When you were kids, did you do ' Christmas activities'?

[Bigearringsbigsmile]

It just was NOT a thing in my childhood.
We made cards in school and did a play and had a party.
But outside school? There were no light trails, movie nights, biscuit baking, hot chocolate making etc
Nobody used to decorate the outside of their houses.

🤔🤔
I remember going to see the department store windows which were fabulous and going to the grotto inside.
My dad's work used to have a kids Christmas party for their employees children.

Once Christmas came it was absolutely lovely but December was not a month full of activities...🤔

No absolutely not. We went to the local panto, put the tree up mid December, had a party and various activities in school but that was it.

I have very happy fond memories of my childhood Christmasses, my DM always made it special but it was nothing like today's Christmases.

God me too!
My kids are their twenties now and their childhood Christmas' weren't full of Christmas activities either.

Where has it all come from?

I was just thinking this OP, having seen yet another mention of having a hot chocolate as an activity…. It’s a hot drink , granted not one to have every day , but still ! Is this the effect of social media , trying to make everything a big event ? Ultimately I think making too much of having lots of exciting events leads to anti climaxes and disappointments. And I am by no means a grinch type, I love Christmas, I just prefer more low key.

There was a house nearby that really went to town on decorations. We went to see ot each year.

DH has a photo of him and his cousins going to a Santa Train when he was a toddler... it was the day his brother was born.

Christmas fairs, parties etc yes. Going to see Santa in the church hall.

It’s all unfortunately driven by marketing, capitalism etc, like many other events (eg Halloween which was never a thing beyond trick or treating when I was child, but is now pumpkin picking etc!)
And I’m a massive sucker for it as our tree has been up since last weekend and we have already spent loads on Xmas activities!

Nope we made cards at school and that was it 😊

So you like what you know and are used to.
Our kids like going to a Christmas grotto, my work party, the local golf club party, I drive them up and down the high street to see the lights. I think we have something on each weekend as of next weekend right up to the 28th Dec.
I don't do Xmas eve boxes or 1st of Dec boxes, the naughty elves or anything but if someone else wants to I don't judge it negatively.

We made a gingerbread house, and went to the panto on Boxing Day (and my grandfather and his wife went to the Boxing Day hunt just to watch and I went along at least once as a child but we'll gloss over that)

Edit: I've just remembered we went to a works Christmas party at my dad's work, and DH has a picture of himself at his dad's works party so they were obviously a thing!

Social bloody media. I have a good friend who is totally in the grips of it all and sadly she ended up having a mini breakdown at halloween due to the pressure of all the arrangements she'd made over half term and having two under 4 who weren't really that bothered and just pretty grumpy and tired. She felt that she was failing them as a Mum and then the financial worry of everything that she'd spent on events etc was too overwhelming.

I love Christmas but I see people trying to cram so much into Nov and Dec that they must be exhausted by the time Christmas actually arrives. I guess in some ways I'm fortunate to have a DC who can't cope with any mass organised event so we just opt out anyway because if they're not enjoying it why on earth are we doing it.

Growing up Christmas was always big in our family with decorations outside etc. But they went up mid way through December and came down on the 12th night. Similarly we went always went to panto after Christmas. Sadly a lot local to us now finish up on Christmas eve. Just horses for courses I guess.

Do you think it makes Christmas better?

Surely it makes it less exciting because it goes on for so long? Christmas was always magical because it was this brief interlude in normal life. A week of lights and sparkle and fun in the middle of the gloom.

agree - it is market capitalism
we did nothing when i was a child,
my dc saw father christmas
we did go to a pantomime

a lit up forest is a more recent event - they are everywhere now
my colleague has every weekend booked starting yesterday

i think the dc must be so hyped up by christmas, i dont envy parents,

I'm in my 40's and I remember going to Christmas lights switch ons in the nearest city, panto, Christmas parties, Santa's grotto in the middle of the shopping centre and/or the village hall.

