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

@Mrsjayy

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!

My mil buys about 50 selection boxes every year because she feels the need to put one in with every single present. Sometimes 2 go in!

We have a starter because DH is a great cook and makes really wonderful starters! They’re often better than the main course in my eyes. Which leads me on to…
Im always gobsmacked that some people have turkey because they think they should. Turkey isn’t my idea of a ‘special’ meal, so we don’t have it. We just eat our favourite foods.

I’m always shocked by the way people clear supermarket shelves. One year I worked in a supermarket while I was at college and the shelves were absolutely bare on Christmas Eve, even the yoghurts which amused me.

Bread sauce is mega!

People in Asda today with their trollies piled high with food, seriously full to the rafters

• How utterly selfish and uncharitable people can be at a time of year that promotes goodwill and charity.

• Bread sauce

• The absurd commercialism / gluttony that we're all encouraged to take part in

• Elf on the fucking Shelf (see above point about commercialism).

Id never heard of bread sauce before reading it on mn. Is it a northern thing? I mean no judgement in that.

I think the starter is better than the main meal. I would rather eat 3 starters! 🤣

two kinds of potato at one meal is bizarre

Do you mean only two kinds of potato is bizarre?

Mash, roasted, garlic potatoes and croquettes on offer in our house.

The waste. We spend all year being told to be green, recycle, minimise plastic use etc etc, and then along comes Christmas which is basically a sea of plastic tat, glitter, foil and packaging, most of which must end up in landfill.
I also struggle with how commercialised the whole thing is and what we are actually celebrating.

I agree. I'm not in the UK, but heard on the news this week that one third of the food purchased for Christmas here gets thrown out. What a shocking waste! The amount of money spent on gifts which in many cases are unwanted is also a shocking waste. There must be a better way.
The commercialisation of the whole celebration annoys me so much - I'm old enough to remember a simpler time which was more enjoyable.

What's wrong with sweetcorn? 🥺

😆

Not having mash on a Christmas dinner. Mash and roast potatoes. That's the norm.

@StrictlyAFemaleFemale

Id never heard of bread sauce before reading it on mn. Is it a northern thing? I mean no judgement in that.

Oooo my husband is from the North and insisted we had it when he came to live with us. I had never thought of having it before. Not part of my childhood at all

I'm shocked that jumble sales are still a thing? Not seen one since the 80s, I was dressed from jumble sales and remember them well.

Also what does bread sauce taste like?? I've never tried it.

I am shocked by the amount people spend on presents for the children, a neighbour spends £200 on each Grandchild, she has to go without to spend so much on them, her Daughter tells her what she needs to buy. She also has to spend nearly as much on her Daughter too. A relative of mine won't accept any gift under £50 for her children (i don't even send her a card.
As for the meal itself, no starter for me but i insist on mash and Yorkshire puddings.

@FAQs

I'm shocked that jumble sales are still a thing? Not seen one since the 80s, I was dressed from jumble sales and remember them well.

Also what does bread sauce taste like?? I've never tried it.

Imagine liquid bread and you are there

I always find the spending and consumption shocking. Including mine . It's just a ridiculous amount of food and presents and stuff that you don't need and it's just so much money.

I like bread sauce. But draw the line at yorkshire puddings.

I like a starter, but I'm baffled as to why the prawn cocktail is a Christmas staple. I tried to shake it up one year and made some wonderful starters and my DM, DGMs and other adults were horrified. My delicious offering went untouched.

Santa visits, plural. Surely one is enough, they are horribly expensive (one event was going to be £150 for a family of 4!) and once a dc has seen 'Santa' surely that's it done? I never understood how you can expect a small child to believe in the magic when they're dragged to a dozen different men in suits of varying quality to repeat the same list again and again.

The waste bothers me, sooooo much plastic and glitter. We're doing a very much scaled back Christmas gift-wise, lots of handmade but thoughtful and useful things (nothing that would make the tat thread!) but I still cringe at the braggy SM photos of huge piles of presents- and I'm talking disgusting amounts, I saw someone who had spent £2000 on each of their 5 dc.

I hold my hand up to the bastard elf. I hate that it's so popular. All of my DDs friends were talking about it and she was confused about why we didn't have one so we caved, I refuse to do the 'naughty elf' attention seeking bullshit antics.

Take no notice Rosie of "don't mean to be goady" when they very clearly did!

@Itsnearlyxmas

Take no notice Rosie of "don't mean to be goady" when they very clearly did!

Thanks obviously I don’t deeply care if people have mash or sweetcorn on their dinner, I just find the differences interesting especially because people tend to feel so strongly about them!

@MajesticallyAwkward the elf literally gives me the fear!

@Forgetaboutme

That people eat Christmas lunch/dinner so early. I used to always wonder about this when i was young, like why not just wait till dinner time because it is basically like eating dinner. As it goes, we dont eat till about 6 or 7pm because its such a hectic day that the food isnt ready till then lol.

Christmas lunch for the win! Eat at 1pm with a post lunch walk/swim followed by a nap watching a Christmas movie.

I'm in Australia so it's normally a pretty warm day.

BETTYFROMBRISTOL, I think you probably put your sprouts on to late people when you say we are not buying any presents for anybody this year, they reply oh well we are still going to get you one. Then they have their head in their arse because they didn't get said present off you. Happy Christmas

Agree that starters are weird for Christmas Dinner. Christmas Dinner then seconds, then pudding, then cheese and biscuits.

Agree also on all and sundry gift giving. My MIL gave my nephew, an unrelated baby to her, who she had met once, a gift. I shudder to think of how many people fit into that tangential a category.

She no doubt thinks I'm weird because I adopt lots of Christmas traditions, and do lots of Christmas baking, but am light on gifts.

The plastic!

People spending so much money, then complaining about spending so much money ... and then complaining that Christmas is commercialised. And just wait for all the 'I'm skint' threads in January.

I love Christmas... I spend modestly, never go overdrawn or into debt and still have a lovely time.