Are we being prepared for Christmas food shortages?

cook do some nice frozed stuff like nut roast so i am going to stock up there

Simplicity is good!

Lillie

i hope all the plastic rubbishy toys made in china wont be able to reach our shores at christmas too

I agree. Unnecessary rubbish which ends up in landfill for a thousand years, besides which, I try very hard not to buy stuff from China.

nanna8

I have some decorations that are 50 years old. I have stopped using tinsel because I think it looks tacky so I have got rid of that but I have dozens and dozens of different coloured balls for the Christmas tree and some little wooden hanging things, probably from Germany once upon a time. Every year I have a different colour scheme, last year was green and silver, no others. Too early to think yet, though. We usually have a lot of nice seafood because it is hot here. I still like Christmas pud,though.

nanna8, I have a few decorations that go back to my early childhood, so that’s well over 60 years now. I do buy the odd new one, but our multicoloured collection has been amassed over the years. Somewhat depleted now - when dds were at home dh used to take them to buy an absolutely enormous tree - dh would have to chop quite a bit off the bottom and we’d have to rearrange the furniture.
Nowadays it’s a more sensible 5 or 6 footer, so a lot of the surplus decorations went to a dd.

I don’t like tinsel any more either, but we still love icicles! (Lametta). It shivers in the slightest current of air and catches the light.

For a long time now, Christmas has been just a vast commercial enterprise.
We have a ridiculous amount of choice of goods ( so much so that one of the joys of having supermarket shopping delivered is that you can cut all that out.)
I don’t know what ( if any) Christmas shortages there will be, and care even less tbh if turkeys aren’t available.

It would be nice to return to a simpler, less commercial Christmas, wouldn't it.
I've already started Christmas gift shopping as it's the only way I cope financially. I always start in August.
I hope I'm not tempted to stockpile food. Hopefully there will be enough to go around if we are sensible.

Different colour scheme every year, new decorations, new tableware? No way! I inherited a few Christmas decorations, they were all glass when I was young so only one left now, upwards of 70 years old. Haven’t bought any for years. Anyway I refuse to think about it so early. I appreciate a lot of people have to buy little by little to spread the cost though, Mum did. If there are any food shortages I’m sure we won’t starve.

Before anyone thinks I’m a total Scrooge, I didn’t mean I only have one tree decoration, just one very old one.

I used to have a neighbour who bought a whole new set of colour-theme decorations every year. Before I’d twigged that she did this, I was a bit nonplussed when she asked me what colour tree we were having that year.
‘Er, green?’ ?
Funnily enough, she often complained of being hard up, too!

Callistemon

Do you think my 4 year old C********s pudding will be ok?

Could be 5 years old by next C*******s

My mum would store Christmas puddings from one year to the next on a high shelf in the...wait for it...outside lav!!!

Each year she'd get one down and, if there was any mould she she would slice it off and cook the rest anyway.

I'm still here Callistemon so I think you'll be ok.

NfkDumpling No I haven’t carried on the “tradition” I can’t afford to but they could and it was nice at the time and exciting because it was such a contrast to the rest of the year just like holidays were. Don’t get me wrong nothing was ever thrown away it was just added to year on year, and no chocolate/biscuit/eat-me date/ mince pie or turkey leg made it past new year intact… well maybe the really hard caramels with teeth marks on them) (me) Or Bourbon biscuits (me again)
My Mum liked to try the latest of anything really, but there were a lot of “us” in a large house and we weren’t very precious about stuff like crockery so some didn’t survive the year ? but because there was plenty of space to store stuff away it wasn’t a problem.

Christmas isn't Christmas these days , its just a Winter festival that starts after Halloween ! The sooner we realise this , the soner we can learn to live with it as we now live with Covid , hahaha !

Nearly thirty years ago while I was doing my degree I worked in an M&S food hall on the tills for the first couple of years during the hols. It was incredible how much people bought. Some people came back day after day buying trolley loads of food, drink and decorations.

