.Christmas eve boxes? Really ?

I have to say I don't understand all the fuss about Christmas Eve boxes. We used to have Christmas Eve with the children even 30 years ago. It was videos then though ? The youngest would be bathed and changed into jammies first, and tucked up on the sofa until all the children were done. We made hot chocolate (with a little something added for adults), snuggled up together and watched the video/CD. It was just a lovely way of settling the children to sleep when they were excitedly waiting for Santa to come. Our children do the same, and I don't think anyone has ever bought a box.

SueDonim

I can’t recall a Christmas Eve for many years when I’ve had time to sit down and watch a film! I’m generally like a blue-arsed fly and am on the go from morn till night on 24th Dec.

I wouldn’t do Xmas Eve boxes, the thought having to find room to store them the rest of the year would finish me off! ?

I used to be like that, flat out, still wrapping presents at gone midnight.
Much more organised now, but that’s because I have that much more time.
BTW the Christmas Eve boxes I got for Gdcs were cardboard flat packs from The Works, so they fold down again to store flat - if they’re ever used again, which doesn’t look very likely now since dd doesn’t do them.

JackyB

polyester57

Many cultures have the Christmas Eve tradition, including mine. The children are not cranky nor do they refuse to eat Dickens. We sit down to dinner at around 6 pm or even earlier, the tradition is to fast or at least not eat v. much during the day, so when evening comes, everyone is hungry. Dinner consists of soup, then deep fried fish and a potato salad. After dinner, someone takes the children outside to look out for Baby Jesus bringing the presents, but alas, they always just miss him, because suddenly a bell rings, so they rush back in and a pile of presents seems to have materialized under the tree. It´s every bit as magical as finding your presents in the morning.

I have lived in Germany for over 40 years now and have experienced this, but mainly when I was an au pair before I actually came back and settled down.

The adults have spent all morning cooking, baking, cleaning and decorating and are exhausted. The children are expected to keep out of the way. At 4 pm you are expected to sit down contented at a beautifully laid out table with coffee and cake, after which the bell in the living room magically rings and the children are allowed to see and open their presents. They are then excited and go mad, and are allowed to stay up as long as they like. Those who choose to do so go to Midnight Mass.

The traditional meal is frankfurter sausages with potato salad.

On Christmas day itself: Nothing! Church for those who go to church, a walk maybe.

I have tried to do this with my family on occasion, especially when the in-laws were still alive, but I never managed it successfully.

Sorry this is so long.

Love the German traditions too. Lived out there for a few years, and other family have lived there for many years. The DN and family are with their German relatives Christmas Eve, then Christmas Day with English family, and yes they have big family get together, well until Covid restrictions put a stop to it.

Parsley how sad for you. I hope your family will be able to see you soon ?

Parsley3, ??

I will continue to pamper and spoil my grandchildren with climate destroying pyjamas and hot chocolate, thank you very much. That is if I can see them at Christmas. My family is not now going to travel from England due to the COVID situation and I am upset. So be as miserable as you like with your Christmas celebrations, I am off to have a good cry.

I can’t recall a Christmas Eve for many years when I’ve had time to sit down and watch a film! I’m generally like a blue-arsed fly and am on the go from morn till night on 24th Dec.

I wouldn’t do Xmas Eve boxes, the thought having to find room to store them the rest of the year would finish me off! ?

They won't Chewbacca. I send my GS new pjs and they have hot chocolate etc. But many people buy presents as well. It's all got a bit ridiculous imo. As Kali2 says more consumerism. I have a video of my GS tearing the paper off a tower of presents on Christmas morning hardly taking time to look. One of these would have been my main present. It's a bit sad really how things have changed.

Witzend when we visited our Finnish friends, porridge made with oats was very popular for breakfast all year round; rice porridge was popular at Christmas too, cooked very slowly in a big pot.

Kali2

Doesn't anyone have hot chocolate in their cupboard to make hot chocolate? As for Christmas PJs- you obviously do not have teenage grandchildren.

Much worse things at sea - I agree. It is just that on another thread we are talking about the State of the Planet - and that we should do everything to reduce our carbon footprint. So adding yet another 'tradition' that doesnt' even exist- just doesn't seem the best way to go about it. I think our GCs would much prefer we spent more time and energy doing things they might help.

Yes, we should ...

get a grip.

I don't understand the question about teenage grandchildren
My older DGC didn't suddenly stop wearing pyjamas when they hit 13.

I think it's a lovely idea - pjs can be worn, then passed on, then turned into dusters when they're worn out!
Boxes - wood or cardboard
Chocolate gets drunk, digested and then .....

It's not plastic tat.

Yes, they have had a miserable time, still ongoing, and anything that can bring good cheer to children is to be applauded.

JackyB, Christmas Eve is the big day in Sweden, too. A Swedish friend was telling me very recently how exhausted her mother used to be, getting everything ready overnight once the children were in bed - tree, decorations, food and all - so they’d wake up with everything ‘magically’ done.

We’ve had Swedish Christmases on Christmas Eve at her house and when she and her (Brit) dh have stayed with us - mostly fishy things and ham. All very nice, but we’d then have ‘our’ Christmas the next day.

Rice ‘porridge’ is another Swedish Christmas thing - basically a rice pudding, but simmered, not baked in the oven - and she would make it with single cream only, no milk!

Her son who also lived in the U.K. for a while, once complained that it was impossible to find the proper rice for Christmas porridge. I had to explain that he needed pudding rice, which for some reason is never shelved with other rice, but with Ambrosia rice pudding, etc.

