Individualized advent, Elf on the Shelf, Polar Express rides, over the top Santa visits

[Anonymous]

Christmas is a season in our house. That said, we don’t have endless time or money to spend. We do things that being joy to us. Our advent is homemade and centered around acts of kindness. We bake cookies, watch christmas movies and make the house cozy for winter.
Oh, and Snape on a grape, but that is a year around thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We started elf last year bc my then 11 yo wanted to help. I buy a kit and she does it all. Fun for her.

We do advents, but OP I see what you mean — I would never ever ever ever do again the types of advents that are an activity. How (not) fun is it to pull a random paper at 8:00 at night that says “have hot cocoa” or “watch a movie together” or “make cookies.” Then you have to tell the kids you’ll do it tomorrow. Disappointment. And now I have several of those tasks for follow up on, building and building.

Now, for holiday activities, I write the stuff we want to do. I take that list and make a “prep” list. The stuff we have to do to make it happen.

From Dec 1-12, I do the prep list. From Dec 12-25, we do the fun list.

I think the key is not put to much pressure on yourself. We do advent calendars with just a word like hot cocoa or ice skating and if there's time and interest we go out ice skating or make cocoa but more often than not we'll do the cocoa calming meditation and watch Yuna Kim skate. Some slips are just concepts like grateful or service

[Anonymous]

We do an advent calendar. Thats it.

[Anonymous]

It’s not Christmas, you’re just feeling like you don’t have enough slack in your time and/or support from your family. And you don’t have a solution and you get penalized by your spouse and/or children for complaining about it, because that’s nagging.

And you’re using social media even though you know it’s bad for you.

So you’re lashing out at plastic elves and people’s Christmas candy or whatever because it’s easier than facing the reality that you’re the only person who can solve your problems and it would require the hard work of making changes to your priorities and accepting the subsequent sacrifices, which you might not be willing to do.

[Anonymous]

What’s the polar express one? Do you go on a train ride somewhere like Cabin John?

[Anonymous]

We do a store bought advent calendar.
No Elf
We will watch Christmas movies, put up a tree etc. Also going to a Pantomime, ( which is an English Christmas tradition) and will go see the lights at the Mormon temple.
None of this costs a fortune and none of it stresses me out.
Oh and I’ll take DD ice skating a couple times too. Also not expensive.

[Anonymous]

We just do the advent calendar I grew up with - it's a felt tree with little cloth ornaments in the slots below it and you velcro one on every day. Super simple, reusable, and free. It's not a big ticket activity though.

Elf on a shelf is creepy and I don't have enough space anyway. Not sure what a Polar Express ride is. Kids don't believe in Santa - oldest has been a hard-core skeptic from a young age and we would have had to actively lie to his face at a level we weren't comfortable with to keep it going (none of this "Santa is the spirit of Christmas" or "he was a historical figure" stuff was satisfying this kid's questions even in preschool).

We do like making cookies, usually the weekend before Christmas. We also like going to see the big model train near where my husband grew up and getting lunch at a pizza place nearby.

[Anonymous]

Troll post.

[Anonymous]

You do you, don’t worry about others. You never know what people are going through, doing these things might help them forget the worries they have.

I bought an elf kit this year because I believe it will be the last year my oldest will believe. Before this year, we just moved the elf. My child asked why the elf never did anything fun, so I splurged.

Other traditions:
Advent calendar (grew up with one)
Going to see lights
Going to a live nativity
Decorating gingerbread house
Decorating cookies

It brings joy to our family. Do what brings joy to your family.

[Anonymous]

Lol you think that’s bad 2 of our kids have Dec and Jan birthdays so it’s basically one long party for us! We don’t do elf or advent or Santa mall visits. We have enough on our plates. Kids are certainly happy. We will try to do one of those things one of these years I’m sure! But mostly I evils want to try for a ski trip when they are old enough. No need to be a Scrooge op, everyone has different things going on. Is your kid really complaining that they are missing out?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not the norm in our house. But we purposely don't put a lot of emphasis on the whole Christmas thing. DH and I believe it should be a day, not a season.

But is is a season. Firs you have the 4 weeks of Advent, leading up to Christmas Day, and then the Feast of the Epiphany in January.

[Anonymous]

Every family should do what works for them. I truly enjoy things like baking a bunch of different types of Christmas cookies, hot cocoa, movie nights, sleigh rides, driving around, looking at Christmas lights, watching holiday movies, elf on the shelf, Advent calendars and more. Don't judge anyone who celebrates Christmas or any holiday different than what works for our family. Both my husband and I work full time but we take pleasure in this season and really try to slow it down and be present with family. So we all do things that we enjoy like sledding and skiing as well.

[Anonymous]

Nope, I don’t do much. Spent too much on mall Santa photos and too much Mo ey in general, but I don’t go crazy in any one area. Minimal gifting too!

Just start ignoring it! 90% of it is marketing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not the norm in our house. But we purposely don't put a lot of emphasis on the whole Christmas thing. DH and I believe it should be a day, not a season.

But is is a season. Firs you have the 4 weeks of Advent, leading up to Christmas Day, and then the Feast of the Epiphany in January.

You do you boo

Not the pp, but whether you choose to celebrate it or not, Christmas is in fact a season. It’s a Christian holiday. Saying it isn’t is like my randomly choosing to redefine a Jewish or Muslim holiday as something they aren’t.

[Anonymous]

We don’t do any of the stuff you mention but we still have a very fun, magical Christmas. We get a tree and decorate it and the rest of the inside of our house which is festive. We make lots of different types of Christmas cookies. We read Christmas themed books and watch Christmas themed movies and drive around and look at lights. We go out shopping for each other (each parent takes a kid, then we switch), we make and send cards and letters, we get gifts for extended family that we all discuss what to get each person. We go pick out toys to donate to toys for tots and clothing and books for a gift drive for seniors, and food for the food pantry and talk to our kids about the importance of giving to others.