To hate every single advertisement that refers to the "perfect" Christmas?

A bit of fairy dust over proceedings will do me nicely thank you.

Same here, rubylady. When I think about it, most of the Christmas books I'm reading to the DGS at the moment have that magic too. The lovely Shirley Hughes books (Alfie, Lucy and Tom), The Night Before Christmas, etc. It doesn't mean I can't have a laugh when things go wrong, but it's good to have something to aspire to

In reality, the DC had a card made for me depicting the Maggie Family Christmas, along the lines of the Griswold one in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, with things that have happened on our perfect Christmas Days. The exploding pudding, the kitchen ice rink when it was covered with turkey fat, the metal star tree topper that nearly took Nanna out, the time Daddy was carried through the front room on a stretcher.....

roses is that the one with Sarah Alexander? If so, yes, that's bloody funny and Ben Miller at his comedy best. Unlike the Ruth Jones/Ben Miller Tesco one which is a travesty and a waste of serious comedy talent....

Worst advert for me this year is the Tesco ones. So boring and cheap. Not a very dynamic couple anyway but a Christmas advert where Ruth Jones is stood in Tesco thinking? Really? Tedious.

Best one is the one where the cartoon man wants to clone himself and James Corden is singing, a lovely advert.

I am sure there are some families which get together and have a really good time, we used to years ago as a big family. It wouldn't be very festive would it to see adverts with families falling out and couples splitting up, we don't want reality at Christmas, well, I don't anyway, a bit of fairy dust over proceedings will do me nicely thank you.

Have got the perfect solution this year - have been invited to DD's for the day - I/we will provide the meat (turkey, gammon, sausages etc.) and the homemade Christmas pudding + crackers - they will provide the veg and the warm welcome into their home. I get to play with DGS (4.5 yrs) and enjoy a home cooked dinner - plus a real fire in the front room - DH totally unstressed (he hates having people round at ours) and a happy time for all. Have cracked it this year but who knows what will happen next year - with two new grandchildren on the horizon in different parts of the country. Looking forward to Christmas 2017 already !!!

I think this year, perhaps with the help of quite a lot of GNrs wisdom, I have more easily realised that the "perfect anything" particularly Christmas is not worth pursuing.

Just do the best that you can, have a good time and a good enough meal, however you define that.
If the dog eats the turkey just laugh and eat something else. There will almost certainly be something else to eat in the house. Unless you are on Masterchef or serving a royal banquet it's not worth worrying. All you stressed xmas cooks take heed.

Watch the very funny The Worst Christmas Of My Life ( Ben Miller) every disaster you can think of.

The advertising and images can make it difficult and painful for anyone struggling with any life event whether holiday, Christmas, meal, birthday or anything else you can think of. I don't hate the images, but I do wish there was a counterbalance.

I don't hate it but it is all so boringly predictable isn't it?! It is also hard to take in that people actually try to live up to these unrealistic depictions and get depressed because they can't.
I often think that advertising agencies miss a trick by not using all the disasters which can happen instead of all this unrealistic depiction of perfection. There is often great humour in such a viewpoint.

Yes agree
but its not just christmas
We are pushed through the year by the advertisement machine
Boxing day TV will have perfect family holidays aspirations
Next will come the perfect valentines
Easter. Well the eggs are in shops week after we all had the perfect xmas and so forth...

I prefer to think the bar has been set by the Royal Family. (The other one)

I typed...It's just ads, then did the comment preview ( it was fine) then posted the comment and saw the change happen as it altered to it'st ! Does this happen to anyone else or just me?

Not everyone is that strong merlotgran, some people think they should strive for the perfect family Christmas /holiday/home etc. The media does set unrealistic targets, can we see some tatty decorations burnt cake, forgotten presents. Could we see more about helping others at Christmas rather than rampant commercialisation. Not going to happen is it.

I am with Merlot on this.It's just ads after all, we all know that nothing is totally perfect, however some people do have a Christmas that is perfect for them.It may be a big family Christmas or one where you sit watching films and eating pizza ( we all have different takes on perfect after all.)
Why let either ads on tv or articles in magazines get to you?

Why take them seriously? I give them the same 'Oh yeah?' regard as I do those ghastly Round Robins full of smug accounts of grossly exaggerated achievements.

I'm probably being very miserable, but I actually find it quite irresponsible for those unattainable images to be forced on us from summers end onwards.
Its every bit as distasteful to me as the ads showing photoshopped "perfect" women advertising everything but the kitchen sink.

I m with you all the way Phoenix can't stand all the slush about Christmas which is often a difficult time for a lot of people

Yep. There's no such thing. Just like there's no such thing as a 'perfect' family or a 'perfect' parent.

Nonsensical marketing hype