I was working to become a dietician and as I rang up the items my brain would be yelling 'Heart attack coming', 'Liver gone', 'that's another stone to carry on those shaky knees'. Some was obviously for parties but unless they had a family of 20 staying for two weeks it was difficult to see how they would get through all the food.

And then they would be back after Xmas to stock up for New Year. I got to know some of them to chat to and they were by no means all affluent people, so they must have been taking out a mortgage to get them through the holidays.

Just as depressing was working Boxing Day, when all the presents people had been feverishly buying for the last two months were be returned by queues and queues of people.

they must have been quite well off to shop in M&S though.

welbeck

they must have been quite well off to shop in M&S though.

Certainly they weren't impoverished - just normal families who worked I think. There was a huge Tesco next door, and I think lots of people used to go there for most of their shopping and finish off with 'specials' from M&S (we did that).

There are certainly some very rich people living in the surrounding area, but there is also a very large house estate nearby. One lady said she and her husband were both teachers, and I wouldn't have thought teachers' salaries were that high.

Obviously I don't know all their circumstances and where they choose to spend their money is up to them. I think it was just my first exposure to the amount of money people would spend and the amount of food they thought they needed for a week and I was part amazed and part horrified.

Morrison's here was very low on flour and all things cake preparation related. Is everyone making their Christmas Cakes early?

welbeck

they must have been quite well off to shop in M&S though.

When I was picking up my turkey in M&S a few years ago, I was behind a woman at the checkout who had a trolley full of ready made everything. Turkey ready stuffed and laid over with bacon, in a foil tray all ready to stick in the oven, roast potatoes, gravy, all the veg and side dishes pre-prepared, various puddings, you name it. Her trolley was full of nothing else and her bill - of course I had a good old nose - was eye-watering!

Scones

Callistemon

Do you think my 4 year old C********s pudding will be ok?

Could be 5 years old by next C*******s

My mum would store Christmas puddings from one year to the next on a high shelf in the...wait for it...outside lav!!!

Each year she'd get one down and, if there was any mould she she would slice it off and cook the rest anyway.

I'm still here Callistemon so I think you'll be ok.

We ate a 3 or 4 year old one in January this year and are still around to tell the tale so far Scones! There was no mould on it (surprise).

However, there is one large one left and I didn't put the date on when I made them. I couldn't possibly offer it to the family so DH and I might share it.

I ‘d be quite happy to have a simple Christmas. Most of our food is homemade anyway and gradually gathered over several weeks and shared between whoever is coming.
I just want to be able to see my family as we always have done Last year it was just DH , MIL and I. We hated it as did the rest of the family.

People need to adjust their eating to what is available rather than stock piling and making shortages even worse. I don't get why people want to stuff themselves silly at Christmas....

I hate the consumerism associated with Christmas - why do we go completely overboard in terms of food and drink for one or 2 days, it's ridiculous!

I personally switched off from it years ago, I buy enough for a roast dinner and a few nibbles and set a strict budget for presents, but that's it.

Christmas is not the same anymore. Too much greed and excess. Would be great if it could return to the reason we are celebrating in the first place. The birth of baby Jesus. I'm not looking forward to Christmas and haven't for many years. Sad to say.

I really wouldn't mind at all. It amazes me the amount of food in trolleys at checkouts at Christmas, how the heck do they eat it all. I was happy with a new doll, a stocking with an orange in it and a selection box. Simple times, no greed and showing off like nowadays.

I don't know yet what we will do for Christmas but we'll manage something. I am a vegetarian so couldn't care less about meat shortages; there is bound to be something nice for carnivorous husband. As long as we have fresh veg, we'll be festive.

For the last 10 years or so, we’ve made a conscious decision to avoid all excesses, particularly at Christmas. We buy a few treats and that’s it.
Nothing is wasted or thrown out. We don’t have much specifically Christmas food or drink but we choose a few more expensive items to look forward to.
As a result, we’ve been able to donate to our favourite charities, local food banks etc.
Works really really well for us especially as we have no very young children to cater for.
If there are shortages at Christmas it won’t affect any of our family !