Was everything “fabulous” for you?

Thank goodness for Karma.

An acquaintance emailed me with the detail, by detail, by detail account of "the best Christmas evah!"

She only ever makes contact when she's boasting about something.

But she was due at St Pancras yesterday teatime to get the Eurostar for a "divine Parisien New Year celebration!"

Strange that she hasn't rung or emailed yet.......

I cooked our family meal for 4 on 26th. Prepped as much as I could (peeled veg, made cauliflower cheese night before). DD came round, she'd made a quiz for DGD (that's her niece). I got involved with that (it was good fun) and burnt the potatoes (roasties are the best bit, mum!) and other veg. Served the meal 2hrs late so we missed all sitting down to watch something special.
Arguably the worst family meal I've ever made! 😆😆😆

My friends and family don't post stuff like that in Facebook. I find it a pleasant way to find out what people have been up to and also to follow all the various interest groups I'm on. eg various literature interests, destination info, cat groups etc. Don't write off Facebook just because you don't want to read about friends' holidays.

I had hot water, central heating and pleasant food chosen by me. For me, it was a normal day with repeats on TV.

What not to like?

Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see. I don't begrudge anyone a fabulous time but don't necessarily want to hear about it.

Facebrag, as we call it, has never appealed to me. We knew someone who put post after post on FB showing everyone his fabulous life, beautiful wife and amazing children. He took his own life.

“Better than……a lng liturgy of ailments”😬

It does occur to me though that what the OP had was not really a long account of a Christmas dinner but actually a long account of the amazing things Granddaughter did.

20 minutes would be quite short, in that case😬

I have a friend that sent pictures of the dinner she ate etc....what's worse?

LadyGaGa

A friend of mine went on holiday with family in a huge Spanish villa earlier this year. The posts on Facebook were ‘a fabulous holiday’ ‘amazing people’ etc with wonderful photos (24 to be precise!) that looked like a holiday advert. When I met up with her I said how wonderful it must have been - the reply ‘ It was awful, I hated every minute of it ‘ I suppose a lot of the time the truth is just too complicated - but I agree that a simple ‘Christmas’ answer of ‘fine thanks’ is plenty. Unless of course you’re my real friends, who get the full kit and caboodle!

This is one good reason why I’ve never signed up for Face Bollocks (as our eldest daughter called it years ago).

Just why did she post utter misleading tripe?
Probably not wanting to upset her holiday companions but better surely to not say anything?

Besides highlighting the fact that your home in the Uk is empty …. 🤷‍♀️

Reading Mumsnet as I do, I realise that Christmas has become some sort of mythical monster. The word "magical" is used to excess and anything falling short is considered a total disaster. Parents encourage their children to believe in Father Christmas until they are almost adolescents and have nothing short of a nervous breakdown if their kids discover the truth at the age of 10. The whole thing is fuelled by social media these days.

If it passes without some disaster or other it's been a success 😁

No! heaven forbid lets keep Christmas going, I just wish it could be more low key as in parts of Europe. Of course you don't have to celebrate it, as Allira has said it's not compulsory.

Desdemona

I hope Christmas is something that will die out soon, when enough people realise it is more hassle than it's worth.

You don't have to celebrate.
It's not compulsory.

Have you had the phone conversations with friends, possibly family about just how marvellous their Christmas was?

The equivalent of the Christmas round-robin letters!
Often you find the reality is quite different.

I think it's called Keeping up Appearances or the Hyacinth Bucket Syndrome.

Mind you, probably better than someone who takes a deep breath when you ask how they are and you get a long liturgy of their ailments and can't get away.

I'm another who has read your opening post and completely get what you are saying UTBB, neither do I think it's sour grapes, it can be very boring listening to people chuntering on uttering umpteen superlatives about bog standard stuff. I think we live in an age of exaggeration about pretty much everything, much having been exacerbated by forums like FB and Instagram who follow in the footsteps of the boastful and the fatuous. How many times do certain well known personalities put out what should be private messages to their offspring, who are often in the same room, publicly proclaiming how proud they are of them, for what exactly, who knows!, breathing maybe? The essence of Christmas is often lost and at times has been elevated into a massive showing off fest. Entire families posing in their cosy pyjamas yuk! gathered around some humongous fake tree.