The adults have spent all morning cooking, baking, cleaning and decorating and are exhausted. The children are expected to keep out of the way. At 4 pm you are expected to sit down contented at a beautifully laid out table with coffee and cake, after which the bell in the living room magically rings and the children are allowed to see and open their presents

With a German mother we celebrated in this way at home on Christmas Eve. But as HM said, “recollections can vary”
Mum was not stressed and exhausted, the tree had been decorated earlier (but our sitting room was kept shut and out of bounds to us children) and this build up to being allowed through in the dark with the only light the candles on the tree, was magical.
We certainly did not eat frankfurters, nor was there Kaffee und Kuchen, except perhaps for the grown ups, but knowing my father it would have been a cuppa with his Stollen.
My Scottish grandparents came to us on Christmas Day - and yes, we had stockings too!
Everybody’s family traditions are different - none are better, none are worse. If people want to buy matching family pj’s or onesies- why not?
The killjoys on here bleating about their carbon footprint seem oblivious to the joys of giving and the spirit of Christmas.

Must confess that I did them one year for Gdcs who were staying, but they were too little to remember and expect it again. Dd doesn’t do them.

However I mostly put in things that would be re used every year - Christmas cups and plates, Christmas books, etc.

Some people put such re-usable things in a 1st December box, which seems a lot more sensible to me.

When I was growing up, Christmas Eve was a normal working day, maybe with drinks in the evening. We had the pillow slip on the bed.

I don't think our parents ever tried to tell us that Father Christmas was real.

We had presents on Christmas morning, of course, and then, after lunch on Boxing Day, we had what we called "tree presents" - little gifts that were small enough to be hung on the tree as decoration.

Nowadays I am just happy if the family is together and sometimes we don't get round to having a present-opening session till the 27th.

polyester57

Many cultures have the Christmas Eve tradition, including mine. The children are not cranky nor do they refuse to eat Dickens. We sit down to dinner at around 6 pm or even earlier, the tradition is to fast or at least not eat v. much during the day, so when evening comes, everyone is hungry. Dinner consists of soup, then deep fried fish and a potato salad. After dinner, someone takes the children outside to look out for Baby Jesus bringing the presents, but alas, they always just miss him, because suddenly a bell rings, so they rush back in and a pile of presents seems to have materialized under the tree. It´s every bit as magical as finding your presents in the morning.

I have lived in Germany for over 40 years now and have experienced this, but mainly when I was an au pair before I actually came back and settled down.

The adults have spent all morning cooking, baking, cleaning and decorating and are exhausted. The children are expected to keep out of the way. At 4 pm you are expected to sit down contented at a beautifully laid out table with coffee and cake, after which the bell in the living room magically rings and the children are allowed to see and open their presents. They are then excited and go mad, and are allowed to stay up as long as they like. Those who choose to do so go to Midnight Mass.

The traditional meal is frankfurter sausages with potato salad.

On Christmas day itself: Nothing! Church for those who go to church, a walk maybe.

I have tried to do this with my family on occasion, especially when the in-laws were still alive, but I never managed it successfully.

Sorry this is so long.

My youngest grandson has a mid December birthday and I always give him Christmas pyjamas as part of his birthday. They aren’t wasteful as he continues to wear them well into the new year till they no longer fit.

Pyjamas aren’t just for Christmas ??

I don’t think Christmas Eve boxes originated in the U.S. When I was a child my family always opened gifts on Christmas Eve. I’m not sure why we did that or how we thought the presents arrived there!

Totally agree OP, do children not get enough on Christmas Day? Consumerism gone mad and even more pressure on hard up, stressed out parents. It's a lot of nonsense.

I am not sure it is fair to blame us American's. I have never heard of a Christmas Eve box until this thread and had to Google it.

When I was a child, my parents would allow us to open one gift on Christmas Eve. It was not an extra gift, we would have one less on Christmas morning.

I started buying pajamas for my kids to open on Christmas Eve. There is no Christmas Eve box though, I use reusable gift bags which are put away each year.

As for the jammies themselves being a waste, I would always be sure to get a print that would my children would like year around. My oldest loves Christmas and has a tree up in her room the entire year, so she would love Christmas themed jammies. I would think that each family would know the children enough to know if Christmas themed jammies would be worn year around or not and buy appropriately so there is not waste.

All of my children's clothes are passed down through several neighbor kids as well since my kids are the oldest on our street. My neighbor laughs that she has not had to buy clothes for her kids in 8 years, she just waits for me to pass them down.

We never did presents on Xmas Eve, but when the kids were very small we always trimmed up for Xmas when they were asleep. Under the tree we left a note from the elves - we hope you like the tree, you’ve been good all year so here’s a little present, keep being good and Santa will come at Xmas etc. the present was something small - a Xmas film or book. They loved it!!!
When they got a little older, one year the “elves” just left all the boxes of decorations in the middle of the lounge with a note saying they were old enough to trim up themselves now and that the elves were needed to help families with smaller children ?

rafichagran

Cost not Costa.

rafichagran is Costa in your predictive text ?

DD1 does this - the PJs are now on their 3rd year of being boxed up. Probably fit DGD next year but DGS1 may not agree to have Elf pyjamas at 9 which are short in the leg and arm. Will be passed to DGS2 who will have Elf PJs for the next 5 years ?

It's still on the bookcase, silverlining and I've read it to the DGC as well

Calistemon I always read The night before Christmas to my two ad well. That was our Christmas Eve tradition,

My d.I.l. does buy new PJs for her little family…

I'm a rubbish Granny, other Granny is buying them pyjamas.
?