What do you find shocking at Christmas?

[RosieGuacamosie]

Lighthearted

I have ASD so certain things utterly astound me, I’m sure others will vehemently disagree so feel free to share your own!

1. Starters for Christmas lunch! Surely you’d save room to maximise the main event!
2. Cooking the turkey the day before - are you not worried about food poisoning or it being super dry?
3. Mash on a Christmas dinner, see also sweetcorn

I’m sure I’ll think of more

I also struggle with how commercialised the whole thing is and what we are actually celebrating.

I agree with this. I’m not religious but I think at the very least Christmas should be about family and spending time with people you love. It gives me the shudders when I see mounds and mounds of presents and children ripping through enormous sacks of gifts without a second thought.

Appreciate I’m probably a joyless bastard but we were always made to open them a few at a time interspersed with us handing out our gifts to our rellies so we learnt Christmas was about sharing the joy with everyone.

@Echobelly

I don't celebrate Christmas, but looking at it from the outside, I'm faintly astonished by:

• 'Ordinary' people spending £100+ on kids
• People going to extreme lengths to buy the 'must have' thing for kids... I mean, can people not say 'That's really hard to get, I'll try but I can't guarantee as I have lots of other things I need to do'?
• People making a huge fuss for Christmas for babies that are too young to know what the hell is going on - I suppose it's for social media etc, but I definitely don't get the need of a big pile of presents for a 5 month old.

There was a thread a while back full of people trying to track down an item. What happened to, you don't always get what you want?

Starters for Christmas lunch! Surely you’d save room to maximise the main event!

Not only do we have starters we also have a soup course. Our meal is eaten over a number of hours

Cooking the turkey the day before - are you not worried about food poisoning or it being super dry

Everything is cooked the day before. The turkey is stored properly and reheated covered in turkey jelly and juices. Never once been dry.

Mash on a Christmas dinner, see also sweetcorn

We have mashed potato and roast potatoes but I'm with you on the sweet corn.

What I find shocking is people who feel pressured to spend excessive amounts of money on presents.

People making a huge fuss for Christmas for babies that are too young to know what the hell is going on - I suppose it's for social media etc, but I definitely don't get the need of a big pile of presents for a 5 month old.

This too! Seen a couple of threads on here about babies opening presents etc etc and I just think we’ll it’s nice to give a few presents but really it’s for the benefit of the parents as babies have no concept of Christmas and don’t really even have the fine motor skills to do the unwrapping!

People who wear PJs all day. Not judging at all, it actually sounds quite lovely. It's just my own family made me dress up in best clothes and be at church by 10.30 so even though I now have my own family and we don't do church I somehow can't shake the idea that looking smart is part of what Christmas is. Maybe I should just try it one year.

Not only do we have starters we also have a soup course. Our meal is eaten over a number of hours

To be fair that does sound nice! My family are shameless gluttons and seem to just cram in as much as possible once Christmas dinner is unleashed

@YukoandHiro

People who wear PJs all day. Not judging at all, it actually sounds quite lovely. It's just my own family made me dress up in best clothes and be at church by 10.30 so even though I now have my own family and we don't do church I somehow can't shake the idea that looking smart is part of what Christmas is. Maybe I should just try it one year.

I’m the opposite, I was gobsmacked (and about 16) when I realised some people dress up for Christmas Day. I was even more gobsmacked when I realised (at about 25) that some people get their hair and nails done specially!

We didn’t leave the house on Christmas Day so aside from throwing on jeans and a jumper, what would be the point in dressing up!

Yes to massive pile of presents for tiny babies - such a waste, better to just use it as an opportunity to buy things they need like books or new clothes.

Disagree on starters - the best bit of Xmas lunch!! (my mum always dried out the Turkey and I'm a useless cook so often just go for a premade nut roast or Turkey crown thing which never cooks well)

The immense pressure and stress people seem to be under to create the 'perfect' Christmas without really thinking it should be about family.

The sheer volume of presents my Autistic DSS gets given by Santa (his Mum) knowing that it overwhelms him and he melts down. Pure selfishness.

That people feel obliged to have others they dislike at their dinner table. I mean seriously, just say 'no'.

Food-wise I don't care what you have on your plate as long as you enjoy it.

How much some adults have spent on them (or spend on each other).

I’m terrible for spoiling my children but feel awkward and embarrassed relieving anything worth more than £20 for myself. (I probably pretty low self-worth in general though).

The amount people spend on presents. Things things things.
The obsession of what essentially is Sunday dinner.
Seeing relatives one doesn't want to see./ putting up shit from relatives.

That people get overly excited about a glorified Sunday dinner.

That Chris Rea hasn't tried to go a different way home yet. All these years and he's still getting stuck. Will someone buy him a Satnav please

People getting stressed and into debt buying gift / spending money on people they barely see or even like going by half the threads on here.
There’s really no need for it. Please stop. Enjoy Christmas and don’t turn it into a stressfest.

Not cooking Yorkshire puddings. There would be a riot in my house if I did not cook any.

Those big boxes of 2 for £7 chocolates why would anybody want them. My dh is obsessed with them and bought them to put in with gifts !

Mash with Christmas Dinner is a mist though!

Must *

@actiongirl1978

Every year I'm shocked at how tired I am by 3pm on Xmas day. It's the most exhausting day of the year.

Yes! And DH just sits down wherever we are and nods off but I feel I have to keep the conversation and drinks flowing.

I can't get my head around people who like the sales. After spending a month or two stressing about what to buy and hunting down sold out items and stressing, and the sheer cost of it, I can't comprehend how people want to go out and buy more things, especially as the vast majority of what is on sale is just the shite they couldn't shift in the run up to Christmas.

Bread aauce- like a small pile of vomit on the side of your plate. Yuk!

People who tell their kids what they are getting for Christmas- i work with kids and have had many say " my mum says i am getting x but they sold out of y"

The need to have lots of things to 'open'. Stocking fillers, multiple presents etc tec.
Actually scratch that maybe im in the minority but I hate presents.
Everything that DP wants is either too expensive (think £300) or something that he 'needs' and has ordered within 5 seconds of thinking about it. I hate 'stuff' and have too much of it already, don't need anything else!

Overthinking dinner with several different courses... we ALL know what will remain uneaten by the end of the day yet people still cook them.

Cooking the dinner the day before. Who wants a plate of reheated mush for their Christmas dinner?!

That it starts so early. I get buying food and presents over time if working to a budget but it really doesn't need to start before the third week in December surely. Except for the sprouts, they need to be on the boil by Halloween. And maybe rehearsing the nativity play.

Yes, I'm non plussed at the passive aggressive "early" people who call the rest of us Grinches if we haven't got everything completed by November. Sad huns.

I agree with all of yours OP, especially having no starter. We stopped that about 5 years ago because what's the point?!

Mine is the amount of food people can eat along with alcohol, bit then I'm always surprised how people can go for a meal out, have 3 courses AND drinks. How do they not feel sick? Not I am by no means skinny, and I'm a self confessed glutton, but I can not eat like that in one sitting!
Also the amount of crap that people buy. Gift sets with Deodorant and shower gel , or just ridiculous things that no one will ever use, but people still waste money on them.

@MelonTits

Bread sauce. It’s awful.

My children have always called it liquid bread. Not putting that in my mouth , no thank you