Fizz to drink! Then mid morning, out came my Dads evil home made wine for all the adults!

When we emptied Mums house after she died in 2022, we found several bottles of the wine still in the coal hole - my Dad dies in 1990! Needless to say, we did not drink it!

It is tradition on our family to always get a pair of new pajamas and a special Christmas ornament, it has gone back four generations in my family and so now I do this with my toddlers as their Christmas Eve box. This year I will also add in a pair of wool slippers. I don't love tat and so for the boxes, stockings and main gifts we try to do quality over quantity and no plastic tat!

I like this idea too.

I do a Christmas Eve box. PJs, cookie/biscuit. Hot chocolate. Christmas puzzle magazine. Christmas pen of some sort and Christmas socks. Bath bomb. Not much else. All to be used on Christmas Eve.

We do the same in our house for the same reasons! I just bought a white wooden crate and added some gold spray paint. I can't understand why people do it on Christmas Eve when it's already such an exciting day

@ShowOfHands
It's not an American custom so your granny need not have worried about being geographically challenged.

@ShowOfHands love your reply ❤️😂

I'm not upset? You're very dramatic.

Neither did I say adults love wind up toys. Just odd that you felt the need to make a point that a wind up toy wouldn't hold your attention for long. They're not supposed too. They're wind up toys. Plus the weird "what 16yr likes to open Christmas cards with their family on Christmas Eve?" Actually, most of them.

This!

Pointless doing a box for a baby.

And what's the point of a box when you have a stocking too?

I'd just let your dc open one pressie on Xmas Eve to stop them getting too excited. That's what we always did.

This x 1000

We actually do both.

But neither are plastic tat. The Christmas Eve box as mentioned already, because those bits are relevant to Christmas Eve and a tradition for us.

Our 1st Dec "box" has our jumpers and several sets of accumulated pyjamas (new ones are bought when DC outgrow the old) Christmas bedding, advents, the Lanka kade (sp?) wooden Christmas toys DC got for their first Christmas, and generally stuff we use all December. Unlike the Christmas Eve box which is one box shared between the whole family, Dec 1st, everyone wakes to a red velvet sack containing their things. It's just making the start of the festive period feel a little bit special, but in a practical sense, once Christmas is over, these things are packed away back into the red sacks and it works brilliantly for storage keeping everything together until they need to get pulled out the next year. The only new purchase is the advent each year.