I feel sick now!

J52-- I feel just the same- just obscene.

The TV is firmly switched off - or over - when one of those awful lip-smacking chefs appears. Nauseating!

I'm so glad that other Hon. members find the media obsession with Christmas food, drink and gluttony quite revolting, for so many reasons. There is hope for all of us turkeys!

@J62 - But then what should Christmas be? Seems to me it's a parody of Victorian sentiment that most people would choose. The whole 'Christmas Story' is shaky to say the least!

For a very long time Christians did not mark the birth of their leader at all.

These awful adverts, I like to think, are made in the heat of summer, with all the jolly family members sweating it out in their Christmas jumpers.

For some reason, particularly this year, the whole 'over done' experience in ads and front covers of magazines has struck me as very crude and insensitive.
I agree with other posters it is a false portrayal of what Christmas should be and very unrealistic and patronising.

I hope everyone has a peaceful Christmas, whatever they are doing. X

Papaoscar well said.
I dislike the whole pretence the ad men try to generate of huge gatherings of happy families, glowing with goodwill, in impossibly huge glowing room's. I cannot help thinking it must make a lot of people feel inadequate.
I wish the TV would I interersperse these ads with the Christmas episode of "The Royle Family" That was much more like the majority of British household's.

I agree * GrannyActivist* that's how I look on it.

All credit to those who help share out food surpluses and try to even-out the unfairness in our society. The government stinks that permits and encourages this sort of thing to be necessary, as do the industries that choose to portray groaning tables and gluttony as the norm. All they want is our money. Stuff them as well as the turkey!

www.fareshare.org.uk

The more food is left over in the shops, the more goes to Fareshare.

Does that help you to feel better? The more you leave on the shelves, the more you are helping the homeless and destitute.

Know what you all mean about the tv ad groaning tables of food, all the courses stacked together in a sickly heap.I am happy to see an ad for one product [or 2 at a push] but not for more than that.
However, I am not put off by seeing stacks of cakes etc in the supermarket [in fact, I am quite likely to buy one!] Some of them will be half price after Christmas.

Every week, we buy the usual fruit, apples, pears, oranges and bananas, and then buy one 'guest' fruit as a change, trying to make it something different.

Settle for a banana Ana ?

Oh, you are lucky! Our local market doesn't seem to sell anything out of the ordinary (probably no call for it...). Perhaps I'll have a look further afield, but not before Christmas now!

Ah - our local market! Considering it's in the middle of nowhere in east angular, it's amazing! I always used to let the children choose one weird fruit each a week when they were little, now I choose them for the GCs to try when they stay. Safeways used to be my nearest supermarket 30 years ago, and they were amazing for foreign foods and fruits.

I'm intrigued by the exotic fruits...not sure our local Tesco does those!

The shops only close for a day or two - and Christmas dinner is really just a fancy roast - so I genuinely don't understand the siege mentality. Yet, every year I see trolleys laden as if to feed the five thousand. Maybe it's because people are not used to holding family get togethers and misjudge the amount of food needed?

I've often wondered who eats all that stuff. We rarely even manage to eat our xmas pudding until February! More often than not we will end up having sorbet or meringue and the pud will quietly be put in the fridge.

We treat xmas day food like a meal. The starter (smoked salmon and scrambled egg) for breakfast, the main course in the late afternoon, and dessert sometime in the evening, although it's just as likely top be a big bowl of exotic fruits.

It's the same with table decorations. I look at some of the suggestions in magazines and on the telly to get some inspiration for Christmas Day and then think, Where are you supposed to put the food?

The ads don't affect me like that at all, I don't actually imagine myself eating all that stuff (or even any of it...)!

Charley girl that made me laugh out loud. Thank you. I agree with you phoenix I do wonder just how many folk do have all those people round the table full of that food.
The expression that springs to mind is "in the advertisers dreams". I have adapted that a little!!!

And on a rather somber note (apologies emoticon.) how much food will be binned from over-buying?
Deliberately not doing usual siege/what if it snows us in etc routine to try and avoid either stuffing myself or binning food. It's so easy to get carried away....and very difficult to break the habits of a lifetime
DD doing Crisis at Christmas has really brought home to me that for many any food is a luxury......

OMG - there's Nigella on TV, stuffing not only the turkey but her guests. Yuk and yuk again!

Gives a whole new meaning to 'fed up', doesn't it!

I wonder how much more unsold food the supermarkets will end up with this year because of their madly competitive marketing practices.

These adds with tables groaning with food really annoy me.