'Don't come at me': Mum's controversial opinion about Christmas tradition

She thinks it's "consumerism at its finest." So, is this one aspect of gift-giving we can opt out of this year?!

As the festive season approaches, the yearly topic of children's Christmas presents arises in every parent's mind. 

What should we get them? How much should we get them? Are they still playing with this sort of toy and that kind of game? Do they even need more toys? Are they old enough that we can ditch the whole Santa thing?

Many of us will navigate these questions in the coming months, but one Aussie mum has another topic she's been stewing over. 

Do we really need to give our kids a Christmas Eve box? Or a December 1st box? And where on earth did these traditions come from?

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"Consumerism at its finest"

"Unpopular opinion, so don’t come at me," the mum caveats at the start of her post on the Christmas Mums Australia Facebook group.

"I like healthy conversations (and I’m no Xmas Grinch…) BUT, I really dislike the idea of a Xmas Eve or Dec 1 box.

"Where did it come from? I know in America, it’s common to open family presents on Christmas Eve and Santa presents on Christmas Day. So has it come from that?"

The mum says she feels like it's "consumerism at its finest" before encouraging people to "pop a comment with your thoughts."

"I’d love to know if anyone else is in this boat with me," she concluded.

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"Extend the excitement"

Naturally, as the post was in a 'Christmas Mums' Facebook group, there were plenty of parents who disagreed and said they loved having even more opportunities to spread the festive magic throughout the month.

"I love a December 1st box!" said one. "I put a Christmas Book, Christmas PJs and Christmas activity of some sort in there. It gets the kids excited about Christmas and then they can wear their jammies the whole of December. For me, it's like kicking off the festive season."

"This is my view too," replied someone else. "Gives them time to build up the excitement for Christmas and make use of all the Christmas stuff for a month instead of just one day. 🙂 I either do a December 1st box or an advent calendar with activities or a treat/movie etc. in each day, something different for each day of the month of December like looking at lights, Christmas carols."

One mum says that she also loves the tradition of December 1st boxes but will "reuse everything from last year, like PJs, mugs, and games," to save time and money. "They're still good!" she adds.

"I like nice photos on Christmas morning with the kids in matching new PJs so that’s why I started doing a Christmas Eve box," another mum shared.

"Also love doing an Xmas Eve box - my kids love it and it extends the excitement to another day," someone else replied.

"I don't do it either and never will"

However, she did have a few supporters who agreed they didn't see the point in the extra presents.

"We used to do it and then just stopped as it was just overkill…. I already go OTT on Christmas and just found it was mostly crap that we buy throughout December anyway so we stopped! The elves arrive on December 1st and bring the advent calendars with them, and that’s pretty much as far as December 1st goes, lol."

"I'm with you," another shared. "We just do Christmas morning and an advent calendar throughout Decemeber."

"Totally agree. I don't do either and never will. I'd like to know the origin too," someone else wrote.

And one mum summarised a lot of people's thoughts and just said "CBF!!" 

Hard relate on that one!

Originally published as 'Don't come at me': Mum's controversial opinion about Christmas tradition