To think that RL Christmas is nothing like the TV ads?

[NanaNina]

I particularkly hate the Lidl one I think it is where the father is smilingly carving from some 3 bird joint (nowhere near a hot cooker) and a small girl rushes in - her face looks like she has seen something magical not a plate of dinner, and she rushes off excitedly shouting "dinner's ready"...........

I avoid ads wherever I can and don't think any of them relate to RL but the Christmas ones particularly annoy me. Why isn't there one of a hot and harrassed woman (or man for that matter) trying to pour away the fat from a heavy roasting pan containing the turkey and struggling to keep everything hot etc.

There's always someone carrying a whole cooked turkey to the table..........I've never done this - if you had to start carving the turkey at the table all the other food would be cold wouldn't it.........rant over. Is it just me?

nope. you are right.

I see where you are coming from, but we cook xmas dinner as a joint effort with much pre-prepped, nobody is hot and harrassed (much anyway), we do carve at the table (sometimes) and my DS1 gets that excited for pretty much any dinner!

But its adverts, its not meant to be real life. You don't complain that perfume ads show naked supermodels and not mothers rushing out the door spraying it to try and cover the smell of babysick, do you?

I did say that I don't think any ads relate to real life. Just that Christmas is on my mind at the moment as I think many people do actually believe that this is what really happens in ordinary homes.

We carve at the table.

Everyone else just serves up while it gets done.

YANBU - they always have huge houses with massive kitchens and massive lounges to put massive ugly dfs sofas in..

OP - your post made me laugh...can't believe how serious some people are (BonniePrinceBilly lighten up! - though yours made me laugh too btw - perfume to cover baby sick - yup, done that!)

I don't see adverts (only get BBC!+2), but I know what you mean.
Our advert would be me half trolleyed, DD refusing to eat anything that didn't have either ketchup or breadcrumbs and DH chopping up a chilli to sprinkle on his dinner.

I agree that lots of people seem to feel like they are "failing" if they don't make Christmas like the ones they see on TV. It seems to be such a major event that real life versions will always be disappointing in comparison.

But that's the same for lots of things where TV and ads show the pretty airbrushed version - relationships, having children etc all look lovely on tv, and reality is nothing like it.

YANBU.
In the faverolles household, I can almost guarantee that I will be hacking away carving a dried out turkey. DD will rush in, then run out crying "I hate turkey" (but only after I've shouted at her to get out of the kitchen)

There's nothing particularly serious about my post, I answered the question that was asked.

My BIL is a chef in a michelin starred restaurant and he and I do much of the dinner together for between 8 and 20 people. And we don't have a big house or a big kitchen!

YANBU. It is also usually snowing on TV Christmasses but you don't see people out digging the front path so Great Aunt Clara won't break her neck when she arrives for Christmas dinner, or people rooting in the freezer for something to eat because they can't get the car out of the drive to go to MIL for dinner as arranged.
You also don't see family member irritating the hell out of each other after being cooped up together with nothing to do for several days and grown up siblings reverting to teenagers and squabbling with each other over what to watch on telly. But all these things happen in RL Christmas.

The trouble is that adverts that show life as it could actually be are even WORSE.

Have you seen the one, I don't even know what it's for - Microsoft? a model of laptop? - the one where the woman says 'To the Cloud' and rejigs her family photo to publish on facebook because she dislikes her family so much? I just wanted to smash the screen and use the shards to disembowel myself after that. And that awful one where the woman is sneering to a friend about how awful her boyfriend's cooking is IN FRONT OF HIM AS HE IS COOKING, which oddly does not end in a domestic dispute or application for social housing.

I think I rather feel, 'Oh, those people are having a perfect Christmas so I don't have to' tbh.

Adverts are meant to be aspiratonal - "if you buy our massive ugly sofa, then you'll definitely have a more awesome christmas than you could ever dream possible".

Also, Does any one actually like dried up turkey? And why do they cook it if they don't?
It's Christmas, not a punishment!

VictorianIce, I am having 'It's Christmas, not a punishment' printed on a t-shirt for myself pronto.

Would make a great card next year too....

I think the ads are pretty awful, but worse are the magazine and Sunday papers articles on how to 'survive' Christmas.

Tips on how the judicious application of glittery eye shadow will turn your work outfit into a party sensation.

Tips on drinking a glass of water for every glass o0f champagne. Really? Who knew?

Tips on how to prevent family members squabbling - it's called missing the glass of water interlude.

Lequeen I have a girlfriend who decorates people's houses in the manner you describe.

She charges a fortune.

Does our place as a favour

YANBU, those ads are really annoying.

Plus the M&S one with models parading around in underwear and singing into hairbrushes get me as well, well life isn't like that in my house!

Picture this...my little cherubs...variously squeezing ketchup onto food, staring at it like it's live eels saying "Want a yoghurt" or throwing the chewed up bits onto the floor...the background music could be a welsh voice choir singing "Welcome to the house of fun" accompanied by sleigh bells...with the camera pulling back through the dining room window to me, standing in the snow, drinking straight from a bottle of wine.

Sales would rocket...I tell you

None of the present opening scenes have dad hovering too closely with a bin liner either.

"It's Christmas, not a punishment" snigger snigger

OP - YANBU.

That current M&S "party" food advert gets my goat too.

"...If you really must have sandwiches..." as if sandwiches are some common as muck slop

Christmas is SO much better since we stopped caring about doing the 'right' thing and stopped spending it with people who caused us nothing but hassle (ie extended family!)

Last year was my best Christmas ever, we dumped the traditions that annoyed us and made a big deal out of the ones we remember and enjoyed from our childhood. The best bit was spending it with people we normally choose to spend time with (our closest friends, dd1's godparents). We had a ball and I'm hoping for a repeat this year.

so OP, YANBU, Christmas shouldn't be about doing what is expected of you, it should be the best time of the year where you get to celebrate and most importantly Have Fun!

There is never EVER a vegetarian at a TV Christmas.

No one ever has turkey fat down their top.

There is never all the cracker crap all over the table.

No one opens their presents in their manky old dressing gown with hair unbrushed and last night's make up still on.

You never see a cat or dog attacking the turkey while it's resting because someone has forgotten to shut the kitchen door.

No one leaves the giblets inside the turkey.

There is never a scene where the children add new words to their vocabulary because you have stepped on the lego with your bare feet that has been spread all over the floor and then abandoned.

And there is never a mother in the kitchen with a bottle of something, teeth gritted, snarling "Good will to all men, I'll show them fucking good will"

Sing a long now ......... "and I wish it could be Christmas every day..................."