How much of the extra 16 pints of milk and 5 loaves of bread bought just in case are actually consumed

Yabu.
We're a family of 4 and had a couple of relatives round for my son's birthday weekend. Did an afternoon tea (mini sandwiches), and I always have toast for breakfast. 3 loaves of bread in one day. It's really easily done.

The kids have porridge and drink babycinos, I drink endless cups of tea with milk in... often get through 3-4pt a day without anything special happening.

6 loaves and 16pt isn't bonkers for a week, especially with visitors

You can freeze what you dont use.

I am bad for milk, I never can gauge how much I'm going to use and how long past expiry the one i have will stretch

I stock up because dragging 2 children round the supermarket for a full shop is hell (DH is usually at work between Xmas and new year) when they are all hyped up due to Xmas or overtired from all the festivities. I meal plan and put lots in the freezer so it all gets taken out and used. I buy extra milk because we always have lots of visitors who all like to have cups of tea/ coffee/ hot chocolates. My eldest is basically a baby calf when it comes to milk and will have cups of milk every day (usually gets a carton of milk at school at snack time) and then one at bed.

Food wise, even if I'm not hosting, my children are off school and are basically gannets and like sheep graze all day. I'm feeding them an extra meal Monday - Friday (usually have school dinner at school). We go on days out and usually pack up (extra bread and pack up stuff needed). Usually DH works from home so will have a variety of food for lunch whereas if we are packing up it's sandwiches or hot soup and bread all round. If we are hosting family they also need packup for the day out.

If hosting family that's a whole other family worth of food shop needed. Some people host parents/ in laws/ family for multiple days. Cooking for more adults requires more food. Cooking for extra adults plus extra children also means food goes down quickly. It's not always easy to just nip to the shops when hosting, especially if you have a "I'll come for a ride out" relatives. My great aunt (early 90s) was notorious for getting in the car every time it went out the drive. If you went to the shops she was coming with, so any outing took 3x as long as it should.

If you are just doing Christmas dinner but have absolute gannets for family members you also end up with a huge shop just for Christmas dinner. DH, BIL and Great Grandfather in Law are gannets at Christmas. Great Grandfather in Law is a gannet everytime he goes somewhere else to eat (Great Grandmother in law is basically a sparrow and exists for days at a time on fresh air and could give even the most competitive under eater a run for their money). So when he comes for Christmas dinner he piles his plate high multiple times and eats like a man starved. DH, BIL and GGFIL can eat 2 whole trays of roast vegetables, a full tray of roast potatoes, half a serving dish of mash, half a serving dish of both red cabbage and a serving dish of cauliflower cheese between them. They also devour all the meat (if I'm hosting 12 I always get a piece big enough for 16) and pigs in blankets that are left. I always make the 3 gannets go to the serving table last so everyone else gets their share, then the 3 gannets can scrap between them for the rest of the food. One year I thought I had seriously over catered and expected leftovers but it was completely hoovered up by the 3 family gannets who ate 3 huge platefuls then had 2 deserts.

We live very rurally, we have a chest freezer which we stock so we aren’t always driving to the shop.
nothing gets wasted. You are being judging and unreasonable not to realise that the whole world isn’t like you.

Just google "Christmas food waste" @unn and you're not wrong. I do understand that people may live rurally and not have shops open - that's the situation my mum is in and she always has loaves in the freezer and a couple of packs of UHT in case she gets snowed in.

But buying ridiculous amounts of food for Christmas is nothing new. I don't have any problem with freezing and using up leftovers but many people do, they don't know what to do with them or are worried about food poisoning, or like my friend, just don't like the idea of ever eating someting they've eaten before.

Toast, stuffing, hot chocolate, multiple cups of tea. I don't want to go to the shop between Christmas Eve and 27/12 so I buy extra staple food.

I agree OP - I was reading another thread and it got me wondering why we put ourselves through this ridiculous ritual every year. I'm sure we all buy stuff we know we won't use, and it is such a waste. But you get sucked into the advertising and the relentless push to make you buy more, more, more! I even briefly contemplated buying a load of the 15p vegetables and making some soup, and I NEVER make soup!

I've got some part baked bread and long life milk in addition to my normal, as we'll have Ds and DIL and DD and SIL to stay. Its not because the shops will be shut (they're not really are they!), its so we dont have to go out if we dont want to and can just cosy up at home.
I can't imagine anybody just randomly buys loads then chucks it away after Christmas. There might be a few I suppose, but you can't tell just by looking at someone in the supermarket! I love glancing at others trollies and thinking of all the friends and families getting together.

But surely you still arrive home wearing a trench coat and a trilby hat in case Florence the neighbourhood gossip may judge you on what is or is it ot is good plonk or worse still doesn't see what brand of butter you buy because Fido the supermarket manager is sleeping with Florence's husband and he looks at you with the glass eye all judgemental like so you feel bad

For me, one of the joys of Christmas is the ‘step up’ in the shopping.
if you normally buy the every day value stuff for example, then for Christmas you think ‘fuck it, it’s Christmas’ and join the queue for the deli ham. It’s joyous, and if you don’t get it, or go around saying ‘it’s just a roast’, then I would urge you to try it, embrace the joy!

