Christmas gluttony

I'm not affected by any of the adverts wanting me to spend my money on stuff I don't need whether it's food, perfume or anything else. Nor do I get offended because there are things I can't eat or don't want to eat either. It's the advertisers job to part us from our money and to display their goods but we don't have to succumb or feel bad about not wanting or not being able to afford all this stuff.#
Just chill, relax and have the Christmas you want.

Why do people think that Christmas is a time for over-indulging? By all means make the Christmas meal special, but keep it sensible.

Having just received my TV magazine subscription that covers the festive season has lead me to believe that these food ads are far more entertaining than anything the numerous TV channels will be showing.

Advertising does not encourage me to buy more or indulge myself more in fact the reverse is true, the more I get pushed in my face the more I back off.

Good post Nanandgrampy I agree with every word.
Part of life is sorting out the wheat from the chaff, and that includes adults seeing ads for what they are.
I have never seen a groaning table spread with foodstuffs such as in the ads, but am able to decide for myself what to buy, cook and present.It wouldn’t include anything from Iceland btw.

I must admit that the food adverts are well over the top and so unnecessary. I personally don't need reminding of such feasting as it was certainly nothing new in my home of long ago. We had enough but not the excesses that are shown on TV.

It's as though we're all not used to eating ? I will only have now what my insides allow as although I've got a good digestion it's not what it was and I know my limits. I'm more happy snacking. I eat in spasms.

Once upon a time I ate like a labourer and never gained a pound and now because I eat less I've gained weight ? Sitting more I suppose.

It seems to be all about 'perfection' and keeping up with the Beckhams. I don't want to eat until I'm bursting or get drunk either. I'm happy at my sister's where we can all relax, eat a nice dinner, have conversations, play a few games and laugh at corny jokes in the budget buy crackers. If someone burps or farts it doesn't matter. Perfect we are not.

You can have a perfectly nice time and eat very well, without undue excess. Personally I don't have much patience with people who say they're 'forced' or 'pressured' by the media and ads, to over-buy and often over-spend too. Do they not have minds and brains of their own?

As for people who say they buy far too much every year, only for a lot of the food to end up in the bin, that really bothers me.

We have a very good festive feast, but it's all eaten up eventually - the last bit of gammon in a pea and ham soup in early Jan, etc. not to mention dh warming the last of the Christmas pud and brandy butter in the microwave after 12th night!

I hear those words....how do I afford Christmas... It makes me sad that people feel they have to. Christmas is not about spending money an over indulgence. It is about family and showing love and peace yo people. I am not a religious person but I am spiritual. Love and peace and caring....that is what Christmas should be about...

Good post theoddbird

Slightly off the subject, but is anyone else as perplexed as I am about the VIPoo advert? Apparently it is the perfect gift for Christmas! Seriously? I don't know ANYONE who would be delighted to receive that in their stocking!

sandelf I'm with you.I struggle all year to maintain my weight so i will not be going mad with all the food that is associated with Xmas. I buy two mince pies from the local baker, anymore and i would stuff my face, DH doesnt like them, he has a box of a fancy biscuits instead. He has a trifle i have a small slice of Xmas pud that my friend makes every year and gives to me.I put the rest in the freezer and use up through out the year as a treat. MY biggest treat is medjool dates which i absolutely love so i alway treat myself to a packet of those. We both enjoy the christmas dinner which is always turkey with the trimmings but just enough to last over till boxing day them we are back to normal.I am horrified when i see how much food people put in their supermarket trolly.I know if you are catering for a large gathering this will happen but there just seems to be so much, a true feast indeed. I will attend christmas carol service on sunday and go to a family gathering the following sunday.We have a social evening this evening at a club i go to and i went for xmas lunch with my knitting goup last week. I may meet up with my sister christmas eve for a coffee but i have an idea she may be working. Christmas day will just be DH and i so we will visit the cemetary to put flowers on loved ones graves and like yousandelf if it is nice we will walk .What ever everyone is doing just enjoy and relax it will all be over in a flash!!!

I prefer to stick to things I have made myself. Mince pies, sausage rolls, Christmas cake. A chocolate log for the kids. Only indulgence really is posher chocolate biscuits. And some After Eights.

And the pud of course! And daughter makes a lovely trifle.

There is a programme on in the afternoons at the moment with an over jolly Irish woman cooking the most rich and indigestible food - she gets on my nerves - just saying- yes I have turned her off.

