Does your DH help with Christmas preparations?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curious, how is Christmas prep divided in your house?

I do 100% of the planning any fun holiday events, crafts for the kids, extra baking, holiday menus, the tree chopping and set up, gift/stocking buying, Christmas decorating, holiday cards, wrapping, and hauling down to the living room all the gifts. It is just so much. Am I the only one that does pretty much the entire holiday shebang without help from spouse? DH a is generally helpful in everyday life he just DGAF about Christmas- at all.

I do 98 percent. He put a few ornaments on the tree. Sorta helped put together a toy for the kids (but asked me for lots of help). He took some gifts to the post office to be mailed. Complained when I didn’t do Christmas cards this year.

He literally asked me Christmas Eve in panic if “Santa” had gifts for the kids. Ugh.

I did the mean planning and making, brought everything up from the basement, did all the shopping, outdoor lights, in door decorations, planned visit to Santa and outdoor light thing. I did the ginger bread house and cookie making.

I feel you. It’s not as much fun by myself that is for sure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious, how is Christmas prep divided in your house?

I do 100% of the planning any fun holiday events, crafts for the kids, extra baking, holiday menus, the tree chopping and set up, gift/stocking buying, Christmas decorating, holiday cards, wrapping, and hauling down to the living room all the gifts. It is just so much. Am I the only one that does pretty much the entire holiday shebang without help from spouse? DH a is generally helpful in everyday life he just DGAF about Christmas- at all.

His approach is just fine, you know.

For him, absolutely. Christmas could come and go and he doesn't care at all. Which is fine. But we have three kids. I don't go crazy on the holidays, but even the minimal things are a lot of "extra" on top of everything else in daily life if there is no help

Christmas is only about observing the birth of Christ, our Lord. None of the other stuff is necessary.

Not OP but Christmas is a religious event in our house, but that’s WHY it’s so festive, and yes, that involves effort. The kids know we are celebrating a big birthday party, except that the gifts, like His sacrifice, are for us to share. Choosing outfits/shoes and dressing the kids up for church, a celebratory meal and presents - even if you are looking at it in a very Christian way and minimize the materialism - it can be tiring.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry your husbands are such bums about it. I’m not trying to be condescending, that just does sound really hard. It would be nice if you could just do nothing or as much as he does so he can see how much you do and hopefully pitch in more, but with Christmas that’s not really fair to the kids.

[Anonymous]

We split it pretty well. Boys are 18 and 14 and I think we’ve been 50/50 pretty much every year. We had one year where DH had unexpected work and I did the travel with kids and dog myself, which was fine because we rarely travel for Christmas.

I buy, he wraps
I cook, he cleans
We all pick out the tree, he does the lights, kids and I hang ornaments
I buy and oversee the gingerbread house (when they were younger)
We didn’t do cards this year but normally I choose and buy and he and I both address and stamp.

I have found memories of me buying the play kitchen when now 18 yo DS was 2 and DH staying up to put it together while I went to bed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We split it pretty well. Boys are 18 and 14 and I think we’ve been 50/50 pretty much every year. We had one year where DH had unexpected work and I did the travel with kids and dog myself, which was fine because we rarely travel for Christmas.

I buy, he wraps
I cook, he cleans
We all pick out the tree, he does the lights, kids and I hang ornaments
I buy and oversee the gingerbread house (when they were younger)
We didn’t do cards this year but normally I choose and buy and he and I both address and stamp.

I have found memories of me buying the play kitchen when now 18 yo DS was 2 and DH staying up to put it together while I went to bed.

And normally we decorate (travel this year) and he hauls it all up and I decorate then he drags it back to storage which we repeat in reversal in January

[Anonymous]

My husband definitely DGAF, but he knows I love the holidays so he puts in the effort for me, which I really appreciate. For example, this is our first year with a child and I wasn’t sure I wanted to go through the effort of getting a real tree but he made the plan and got it home. He could not care less personally, but he knew it would be meaningful to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious, how is Christmas prep divided in your house?

I do 100% of the planning any fun holiday events, crafts for the kids, extra baking, holiday menus, the tree chopping and set up, gift/stocking buying, Christmas decorating, holiday cards, wrapping, and hauling down to the living room all the gifts. It is just so much. Am I the only one that does pretty much the entire holiday shebang without help from spouse? DH a is generally helpful in everyday life he just DGAF about Christmas- at all.

His approach is just fine, you know.

