To hate all the Xmas foody banquet ads when so many cant afford a decent meal?

[BeckerLleytonNever]

...And will be queing at the food banks as usual?

Not wanting to poo pooh anyones enjoyment, but at a time when so many people have barely enough to eat these days cos of this fucking government and their cuts to the disabled and vulnerable, I wish some ads would be a bit more down to earthy, and not just the Sally army ones.

Same with warm cosy houses with log fires and toasty heating when some people (including us) have to resort to being in one room all winter just to have a bit of warmth in one room as tthey cant afford to heat the whole house?

awaiting either support or a flaming...............

The people who like Christmas are the same people who like life and participate in life instead of bemoaning it online!
I'm pretty sure the consumerism of Christmas trickles down to help many Mumsnetters in different ways. Any ww reps - bet they get an extra turn after Xmas. Avon? Window cleaners? Turkey farmers? Local crafters? Supermarket workers? Lorry drivers? Delivery men? Beauticians? Waiting staff? Actors? Local tourist attractions with a Santa vibe?

Well, they are adverts. Doubt they'd sell half as much if they showed a moderate serving on a plate in someone's sitting room.

Yabu. All those adverts and products give people jobs for one thing.

YABU but I am sorry you are struggling

It's usually sprayed in silicates and glue. A lot of it is CGI too. Mounds of veg are glued on domes and dry ice is used to make stuff look hot.

I'm right with you OP - and not because we're living hand to mouth as so many people are - we're retired war babies so are a fortunate generation. I donate to the food bank at least once a week and am just in the process of putting notes through my neighbour's letter boxes asking if they would like to contribute and if so to drop the food off at mine. I think a lot of people would but just don't get round to it.

BUT those bloody christmas ads totally do my head in - 12 gloriously happy people sitting around a table laden with food and then (usually a woman) proudly brings in the cooked turkey and places it in the centre of the table. By the time the thing has been carved for 12 + people and dished out, all the veg etc will be cold! Surely people carve the turkey/chicken whatever in the kitchen.............and the woman who brings it is looks like she's never been near a ktichen.

And do people really live in houses that are immaculately clean and tidy with a sparking christmas tree in the corner, a roaring fire and comfy sofas and smile adoringly at each other as they exchage gifts. Do they? I really want to know. And do you have children who are enchanted with their gifts.................do you?

Sorry this is turning into a rant but we are a nation of "haves" and "have nots" and last year a child aged 3 (part of our family gathering) had so many presents that she ended up crying and pushing them away while her mother encouraged her to open them, which eventually she did, but did not look at any of them- just wanted to finish opening and then her mom stuffed them all in a big box and I could have cried. I was thinking of all the kids who got nothing and what an unfair world in which we live.

My children (grown with their own families) had nice christmas presents, but only what we could afford and in any event commercialism hadn't really taken hold the way it has now. My grandkids have far too much but that's another story..............

So PLEASE if you can afford it, donate to the Food Bank and nearer Christmas, not just backed beans and pasta, but a christmas cake (Aldi do good ones at a reasonable price) and some nice biscuits and chocolate. And a few selection boxes maybe - would you really miss £20/£30?

I get it, when I was struggling with miscarriage and fertility problems adverts for baby products, with giggling babies and contened mothers, cut me to the quick.

If you're feeling especially sensitive to something adverts picturing the 'perfect ideal' of that thing hurt, because it's far from your life.

However it is unreasonable to expect the world to change because you're having a tough time.

yanbu. these ads are gluttonous. I dislike most ads.

And the toys, played with for a couple of days and then ignored. speak for yourself....

OP I can see your point, but I do think YABU. Christmas is a feast day, where many people have their most extravagant meal of the year, whatever guise that meal takes. The adverts show what that traditionally might look like, in an ideal, stylised world. It's certainly not what my Christmas looks like, but it is what sells and largely gives people the warm fuzzies.

I hope things pick up for you though

YABU - but I can understand why.

Realistically, it's the one time of year when a large percentage of the population do host at least one 'event', and for many the focus of that event is food. It's assumed that even if you aren't inviting people for the big meal, then you'll be putting on a buffet of christmas party food.

It is harder than advertising any other luxury good as everyone needs to eat, if not these particular foods, and Christmas dinner/christmas foods is such a big part of our culture, its not in the same way as advertising for holidays and cars because most people won't be aspiring to those, or wanting to be holidaying in a particular way/buying a particular car.

It touches a nerve in the way that eg the wall to wall adverts for BBQ food on Bank Holiday weekend doesn't (often ads showing 20/30 people in a garden with beer and mountains of meat and side dishes that could easily cost more than hosting a family christmas dinner), because it's not the way everyone choses to spend BHweekend, so it's not as big a deal if you can't afford it.

Mind you, you have family around you to spend the day with, there's many who'll think you are much better off than them who'll be on their own.

