December 1st breakfast

[ChristmasHasCome]

IF you do a special breakfast for today, what do you have? My kids are teens but we have our friends children staying with us at the moment who are younger, due to a family emergency, and they cheered up when we mentioned we could do this.

We are having,

🎄 Pancakes shaped like snowmen, Xmas trees and Rudolf with smarties, chocolate chips, strawberries and blueberries for decoration

🎄 Snowman crumpets

🎄 Grapes and blueberries made into a Christmas tree

🎄 Banana and strawberries made into candy canes

🎄 Milk in bottles decorated to look like snowmen

🎄 Hot chocolate and marshmallows

🎄 Chocolate coins

🎄 Advent calendars (chocolate and Lego)

I decorated the dining table late last night so it looks very festive for them and our friends children’s elves are with us!

Just wondering what you’re doing because I’m nosy and maybe I can steal some ideas.

I'd rather have a pork pie than a load of sugary carby crap. More portable too, so you can take it with you if you're not hungry for breakfast or don't have time to sit down and make the most of the occasion.

Love this idea! My little one is not yet 2 but might do it from next year

I think this is a bit of a special thing for your friend’s children and for that alone it’s lovely. It’s not something I would ordinarily do on a school morning, but I could see doing it in the first Sunday of advent (not particularly religious but it feels more like a ‘Sunday’ breakfast than a school day breakfast.) As the kids aren’t at school and you are not at work I can’t see why you wouldn’t do something nice to make them feel happier and it sounds lovely and tasty!

I’ve also never heard of this, but think it’s a lovely thing to do for kids who are away from home, especially in what sounds like trying circumstances.

I do like an excuse for a fancy breakfast, though, so have a few ideas from things I’ve done when on holiday -

For kids, I find they like almost anything in individual containers, so I put regular cereal into glass bottles/jars. They are easy to decorate with white board markers, decals, ribbons, etc.

Pancakes are a go to, also french toast too, sometimes with a message in piped whipped cream and fruit.
Boiled eggs dressed up. I have done them as Father Christmas for Christmas Day - red hat, marker and a cotton wool beard, also R2D2 (all done with markers) and one with a tiny paper boat hat, and one as a cat with stuck on pipe cleaner tail, ear and whiskers.
Fruit smoothies done as cocktails with straws, umbrellas and lots of fruit on the rim.

Love the sound of the snowman milk bottles.
How have you made bananas and strawberries into candy canes?

I had a pack of original Pom Bears and scraped their heads along a tub of Philadelphia Garlic & Herbs so it looked like it had snowed on their heads.

It's like every year mums (and it nearly always is the mums) come up with a fresh way to make their lives harder. Start of advent breakfasts? On a Monday no way am I going that. No "Elf on the fucking shelf" (we tell our kids that the elf just visits the kids that santa hasn't made up his mid about yet, and that they have already been signed off), no christmas eve boxes, no christmas pyjamas, no advent calendars for the cat.

It will be the same mums who in the week before Christmas complain about the mental load and how how all this made up shit falls to them.

Oh my goodness OP, how kind of you to do such a lovely thing, I hope it brings brightness to their day.

I don't eat breakfast myself (and don't have children either!) but DH has asked you to save him a plateful, he'll be round to yours ASAP!

We don't do this, just put out the Advent calendars the night before but it sounds lovely and well done to you for making the effort, also well done for taking in your friends DCs, a lot of people would not do that. Hope you have a lovely morning.

Special breakfast for 1st December? Elves? I've not heard of either of those. Your breakfast sounds pretty but it's really all sweet stuff.

It’s a lovely idea. I don’t have the energy to do this much but I’d love to. I did buy chocolate croissants for the children to have for breakfast because it’s Dec 1st. So I’m trying!

Sounds fabulous OP but noway would i have time for this before work and school run. Im carrying on my diet/ healthy eating into dec. My DC are teens and prefer more time in bed in the mornings rather than factor in any breakfast time !

Cup of tea and a fag.

Ignore the Grinches, OP. Looks like some people need a visit from the Christmas ghosts!

I am not a fan of making life too hard - once these traditions start they are hard to keep going sometimes (looking at you Advent Middle of the Night Bed Changing Fairy!) but in these circumstances you are doing a simple, lovely thing. Hope the kids enjoy it.

It's still not good to give them all that sugar. Think of their teeth for one thing. And you're training them to think that treats = sugar. This would be a good time to avoid sweet stuff altogether and let them know that savoury stuff can be a special treat too.

Do their parents know you’re giving them smarties, chocolates and marshmallows for breakfast?

Omfg dfo----

OP, that’s such a thoughtful thing to do for your friend’s children.

I’ve never heard of the idea of a special breakfast on Dec 1. If I were to do something special, I wouldn’t go full-on Christmas themed. We like to keep Christmas food, decorations and music going until Jan 6th and if you start as early as Dec 1, it might lose its appeal by 27/12.

Like others, I’m intrigued by the fruit candy canes and if you have the chance to explain the construction of them, please do.

sweet food is comforting because breast milk is sweet, apparently. OP is trying to comfort DC in a bad situation, children who can’t be at home because of an emergency. On this occasion, I think comfort trumps virtue

Not every day has to be a day of learning.

Thanks for your articulate response. I'll take it on board.

I’ve just had some Weetabix 😁

I never did special Dec 1st breakfasts as didn’t know it was a thing, but when the kids were young, at the weekends, I would make them American pancakes with bacon and/or fruit and maple syrup (with the option of squirty cream) which was always a winner.

You're engaging (inadvertently or not) in a pissing contest with their mum. She's asked you to start elves on the shelf, but now you're just showing her up, like her usual prep is inadequate. She may struggle to reproduce this next year.

If you don't do usually this for your own kids, they will see right through you, as well.

Don't be extra.

A slice of toast. Like every school day.

I wish I had the energy - sounds lovely!!

mine came down to their advent calendars today and I nearly forgot those

That sounds lovely op 🎄