Simple Christmas?

[northern_me]

Anyone else aiming for a simplistic Christmas this year? I feel we have gotten out of control in the past 5 years and want to bring DD (and everyone else we gift to) back down to earth. We are doing very small gifts and keeping the hype down. If you're doing this, what else are you doing to make Christmas special?

 

[DanielleM]

Honestly no, while the kids are young and believe I will have massive extravagant Christmases will make it simple when they are older and not really interested. I don't mean in terms of presents but just splashing out on grottos and days out, pantos etc x

 

[LPF]

Honestly no, while the kids are young and believe I will have massive extravagant Christmases will make it simple when they are older and not really interested. I don't mean in terms of presents but just splashing out on grottos and days out, pantos etc x

Me too.

When I was young and a 'believer' we had literally no money. Until I was an adult I never went to panto, on a Christmas day out and I have no memories of ever meeting a Father Christmas.

My mum and dad tried to make up for in later years (late teens/adulthood) with big presents which is very lovely but we are all acutely aware of 'missing' the believing bit.

For me, until ds is older, non believer and only wants trainers and computer games for Xmas - I'll continue to ramp the Xmas excitement / festivities / enjoyment to the max.

That said, I don't spend tons on everyone anyway. £100 for dh and ds. £30 for main family and £10-15 for token gifts / friends etc.

It's more about Xmas treats, experiences, days out and fun!

 

[northern_me]

We are still going to have presents. We spent almost 4hrs opening presents last year - that's what I mean we are toning down. Just going to bring more of the focus on family and the spirit of Christmas rather than huge gift lists, etc.

 

[DanielleM]

Yes defo for us too, I dont spend a massive amount of presents around £200-£300 on the kids each but we focus mainly on the days out and family time together. So far this year we have booked harry potter studios tour Christmas themed when we go, plus harrods santas grotto and the panto booked the Sunday before Christmas. Also hoping to book the local Santa cruise on the river. So excited as my oldest is defo not going to believe next year, he is very skeptical this year though! X

 

[northern_me]

You guys have so much more Christmas stuff to attend! Very cool! We have a Santa at the mall, haha!

 

[DanielleM]

Where are you, in the USA? Do you lot nt have pantos over there? X

 

[Kess]

It depends what you mean by 'keeping the hype down'. We keep gifts from being too overwhelming (we parent in a fairly simplistic way anyway, especially with toys), but I do hype Christmas in that we enjoy preparing for it, and do a lot of Christmas related activities. We're doing an activities advent calendar - going round the neighbourhood seeing the lights, loads of Christmas crafts and baking, some charity gifts, snowmen if it snows, etc - as well as a Christmas Eve box, family visits, panto and The Borrowers at the theatre, local Santa Grotto (though we don't do Santa as real).

 

[northern_me]

What is Panto? I'm in Canada.

Good idea to do the activities advent!

 

[Kess]

Panto is pantomime. Like a funny play taken to the ridiculous with men in drag playing the female parts and often women playing the men, and lots of audience participation of the "HE'S BEHIND YOU!!!" variety. Meant for young kids, really, but many adults still love them. Do you not have them in Canada?

 

[Amarna]

I've never seen these "pantos" here in the US. They sound like a lot fun though! We try to keep Christmas simpler and focus more on spending time together as a family. I try to do a good amount of fun outings with the girls though to keep the holiday spirit up and running. Roxy is in a holiday parade for her dance class, I'm helping to run the Christmas craft fair at church, Santa at the mall and tickets to see the Nutcracker. There's a "North Pole"/Santa's village thing about 4 hours from us I've always wanted to take the girls to but it's so expensive I can never bring myself to spend the money on going.

 

[northern_me]

I'm sure they're somewhere in Canada, but we don't have them here!

 

[emyandpotato]

I never get LO much and we always have a lovely Christmas, and going to keep gifts (for LO) to a minimum this year too. We do lots of activities and days out though, and a big thing that we do and that hopefully LO will start to understand this year is doing nice things for others, both strangers and family.

 

[Eleanor ace]

No pantomimes?
We try to keep the gifting from going overboard but we get massively into Christmas in other respects. Lots of Christmas crafts, Going for walks to look at houses which are decorated to the max, going to a grotto to see Father Christmas, baking Christmassy treats, making Christmas cards to send to loved ones, watching Christmas films, putting together shoeboxes for charity and buying choosing toys and food treats for the Christmas food drive, Going to carol services, Christmassy walks all wrapped up singing Christmas carols and songs as we go, Going to the Christmas market in our city... oh my God I'm so excited

 

[Kate&Lucas]

Compared to a lot of peoples Christmases I think ours is pretty 'simple'. I don't go crazy with gifts, I spend no more than about £100-150 on Lucas and about £300 on everyone else combined. But we have lots of fun over the season, with trips out and Christmas activities, and we turn the house into Santa's grotto! Everywhere gets a little Christmas makeover. I do go overboard with the food
But at the end of the day it's always about spending time with family and being together.

Do you know what though, I've never been to a panto! I reckon Lucas would absolutely hate it too so there's no chance of going anytime soon

 

[Mummy May]

I love a good panto! Xx

 

[monkee12]

Il tone down once kids are older but for now I do make it quite a big event for them. I never had crazy Christmases growing up and I was fine but I want a big day for mine x

 

[Leliana]

Panto is a very British tradition (although it has its roots in Italian Theatre). It is so hard to explain if you haven't been brought up with it! I always sound very strange when I try to describe it to friends from other countries! They are such good fun

 

[QueenMummyToBe]

We are keeping pressies simple this year after going crazy the last couple of years but I love the hype of Christmas. Going to see the lights switch on, our Christmas Market weekend, seeing santa, baking Christmas goodies, writing letters to santa, reading Christmas stories and watching films.
I'll be starting to bake Christmas fruit cakes within the next few weeks so I can feed them plenty *excited!!*

Xx

 

[SmartieMeUp]

We are keeping pressies simple this year after going crazy the last couple of years but I love the hype of Christmas. Going to see the lights switch on, our Christmas Market weekend, seeing santa, baking Christmas goodies, writing letters to santa, reading Christmas stories and watching films.
I'll be starting to bake Christmas fruit cakes within the next few weeks so I can feed them plenty *excited!!*

Xx

Oh wow, first person I've seen from Lincoln! I've never been to the Christmas market despite living there for 21 years.

This year is going to be a "quieter" Christmas for me, DD and OH as it's our first real Christmas living together and the cost came to a shock. I'm used to spoiling everybody and spending OTT amounts on Christmas where as this year it's budgeted. Hoping to go to festive things though.