For him, absolutely. Christmas could come and go and he doesn't care at all. Which is fine. But we have three kids. I don't go crazy on the holidays, but even the minimal things are a lot of "extra" on top of everything else in daily life if there is no help

Christmas is only about observing the birth of Christ, our Lord. None of the other stuff is necessary.

Go away weirdo.

[Anonymous]

We do about 50/50, just like with everything else child and house related.

[Anonymous]

I was in a funk re: all the thing that needed to be done. This was before Christmas. Really thought about it. Realized I really didn't like putting up the Christmas tree. Getting it out, assembling it, decorating it. Wanted the tree up, just hated the work. Once I admitted that to myself and asked if DH would handle it from start to finish --- problem solved!! And every Christmas forward has been better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious, how is Christmas prep divided in your house?

I do 100% of the planning any fun holiday events, crafts for the kids, extra baking, holiday menus, the tree chopping and set up, gift/stocking buying, Christmas decorating, holiday cards, wrapping, and hauling down to the living room all the gifts. It is just so much. Am I the only one that does pretty much the entire holiday shebang without help from spouse? DH a is generally helpful in everyday life he just DGAF about Christmas- at all.

His approach is just fine, you know.

For him, absolutely. Christmas could come and go and he doesn't care at all. Which is fine. But we have three kids. I don't go crazy on the holidays, but even the minimal things are a lot of "extra" on top of everything else in daily life if there is no help

Christmas is only about observing the birth of Christ, our Lord. None of the other stuff is necessary.

Go away weirdo.

NP. How dare you call the poster a weirdo for not only posting her belief but also the truth. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of the Son of God. If you don't believe, fine
But you do not run your filthy mouth on someone else's beliefs! You would never dream of making a such a despairing comment to a Jew or Muslim about their religious beliefs. You are beyond despicable.

[Anonymous]

yawn

[Anonymous]

Wow, your list is exhausting. Here is how your list is divided in our house:

DH:
This year bought and decorated the tree with the kids (previously it varied, either I or DH or both).
Carry decorations from/ to storage
any outdoor decorations
Wrap gifts and bring them down under the tree
Haul tree in/out (I help if it’s too large)

I:
planning any fun holiday events
crafts for the kids
Buy most of the kid gifts
Take down tree decorations
Holiday menus
Extra baking (though it’s quite minimal, may be a small batch of sugar cookies with the kids)

Neither:
Holiday cards

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious, how is Christmas prep divided in your house?

I do 100% of the planning any fun holiday events, crafts for the kids, extra baking, holiday menus, the tree chopping and set up, gift/stocking buying, Christmas decorating, holiday cards, wrapping, and hauling down to the living room all the gifts. It is just so much. Am I the only one that does pretty much the entire holiday shebang without help from spouse? DH a is generally helpful in everyday life he just DGAF about Christmas- at all.

His approach is just fine, you know.

For him, absolutely. Christmas could come and go and he doesn't care at all. Which is fine. But we have three kids. I don't go crazy on the holidays, but even the minimal things are a lot of "extra" on top of everything else in daily life if there is no help

Christmas is only about observing the birth of Christ, our Lord. None of the other stuff is necessary.

Go away weirdo.

NP. How dare you call the poster a weirdo for not only posting her belief but also the truth. Christmas is the celebration of the birth of the Son of God. If you don't believe, fine
But you do not run your filthy mouth on someone else's beliefs! You would never dream of making a such a despairing comment to a Jew or Muslim about their religious beliefs. You are beyond despicable.

Another NP. What was weird about PPs comment was saying that Christmas is *only* about celebrating Jesus (the over the top word choice was weird as well). You can be a devout Christian and recognize that it’s important for kids to get thoughtful gifts.

[Anonymous]

We are both relatively low key on it. I do all the planning and present shopping and he pitches in a bit on execution of a few key things. He brought the (fake, pre-lit) tree up and set it up, helped hang some garland, wrapped one or two presents, and helped cook the food that I planned and shopped for. I asked him to pick out a wreath, and he did that. We did minimal lights outside, I purchased and he executed. We made one kind of cookies together with the kids. He bought (really crappy last minute non-thoughtful) presents for his side of the family, I shopped (via amazon wishlists, so not hard...) for my side.

[Anonymous]

My husband doesn't care but does about 30%. I shop, he wraps. I cook Christmas Eve, he cooks Christmas. I decorate most of the house my husband hangs the wreaths.