Christmas Hits and Fails

[camreesmom]

I am honestly thinking of picking a different day entirely. Either Christmas Eve if dh’s Mom’s changes or the weekend before. It would be nice to have a day where we get the whole day with all the kids. We could plan a meal, some games, gifts, and that night do a fire in the fire pit, marshmallows and dh do some fireworks for the kids.

I told dh, that’s how it is at his Mom’s. It’s a whole day not just a few hours. It’s time for our family to be able to do that. Our grandkids need those same Christmas at Grandma’s memories! And we need it to.

This is what we've done. My parents are divorced so we spend Christmas Day with my mom and then we have a second Christmas at my dad's over NYE. Our kids love it knowing that they aren't going to have to rush from place to place and it just stretches Christmas out for another week. Once we decided that this was going to be our routine, it has taken away so much stress.

 

[barkley]

When DD22, first went to college at 18, I got many texts along the lines of, "OMG mom, do you know how much razors cost? It's ridiculous!" I'd always just have a laugh and say, as a matter of fact I do.

living in a college town we know school is back in session by virtue of how frequently we overhear 'mom did you know....?' calls in the aisles of the local grocery stores my hands down favorite is still 'mom did you know....hamburger helper doesn't come with any hamburger in it????? that's false advertising, how can it help something that's not in it?????'

 

[NFLDERS]

Hits
A page from our local small town paper that had printed a short story our now adult son had written about his fav sport (hockey) when in grade 6, and a photo we had kept that he had taken of *his cat (*followed him home from school one day) when he was in grade school. It brought a tear to his eyes, and his 12 year old son asked: Dad, are you crying?

Miss
Snow, a no show... sigh.

AND, now that the festivities are over A FAIL, our Geotherm Heating/Cooling system must have felt left out in the cold, and will need repair just in time for the New Year... Bah Humbugger!

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

living in a college town we know school is back in session by virtue of how frequently we overhear 'mom did you know....?' calls in the aisles of the local grocery stores my hands down favorite is still 'mom did you know....hamburger helper doesn't come with any hamburger in it????? that's false advertising, how can it help something that's not in it?????'

Don't laugh at us --My husband and I weren't sheltered kids at all but for whatever reason neither one of us realized that Cool Whip is sold in the frozen food aisle and you need to thaw it to use it

We didn't even know this til our late 20s. We never really needed it ourselves and whenever our respective families had it it was always in the fridge already. My mom had a good 'ole laugh when I called her to talk to her about where it was normally located in the stores.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I am honestly thinking of picking a different day entirely. Either Christmas Eve if dh’s Mom’s changes or the weekend before. It would be nice to have a day where we get the whole day with all the kids. We could plan a meal, some games, gifts, and that night do a fire in the fire pit, marshmallows and dh do some fireworks for the kids.

This has worked really well for our family. My parents are divorced and we have DH's family, plus my step-brother is married and has inlaws. It was just too much to try and cram into two days (24th and 25th), so we started doing our Christmas at my dad/stepmom's house on the 26th. It has worked out great. Even if people have to work on the 26th, we don't get together until dinnertime, so that isn't a problem.

 

[luvsJack]

This has worked really well for our family. My parents are divorced and we have DH's family, plus my step-brother is married and has inlaws. It was just too much to try and cram into two days (24th and 25th), so we started doing our Christmas at my dad/stepmom's house on the 26th. It has worked out great. Even if people have to work on the 26th, we don't get together until dinnertime, so that isn't a problem.

That would be another good choice!

Preference would be Christmas Eve. But don’t want to stop joining the in laws either.

Yds is divorced. And I have tried to tell his ex wife for years (before they split) to stop trying to go to every house. It makes her and the kids crazy. They start at one parent’s house that morning. If he has them for the morning, she picks them up and takes them to her grandmother’s. When Mom was still alive, she would then run them by here to go down to Mom’s by 2. Then ds would take them to meet her at her brother’s house for a couple of hours and then back to ds to come here. Then she added trying to go to her bf’s family. I used to ask her if they could stay the night with me once they were here just to let them have some breathing room! Oh, and somewhere in there she visits her dad! Luckily we all live fairly close together and everyone gets along well enough to just have her or him stay with either family gathering (well except the bf’s family, ds doesn’t know them).