We don't buy much food at Xmas as we feel stuffed by Boxing day and just nibble and pick for a day or so.

Families around the fire?? Ppfft...come on here and see everyone getting stressed and upset, wishing their ILs would fuck off and leave them in peace.

The image of Christmas is very different to reality, rich or poor.

I think yabu OP. I understand the tough position you're in but that doesn't mean you should begrudge anyone else celebrating in the way they choose and can afford.
The commercial side of Christmas, with the multitude of presents, can be quite galling I admit but the social side of seeing your family and celebrating being together is priceless. Whether that's round the table with a £3 Tesco value chicken or an £80 Kelly bronze turkey from the organic Butchers, it doesn't matter - you're together.

Yabu, but I understand.

6ft long tables coated in dishes of expensive, extravagant food is not what you see in 99% of British homes come Christmas day, but they're selling the dream aren't they? Something for us consumers to aspire to. It most definitely works.

I comfort myself knowing that despite not being able (or frankly, willing) to afford to have a table like that at Christmas we have a bloody good time anyway, with our simple meat and two veg and anyway if you had all that food there'd be less room for the three dishes of yorkshire puddings.

Chin up

People are talking about this "feast" when as far as I can see it is Sunday roast but with turkey instead of any other meat, or maybe duck or goose for "posh" people. And then veg .....and stuffing...............how is that a feast for god's sake!

When I was a child growing up in the 1950's the Christmas turkey (or probably chicken) was a treat because it was the only time we ever had it because poultry was the most expensive meat you could buy. Now chicken is one of the cheapest because of the way we treat the poor poultry.

I take your point sitting and can only imagine the hurt - you must have turned the TV off or looked away. The thing about ads though is I think people really DO believe that's how other people live and that it's just them that's out of step? PLEASE do some of you live a life like in the ads? I am curious.

What we do know of course is that more people commit suicide at Christmas than any other time of the year and January is the busiest month of the year for divorce lawyers! I think Christmas heightens our emotions (positively or negatively) and causes a great deal of tension for many people. And when you get to my age (mid 70s - it comes rounnd every 6 months!!)

Like your style Mavis

YABRidiculous.

Rumtop the OP didn't begrudge anyone else enjoying christmas - she said as much not wishing to poo poo anyone else's enjoymentand what in god's name is a Kelly BronzeTurkey for £80??? I'd want a turkey farm for that....

Can you come back OP as I think you've started a really interesting thread and wondered what you think of the replies.................

Magic Only speaking for myself but my normal meals don't involve multiple courses, lots of accompaniments, lots of people there, and the sense of occasion that comes with it. And we very rarely (as in I can count on one hand and still have fingers spare) have a roast during the rest of the year.

Who are you addressing your comment to Expat

It's also worth noting in their ads, they've got to show all the elements that different people in different parts of the country (and increasingly from different parts of Europe) consider to be key bits of the Christmas dinner experience.

So often the tables are ladened with 8 different veg, not because they are suggesting normal people serve that many, but while everyone in the UK associates sprouts with Christmas (even if they don't eat them!), different people have different ideas of what else should be on the table.

You see it here on threads where someone's MIL doesn't do yorkshire puddings and the OP is horrified at the idea of no yorkshires (we don't do yorkshires with christmas dinner, but again, know people who thinks it's all sorts of wrong not to!).

Few people will eat Christmas pudding, christmas cake, panatone, lebkuchen, stollen, glaced fruit, a tin of Quality Street and mince pies on Christmas Day, nor will most people have all of them available in their house, but the supermarkets show all of them as options in their ads to show they have the whole festive range available, whatever your particular family food tradition.

As said upthread, Christmas is a Fest Day. What that means varies from family to family, supermarkets need to give the impression that whatever you think of as 'Christmas food' you can get it from them.

Um, I hadn't realised I had to address the OP personally in answer to the question or that you're the new mod here, Magic

Ha Mavis - Hadn't properly read your post above and seen you are clearly in the "I can take or leave turkey but it's not Christmas without Yorkshires" camp!

Interesting post but, YABVU.

I've seen ads for BMW, Audi & Mercedes on the train this evening. I want all 3 but, can't afford to buy all 3 at the moment. Do you expect them to ban that as well?

Magic I guess our Christmas can look like the ads and sometimes even feel like them, with a heaving table, beautiful decorations, roaring fires, carols, games and rosy faced children surrounded by friends and family.

It doesn't stop me muttering profanities into my drink when having to entertain eight of DH's overseas family members (whom I love very much) for a week.

Or stop me having a child with additional needs who can sometimes have an utter meltdown when there are too many people around.

Or having an emphatically shite 18 months a couple of years ago when life decided to throw a thousand curve-balls at once.

But it always looks pretty!

YANBU.

The excessive food, the excessive spending, its all OTT. Bring back a simpler christmas!