Christmas gluttony

Your final sentence is what bothers me most.
People can be gluttons if they wish, but the worry and stress we see all around us (including on GN) about “how can I afford Christmas” , “how much should I be spending” , “ 4 or 5 vegetables with the turkey”, the Boxing Day spread - all of that is whipped up by the media and causing genuine misery.
The myth of the Victorian spread and Charles Dickens have a lot to answer for too.

Maw correct. But my last sentence encompasses both the overeating and the overspending, or it was meant too.

I’m not trying to be a killjoy. But I have memories of Christmases past where men, in particular, seemed to think that Christmas was a time it was acceptable to drink what they wanted. Many a Christmas Day was ruined by the drunken male in the family.

Now it seems that women, are to be encouraged to overeat and overprovide. This is just as likely to ruin Christmas too.

Many have posted about the over commercialisation of Christmas, focusing on how much we are encouraged to spend on presents.

I’m looking at the way we are being manipulated to go OTT on food. More than ever this year with ads showing overladen tables groaning under the weight of food.

I know exactly what I need to buy and have ordered it so it will be arriving next Wednesday. Because there is so much food advertised, I no longer "see" it. I would be more likely to notice a Christmas pud on its own than a table so full with food I cannot see anything.

You can only be 'manipulated to go OTT' if you allow yourself to be .

I enjoy the adverts and don't find them revolting at all, but then I don't rush out and buy everything shown. I make my choices dependent on my budget and wants .

Perhaps the real issue is we have raised a generation that are spoon fed information and desire in equal parts on the TV , social media etc. They seem incapable of making their own decisions. Quite frankly if people need to be told the coffee they have purchased is hot - all hope is lost for the human race :-)

Yes. I think some of the adverts are sickening. Not what Christmas should be about. But hey, they're supermarkets.

Agree absolutely. What I meant was not that your sentence bothered me but what you describe bothers me - the overspending in every direction and the pressure to provide “the perfect Christmas”.
Many people are taken in and even us “old cynics” are aware of the pressures!

Exactly Maw ‘even us “old cynics”’ can start to wonder if we’ve provided enough, but generally common sense prevails.

Sadly though not everybody is as canny.

I cant say I find the adverts revolting but I do recognise that overindulging isn't a good idea. Its a balance I think 'tis the season to be jolly' not dyspeptic and drunk although many will.

I just hope those who over indulge have got in the indigestion tablets !

I record all programmes so that I can skip the adverts - with the exception of Kevin the carrot - that makes me laugh. Adverts are wasted on me and on most people I would think.

Christmas is a feast? Of what? TBH, it's a Christian festival and celebration which the human race have now hijacked and are using as an excuse for over-indulgence in every way. (Sorry. Rant over now).

It may have been a celebrated Christian festival but I feel that it is waning away with the passage of time.
I an overprovided for at Christmas dinner then my wife gives me earache later on because I fall asleep very soon after the meal.

I find it very uncomfortable when thousands of people will be relying on food banks for Christmas

b1zzle I think the previous poster means that Christmas is one of the traditional feast days of the Christian calendar

I too get miffed seeing all the adverts for tables laden with enough food to feed an army.
This year I’m ignoring them ...
We have daughter,son in law and 2 grandchildren staying with sons family coming for Xmas tea. We will be having roast beef dinner (not turkey lovers) and then buffet tea with mainly cheese board crackers and crisps. Box of mince pies no Xmas cake as it never gets eaten lol.
Tin of heroes for watching telly.
I have friends who go into meltdown about getting ‘everything’.
As I worked in retail Christmas was a time I dreaded and I will never forget one time when we sold out of cucumbers (it was 4 o’clock Christmas Eve) and a customer went ballistic so sad lol
Enjoy the people you are with that’s my motto.

I am struggling to get into the Christmas mood.. I wrote and stamped my cards, went out to to post them and lost them. Now waiting to see if someone found them and posted them for me. Anyway food, having Christmas dinner at a friends house and the rest of it I just can't get going on planning what we need, so I doubt very much if we will over buy and eat in this house. I did buy a box of chocolates to put aside but we ate them the other night.

The adverts must be upsetting for those who cannot food anyway and many will go into debt. In town yesterday there were many families who looked poor buying unnessary items on credit cards.
In my Close of 14 houses I only know of one family who have a “feast “and others have no children or are elderly widows like me.

Adverts are wasted on me - all year round not just at Christmas.

I hum along to the tunes and maybe laugh at some of the cute scenes but most of the time I have no idea what's being advertised.

I shop very carefully for Christmas. There's always plenty of food but I hate waste so there's never anything in the fridge that can't be used up in some way.

There's no need to go mad.

As a veggie, I loathe all the ads with meat closeups

We always eat well, and from scratch but never expensive but at Christmas time I splash out and buy rib of beef, which is expensive but delicious. The table is decorated and the silver cutlery comes out of its canteen, Christmas crackers, a best wine glasses and a really good wine. Sorted!!!

My partner, also a vegetarian, finds these ads offensive.

A bit fed up with them myself, so I just mute them all.

yes most revolting .as theres lots of stuff i cant eat.and the sight of a cooked animal makes me feel really sick..!!! .wouldnt it be nice to be invited to a lovely family christmas dinner though.(pigs fly)...and have a rose tinted glasses christmas. lotsa presents/laughter/songs etc. sadly thats not going to be ,a lot of people including me have no parents or grandparents left alive. though i do have d and 2 gc one brother and one sister. though i wont get invited to my sisters .(boo) just my brother ,so boxing day on my own..

blzzle Midwinter feasts are pre-Christian. If anything, it is the Christian church which hijacked 'pagan' celebrations like Saturnalia and Yule.

OH and I are happier to have little different from the lovely food we have most days - don't want 'more' our systems don't cope well and we'd really rather feel healthy. It's lovely to read that others for various reason feel similarly. It's really all about business. But terrible for people's happiness. I will go to a candlelit carol service - that will be beautiful. And a bit of communicating with friends and family, a walk if dry and a game if not. All the ads seem to suggest you can 'make' people happy if you do this or that - we know better don't we.