Oddly enough, NONE of them do anything Christmas Eve. Dil’s family doesn’t either. And according to Dd if we change to Christmas Eve, she will claim it for us with sil’s family lol. We will just to see closer to time to plan again.

 

[AndreaDM]

No misses so far this year. We have 1 more Christmas this weekend in STL though with my husband's grandmother. Last year she misunderstood what we wanted and got us a salad spinner instead of the food chopper (but also multi-tasker) we wanted (in fairness they looked very similar). We didn't have the heart to tell her but we were able to return it to Walmart (where she had actually purchased it from) and ended up getting the item wanted (which cost the exact same amount aside from sales tax differences between the areas) from Walmart.



Funny story from this year- I had added a Thomas Kinkade Disney coloring book to my Wish List on Amazon really just to not forget that I had stumbled upon it in case I wanted to buy it down the road sometime. It has the original artwork on one side of the page and then a blank one for you to color in on the other side.
.....my husband ended up getting me it from Barnes and Noble He had no idea it was on my Wish List, never thought to even look for it on Amazon. He was thumbing through Barnes and Noble getting gift ideas and saw that and immediately thought I would like it and so he bought it. Of all the Disney things he could have gotten me lol

My fiance bought me a cookbook I had on my wish list but he had no idea it was on there. He also got me a red Disney Coach bag, THAT was the real hit! I also got a Wusthof chef knife I've been coveting.

DD16 loved her GoPro and everything else she got.

The only misses were in a family white elephant exchange. There was some mis-communication apparently, the invite said to bring a gift valued at $5-$10 so the 3 of us took nice $10 gifts, a BBW candle, a small set of Penzey's spices and one of those light-up signs with the letters. We came home with a poop emoji ornament, a deck of cards that had been a favor from a cousin's wedding 9 years ago, and poor DD got what she thought was a nice eye mask/rice pack set until she saw it was covered in pet hair, an obvious regift! No where did it say we should bring joke gifts or random crap from home! Add to that, fiance's sister took charge of how the gifts were opened and did it completely wrong. She said we could only steal someone's gifts before they were opened, not after. What is the point of that? It was a very weird, awkward gift opening event with some people loving their gifts and some of us with looks of bewilderment lol.

 

[DisneyHardin]

The only misses were in a family white elephant exchange. There was some mis-communication apparently, the invite said to bring a gift valued at $5-$10 so the 3 of us took nice $10 gifts, a BBW candle, a small set of Penzey's spices and one of those light-up signs with the letters. We came home with a poop emoji ornament, a deck of cards that had been a favor from a cousin's wedding 9 years ago, and poor DD got what she thought was a nice eye mask/rice pack set until she saw it was covered in pet hair, an obvious regift! No where did it say we should bring joke gifts or random crap from home! Add to that, fiance's sister took charge of how the gifts were opened and did it completely wrong. She said we could only steal someone's gifts before they were opened, not after. What is the point of that? It was a very weird, awkward gift opening event with some people loving their gifts and some of us with looks of bewilderment lol.

Maybe it's regional, but if I went to a party that said bring a "White Elephant" gift, I would bring a joke gift. I have only ever heard that term used for joke exchanges.

 

[jdb in AZ]

My dad is like that. He can make a list and tell you EXACTLY what he wants (down to the brand/size/color or even brand/model number) and he'll *still* return whatever-it-was. He's a really good dad though, so we kind of just laugh it off. In recent years, we've been getting him a few token gifts, then giving him a "money tree' decorated with cash. He says "Ah, yes, cash! Always the right size. Always the right color." He recently bought a big TV, though, and told he had saved up his money-tree money for it. He is also a guy who doesn't like a lot of "stuff."

We refer to cash as "green pictures of dead presidents."