People eat differently over the holidays

On an average week we are a house of 2 adults, one child and one baby. We have cereal or porridge for breakfast, cheese/ham/egg sandwich for lunch with some fruit and protein/veg/carb based main meal. We can make a chicken or joint of meat last 3 days. Snacks on between meals are crackers, toast, fruit and puddings are fruit and yoghurt. On a typical weekend we go through 2pts of milk, 3l of oat milk, 1 loaves of bread, 0-3 eggs, 1 meat based items, half a back of cheddar, 1-2 bottles of beer maybe a bottle of tonic.

When my in-laws visit for a weekend with have eggs/bacon/mushroom/smoked salmon etc on toast for breakfast, more elaborate sandwiches for lunch, nicer dinners, make crumbles or pies for puddings. We go through 8pts of milk, 2l of oat milk, 3 loaves of bread, 8 eggs, 2 meat based items. 6 bottles of beer, 1 bottle of wine, 2 packets of sharing crisps, a packet of crackers, 3 packs of various cheeses, a pack of nuts. ..... It will be very similar over Christmas but rather than being with us for 3-4 days they are staying for 10! 3-4 days will be similar to this and the rest more normal eating patterns but still that's 2 extra adults. We eat a lot of rice and pasta during an average week as they cook quicker than potatoes, my mil struggles with pasta so we eat more potatoes. We use frozen veg for speed during a typical weekday and fresh veg in the weekend or when we are at home. Food changes from quick fairly tasty food to taking those extra steps to make it taste really good

I have bought a lot of the non-perishable extra in the previous few weeks and if they don't get eaten they will go in the cupboard to be eaten over time subsequent visits. I've got a Christmas delivery booked for the 23rd which should cover most of food until we go back to work/school in January so 12 days normally my food shop covers 5-7 days.

Another thread started by a poster with no imagination as to how other families might do things differently and prefers to work from the assumption that they must be idiots. 🤷🏼‍♀️

I got accused of ridiculous overbuying yesterday, alongside the start of a lecture of the shops only being shut for one day.

It was just my normal shop, I have a large family, with a couple of dietary requirements thrown in for good measure.

I got accused of it a lot over covid as well.

Already solved that dilemma after an incident with the postman’s poodle’s aunt in Peru who saw glow of lights late one night and told the news of the world that we were running an elf workshop. Awful experience all round.
We now get around that by living in an isolated location (this part is actually not from the land of make believe) with no neighbours or passing traffic so that we can be rebels (or hermits).

That amount would only last a few days in our house.

My DC, and especially my teenage son, are like bottomless pits when it comes to food. DS can easily consume a 2 litre carton of milk in one sitting! 😂🙈

How do you know? It’s likely they don’t want to shop over Xmas, they’ll have extra people staying over from all across the country/world and…. Bread and milk can be frozen :)

I run a food bank, so thoughts and prayers please as I attempt to do Christmas dinner for 700 people including every dietary requirement and religious observance under the sun I breathe a huge sigh of relief at 5pm on 24 December.

Personally? We’re secular Jewish so it’s party food + Chinese here rather than a roast. I have stocked up on UHT milk for when we run out of fresh. If we run out of bread it’s the bread maker (for which we have ingredients in already), or crackers. Or nothing.

I avoid the shops because, frankly, I am in them for work collecting all the unsold “surplus” including Norfolk bronze turkeys, posh desserts and so on. And the music and crowds make me uncomfortable. So I buy a little more than usual on or around the 20th to keep out of the shops until the 27th.

I'm surprised you haven't been told you have to stop buying in case the neighbours children on left may see you brong ot on from the car and the neighbours on the right MIL cousin who lives in Canada is in AA

I can see the need to but in extra food as that is part of the festivities , but to bulk buy items such as milk / bread is weird as it's not as if the shops are closing for a week or two .

There's only two of us. But we are having brother over for dinner. We just get a bit extra so we actually don't have to go to the shop over Christmas... it's a ball ache.
So can imagine people buying lots of stuff have bigger families and feel the same as me.

I said, I don’t get it. Other people can do as they wish. But for ME, it’s not something that I personally understand in MY life

And yes, for us it’s just one meal. No different to if we fancy a Sunday roast. The children get a few selection boxes so they are covered.

I stock up on wine (awful mn confession) but don’t buy milk and bread ever.

It's not just the one meal is it though? You don't understand that people might like to buy extra nice things in a Christmas shop that they usually wouldn't?

My normal weekly shop is bare bones. Enough for 3 meals a day and homemade snacks for the DC and that's it. No nice extras, no wine, no nibbles. So my Christmas shop has olives, crackers, nice cheese, prosecco, pate, posh crisps, smoked salmon. All things I usually wouldn't buy because I want to enjoy decadent food for a week over Christmas. I'm sure lots of people do this.

We have bought 1 extra loaf to freeze and 4 x 4 pints of milk which is the usual for us. Having family, lots of tea, coffee, cereal etc it will all get used. No waste here. I think if you have kids as pp have mentioned lots of hot chocolates etc may be why the extra milk is bought