It was like Big Brother, I used to watch it when it was first launched and as the contestants exited, a compilation of their "Best Bits" were shown, probably 5% of their time in there, the rest was no doubt as dull as! I imagine it's the same for those who want to reveal parts of everyday life on public forums or a desire to drone on to friends about how amazing/awesome their Christmas,holiday, children are, what you're getting is a mere microcosm and life isn't really made up of continual highs.

What you've expressed is an opinion and a valid one, don't let it put you off posting.

We tend to say ‘fantastic’ rather than ‘fabulous’ over here. I love Christmas because you get to catch up with friends and family. I don’t like all the lead up and rubbish in the shops, though. Anyway this year Christmas was really good but came round too quickly for my liking. Another birthday for me.

UTTB - I get where you are coming from - boring to listen to 20 minutes about someone else’s ‘fabulous’ Xmas. (Or anything else come to that.)

This thread has made me think that we each have our own idea of what makes a great Christmas. It’s very individual isn’t it? A bit like holidays. And it’s not a competition.

Ours is a combined family - DC and step DC, their partners, and now GCs too. Plus elderly parents. So, it can get complicated. Xmas is never the same two years running, and some are better than others. But we make them good for us, with food and drink treats, visits to friends and relatives, walks and pubs.

A friend of mine went on holiday with family in a huge Spanish villa earlier this year. The posts on Facebook were ‘a fabulous holiday’ ‘amazing people’ etc with wonderful photos (24 to be precise!) that looked like a holiday advert. When I met up with her I said how wonderful it must have been - the reply ‘ It was awful, I hated every minute of it ‘ I suppose a lot of the time the truth is just too complicated - but I agree that a simple ‘Christmas’ answer of ‘fine thanks’ is plenty. Unless of course you’re my real friends, who get the full kit and caboodle!

Most of what other people tell me about their Christmas goes in one ear and out the other.
In the words of Roy Orbison,
‘It’s Oooover!’

My close friends and famiky wouldn’t be so silky as to get competitive or exaggerate the next time ever.

We know each other well enough to raise a wry smile about the excess emotions this time of year can cause. Even when Christmas has been very mixed, most people keep it light, yes thanks, lovely, how about you.

Went for Xmas lunch to my GS’s gf’s house. Very quirky - the parents were dressed in their Xmas pyjamas and it was roast pork, not turkey……thoroughly enjoyed

Desdemona

I hope Christmas is something that will die out soon, when enough people realise it is more hassle than it's worth.

For those who don’t want to celebrate it, there’s no compulsion. It’s a bit selfish to hope something that others enjoy dies out jyst because you don’t like it.
But then . . .

Desdemona

I hope Christmas is something that will die out soon, when enough people realise it is more hassle than it's worth.

Under the circumstances I can only wish you many more happy and fulfilled Cjristmases.

Yes absolutely. Nothing wrong with comments on here saying briefly what a fabulous Christmas members have had, is nice to hear others have made the most of it, however they chose to spend it, but crowing about how fabulous it was for far too long is not good and I imagine many on here would feel the same if exposed to this kind of showing off. Absolutely not fab.

usedtobeblonde I get you too and agree you’ve been misunderstood on this thread. There was no need for your friend to spend twenty minutes raving about how fabulous her Christmas was but I think the hype and build up in magazines and TV adverts leads some people to think they have failed unless everything was ‘awesome’ and ‘fantastic’.

Ive had some disappointing times at Christmas. The year I had flu and so did the children was hell. The year I was nine months pregnant with a 9 lb baby, no room for much food and so relieved when Christmas was over and baby arrived. Lock down Christmas when none of my children or GC could visit. Of course there were the first Christmases after losing my parents.

I coped with the bad ones and celebrate this one.

This year was fabulous, low key but good food, visits from all children and GC and youngest GS staying for a week. Love Christmas with a lively two year old. No arguments lovely presents so yes it was fabulous.