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

That was the essential oil infuser (sp)

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Maybe it's regional, but if I went to a party that said bring a "White Elephant" gift, I would bring a joke gift. I have only ever heard that term used for joke exchanges.

Most white elephants are by nature funny, lots of times not actually useful gifts, etc.

Went to one years ago got a giant TV remote--it actually worked just terribly unpractical lol. That same place had white elephant parties every year and we went a few years in a row. For their home you could steal before the gift was opened but you had to be quick about it because as soon as the person opened it it couldn't be stolen. However, the person who opened the gift had the option of putting the gift back, opened, into a pile which could later be stolen-it was a bit complicated lol.

That said we did a hybrid white elephant gift exchange for a DIS meet just before Christmas. It was a Disney theme and not intended to be a funny gift exchange. You had the ability to steal gifts, etc. We just didn't want to do a secret santa and have to buy for a particlar person but rather to more open style gifts.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The only misses were in a family white elephant exchange. There was some mis-communication apparently, the invite said to bring a gift valued at $5-$10 so the 3 of us took nice $10 gifts, a BBW candle, a small set of Penzey's spices and one of those light-up signs with the letters. We came home with a poop emoji ornament, a deck of cards that had been a favor from a cousin's wedding 9 years ago, and poor DD got what she thought was a nice eye mask/rice pack set until she saw it was covered in pet hair, an obvious regift! No where did it say we should bring joke gifts or random crap from home! Add to that, fiance's sister took charge of how the gifts were opened and did it completely wrong. She said we could only steal someone's gifts before they were opened, not after. What is the point of that? It was a very weird, awkward gift opening event with some people loving their gifts and some of us with looks of bewilderment lol.

I think I would assume funny unless otherwise told/noted.

BUT I totally get what you were going thinking. It was really strange for me at least to do that first white elephant party I had gone to with my husband's (at the time not even a boyfriend the first time I went) family at their family friend's house especially given their rules and some of the people really really took things far (like non-DISboards approved type level). I think the white elephant parties (the funny ones) work really well when everyone is in the loop and everyone is really into it. That can be some great fun when it all works together.

 

[Hrhpd]

The only misses were in a family white elephant exchange. There was some mis-communication apparently, the invite said to bring a gift valued at $5-$10 so the 3 of us took nice $10 gifts, a BBW candle, a small set of Penzey's spices and one of those light-up signs with the letters. We came home with a poop emoji ornament, a deck of cards that had been a favor from a cousin's wedding 9 years ago, and poor DD got what she thought was a nice eye mask/rice pack set until she saw it was covered in pet hair, an obvious regift! No where did it say we should bring joke gifts or random crap from home! Add to that, fiance's sister took charge of how the gifts were opened and did it completely wrong. She said we could only steal someone's gifts before they were opened, not after. What is the point of that? It was a very weird, awkward gift opening event with some people loving their gifts and some of us with looks of bewilderment lol.

That is kind of the definition of the term "White Elephant." Usually it is either gag gifts or something from your house that you don't use. But since there are many different rules for White Elephant, if invited, I always ask the host what are the rules for the gifts besides the price limit. I just went to one and it was specified as a fun thing, grab the weirdest thing in your house you don't use and wrap it.

It does seem whomever was running your game had the swapping rules wrong according to the official "White Elephant" rules page. Yes, I was shocked there was one too

https://www.whiteelephantrules.com/

The game I went to was mostly naughty, toilet related, or just strange regifts that we all had a laugh over. Some of them were the white elephants from the previous year (a pair of naughty boxers) that people brought to get rid of. I got sticky poop (silly putty in the shape of poop.) We have all never laughed so hard since it is not supposed to be formal gift exchange with people appreciating the gifts they get.

Save the mask and the poop ornament and bring it for next year.

 

[luvsJack]

We call what the pp thought was happening, Dirty Santa and everyone brings a “new” $10 gift.