I think mid-winter would be even more miserable if we didn’t have some sort of festival at some point, whether it’s Christian or Pagan or whatever.
The pressure to provide a groaning table of artistically prepared goodies is essentially the same as the pressure to look beautiful or young or stylish or have flawless skin or white teeth.

We can choose to ignore it.

The mother of one of my friends had a motto ‘there’s no reason ever to lower your standards’.
Mine is ‘there’s no reason ever to raise your standards artificially high in the first place’.

I do my own thing and it will be enough for me to have most of my lovely family with us for a few days over Christmas.

I saw that ad too Willow10 and wondered who the hell would buy that as a gift. If I received it I would be royally jarred off.
I thought it was a spoof when I first saw the ad.

Why on earth does anyone our age take any notice of the ads or still less, feel pressured to do something because of an advert or other people's expectations. Surely we are old enough and ugly enough(speaking for myself) to do things our way and not bother about the rest.

Do something else in the ad breaks, make a cup of tea, go to the loo, get ready for bed, do knitting, read a magazine or newspaper, have a row with your DH, but just do not bother to watch them.

If I received VIPoo, the giver would never have to worry about making a smell in the toilet ever again, as I expect it would quite hard to empty their bowels (I nearly posted "have a crap" but thought better of it ) with an aerosol spray inserted into their bottom.

B1zzle - and that's a Pagan festival taken over by Christians. The gluttony theme comes from the midwinter celebrations, when every morsel was life lengthening. You ate what you could, when you could because you didnt know when you would eat again. This modern trend that it is a period when we can stuff our faces (and bodies) without consequence flies in the face of the messages we get during the rest of the year about obesity and diabetes. Likewise the comment about how much alcohol is consumed.

Ad break solution......get rid of the TV. I've not had one for 15+ years. I don't see these ads not am I troubled by constant ad for "what's on TV over Christmas" it will be a lovely surprise. I have no idea what is being advertised. I do watch iPlayer on my iPad, so I don't miss the programmes, I just never see an advrt!

Sadly, we now live in a time where almost everyone over the age of three looks at screens.

It's not just at Christmas time we are manipulated. We have to appreciate and understand that all the beautiful, smooth skinned, slim, toned handsome, beautiful, etc, etc, etc people we view in programmes and ads are not the norm and look very different first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Girls emulated 'wags' in buying massive overpriced handbags, spray tans, hair extensions, slinky tight clothes, huge nails, make-up plastered on etc...

There will always be someone or something people fall for and believe is the norm. It's the same with the Christmas images that go out at this time of the year. I am surprised new houses haven't been fitted with artificial snow machines in their roofs and gardens complete with plastic fir trees/palm trees and pools for the summer.

We are in danger of believing we can all have these things and everyone has a right to them. It's modern life. People have stopped living within their means and also have a sense of entitlement, so they model their lives on others or ideal images.

It's causing sadness, envy, debt, poverty. I

I grew up at a time when we didn't really have to keep up with the Joneses because the Jones family didn't have any more than we had. We were poor but happy, not aware there was more to life that we couldn't afford, and not in competition with anyone.

It made me appreciate everything I had. Many of our generation didn't borrow money or get into debt to pay for things we couldn't afford. Window shopping used to be a sport for us! We couldn't have it until we could afford it, which might be never!

I wish we could turn the clock back. We have become a nation of 'must haves' and even the poorest try to compete.

Young people need to be taught to stand back, and understand we are not living in television programmes or happy family advertisements. Mind you, I think that ship sailed long ago. The need to emulate what we see and what others do is everywhere.

I received a VIPoo as a secret santa pressie. Took a while to work out what it was and I was NOT impressed!

Celebrating the longest and shortest days of the year and the quarter days between has been with man from the paleolithic and every age has woven them into their belief system, to think these feasts and festivals were something invented and special to the Celts and Christians appropriated it is tosh.

The Celts( are associated with the Iron Age, c 850BC - 100AD) probably appropriated the festivals of their predecessors and so on ad infinitum to the beginning of time. Christianity just did what all belief systems do and explained their beliefs in line with the belief system that preceded it.

Midwinter feasts are pre-Christian

I think feasting has always been a way to celebrate notable dates. People have done this from time immemorial as a celebration when clans gathered together and Yuletide was a time of feasting and drinking toasts to the gods, perhaps to bring enjoyment to the dark days of winter.