Outside of houses tended to be a few lights in windows, stars etc. but a few houses went all out. I remember a few in the village but also a huge house in a village about a 20 min drive away that was amazing and collected donations for charity.

I also remember Father Christmas coming round the streets in his sleigh and we'd go outside to wave and sing. I think the Fire Brigade organised it.

And a carol service at the village church.

We did make paper chains, write cards and deliver cards (which involved an evening driving round the local area with Christmas music in the tape player) and we always had a trip to London to see the lights. There would often be “Christmas fairs” with a Santa, and stalls, in the church hall. Father Christmas came round the estate on the rotary club float. Carol singers came to the door. And there would be loads of stuff at school, nativities, carol concerts, making Christmas postbox, etc . Lots of family visits. Most of this was free or very cheap! Am 50.

90s kid (born late 80s). We definitely did nativity, Christingle, Christmas crafts, decorated Christmas tree and drank hot chocolate. My parents thought outside lights were very common (they still do!) but I remember driving around to look at decorated houses.
I don't remember doing a big activity like seeing Father Christmas. I have booked one of these and one lights trail thing for us which I guess is the main difference (the lights trail is for me as well!) but apart from that I'm trying not to go too ott.

We went to a lot of Christmas fairs at churches, light switch on and the pantomime.
Stir up Sunday was always a big thing in my family, we’d go to my Grandma’s house and the Christmas cakes, puddings and mincemeat would be made.
I remember going to the department store grotto a few times.
We always had an afternoon making homemade Christmas cards too.

I didn’t do that many Christmas activities, and my family didn’t really do Father Christmas and stockings. I remember once taking part in a Christmas Eve game at someone else’s house, which was unusual and fun: in the garden, we children were blindfolded, and told to listen out for sleigh bells (actually shaken from an upstairs window), and hearing the thuds of presents dropped in the garden.

The rotary club santa!!! I'd forgotten about that!!! Awwwww....standing on the front step in bare feet watching it go past....🥰

I am in my early 60s. We had Xmas parties. One at school, an afternoon where everyone bought something from home on a paper plate topped with tin foil.
Sweaty sandwiches, sausage rolls, custard creams, homemade fairy cakes, a choice of orange or blackcurrant squash. With lots of dancing about and a present from a sack (a notebook, or colouring pencils, something small).
One was at Dad's work, where one of the dads was always santa.
One was at the church hall.
That was it really.

Not to the extent we do now but I remember a fair few Christmas parties (for kids and multi-generational plus family catch ups), carol singing, carol concerts, panto and then ballet/theatre when we were older, all taking place through December. We did also have lights on an outside tree when I was in my teens and some people did do proper outside decorations. My mother was not a cook, but some people also did all cake and mince pie making with their mums in the weeks before hand.

So it's definitely souped up a lot but the concept of a Christmas run up has been around for a bit.

Although at no point was I taken to Santas grotto, which was disappointing..

And lol at outside lights being common! My mum said that!

We must be a similar age as I agree, we had none of these "activities". We used to help mum make the crackers and then they were squirreled away for her to put the gifts in, made some paper chains but that was about it. I think that's why Christmas was more magical on the day - we weren't all fed up of it by then! Ah yes, the rotary club Santa - I still get excited if we get one round here!

When I was a kid we did these things:

A visit up to London on the train to see the lights in Oxford Street and to gawp at the displays in Selfridges windows.

The obligatory trip to see Father Christmas (which I never much enjoyed, as I have pogonophobia!).

Craft activities at home, which I seem to recall involved much glitter, glue and pine cones; and circles of paper folded up small and cut into snowflake shapes with embroidery scissors. We also used to make a lot of paper chains.

Going to buy our Christmas tree every year with my parents.

A carol concert, usually by the Salvation Army band as their trumpeter was my dad's work colleague.

My experience was much like yours OP. I do think a lot of the Christmas activities for children are lovely but would be better if left to December. The build up is so long now.

We still have that here!