I have gone White Elephant swaps and they seem to be the ones where you wrap a gift from your home. Those seem to be mostly regifts. Sort of a way to get rid of ugly hula girl lamp Great Aunt Marge gave you! But usually the organizer makes it very clear beforehand so that every gift is a regift or a used gift.

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

Interestingly, our only actual “miss” was a KitchenAid mixer. It was a gift to me, and very extravagant considering the source, but I truly don’t want a stand mixer. I’m in the process of trying to find someone to re-gift it to that will be able to properly enjoy it.

I'll take it!

Just kidding. I have a sunbeam stand mixer that was a wedding present, so it's at least 18 years old, but if it ever breaks I will invest in another one because it's a kitchen necessity as far as I'm concerned. Did you give your mixer a chance? Baking/cooking is so much easier with a stand mixer, you really can't understand until you try it.

 

[luvsJack]

I'll take it!

Just kidding. I have a sunbeam stand mixer that was a wedding present, so it's at least 18 years old, but if it ever breaks I will invest in another one because it's a kitchen necessity as far as I'm concerned. Did you give your mixer a chance? Baking/cooking is so much easier with a stand mixer, you really can't understand until you try it.

My mom had a sunbeam mixer for most of my life. That think had to be 35 or 40 years old when she got a kitchen aid.

I want a stand mixer but can’t justify the cost of a kitchen aid. I mean I just want it for cakes and mashed potatoes.

I didn’t think they made sunbeam anymore and started looking for stand mixers online and saw that they do! I think that’s what I will get.

 

[Kitty 34]

Big hit were the 6 foot stuffed snakes I bought our three grandchildren this year. Not only did my oldest granddaughter love her's but so did her Daddy (my youngest DS) and his two other siblings. I bought these $10 snakes at K-Mart the morning of the day we were celebrating Christmas more as a joke and everyone went nuts over the snakes. You would have thought I had spend $100s on them!!

The only misses is the fact that we already miss our grand babies as we won't see them for several months.

 

[ronandannette]

I'll take it!

Just kidding. I have a sunbeam stand mixer that was a wedding present, so it's at least 18 years old, but if it ever breaks I will invest in another one because it's a kitchen necessity as far as I'm concerned. Did you give your mixer a chance? Baking/cooking is so much easier with a stand mixer, you really can't understand until you try it.

I know I would probably find it helpful but I just absolutely cannot accommodate it in my kitchen and having to drag it back and forth from our storage unit in the parkade would mean I'd basically never use it. I do realize what a high-quality item it is and I'm very grateful for the gesture. I'll keep thinking on it and hopefully will come up with just the right person who will be really blessed by it. I'd be happy to send it to you but the thing weights a TON - I shudder at what duty, customs and cross-boarder shipping would cost. If you're ever up my way, stop by and pick it up.

 

[barkley]

I know I would probably find it helpful but I just absolutely cannot accommodate it in my kitchen and having to drag it back and forth from our storage unit in the parkade would mean I'd basically never use it. I do realize what a high-quality item it is and I'm very grateful for the gesture. I'll keep thinking on it and hopefully will come up with just the right person who will be really blessed by it. I'd be happy to send it to you but the thing weights a TON - I shudder at what duty, customs and cross-boarder shipping would cost. If you're ever up my way, stop by and pick it up.

is there any school or community cooking classes you could donate it to?

i agree that the thing is a beast (there was a target ad where a woman whipped one easily out of a gift box and dh and i near died watching it b/c it's such a pain to move ours from where it's stored to the counter we use it on) BUT it is a godsend for some who WILL or wants to learn HOW to do so many things-baking, grinding meat (one of our top 2 uses), food processing, pasta making (other top 2 use)....i can't imagine any public tech school or community cooking education would be anything other than THRILLED BEYOND BELIEF to get one donated so their students could experience using one.

 

[bethbuchall]

Big miss:. My MIL gave me (as my only gift) a sunset themed calendar with the price tag mostly scratched out...$1.99.

Who uses paper calendars? And sunsets, really?

I actually bought that one for myself. It is a cheap, flimsy calendar, but it filled a need for little money.