Will everyone please STOP the extremely tone deaf 'Christmas Fridge' threads

[TempNameForObviousReasons]

I see these multiple threads every single year and they drive me bonkers. The four days leading up to Christmas Day my feed is inundated with all the stuffed fridges, it's a complete and utter disgrace. Not just a few posters but sometimes literally hundreds of you all joining in with these enormous overflowing fridges, it's barbaric and in incredibly poor taste. I have already seen THREE seperate fridge threads today alone, it's scandalous... please people just think about what you are doing by jumping on this bandwagon. Now I take this a bit personally and here is why.... There are people in this world who are starving and many families, mine included, are having to rely on food banks this year just to keep our children fed. As in dippy eggs and soldiers on Xmas eve. Many of us are in a dire state with finances and the pressures of Xmas. The fridge threads are incredibly upsetting and triggering. By all means have a nice christmas dinner with all the trimmings but why post it and rub it in the faces of those less fortunate? They will be very lucky to scrape together a very basic dinner for the family this year?

I so look forward to seeing everybody's gluttonous greed in full swing, fridges stuffed full of obscene amounts of food and alcohol that will most likely go to waste. (And waistlines. The greed of Christmas it's all totally out of control and I despair)
All the cheese boards, cheesecakes, cheeselets, and on and on and on.
Honestly I wish MNHQ would BAN the threads, they cause many people anguish and distress.
It is one day so please keep some perspective or even better, pop a selection pack or some small treats in a collection trolley to help all the fantastic homeless charities and food banks ensure more people can enjoy a sweet treat on christmas day.

(Thanks to my local foodbank and those who kindly donated, at least me and my children have a lovely box of celebrations that I will bring out on Christmas Day for us) 🙂

This weird modern mentality that no one is allowed to enjoy anything ever because someone else has got it worse is absolutely bonkers

nah that’s not the weird modern mentality that I’m worried about

the one I’m worried about is the weird modern mentality that people disguise their need for validation by posting tasteless threads of their fridge…the inside of their fucking FRIDGE for goodness sake… and then shame anyone who calls it out for what it is as envious, or “you could just hide the thread..”

I mean, you could just not post and go and enjoy all the food you bought , but then you wouldn’t get the validation of all those “aw hun well done” posts and hearts and clicks?

I understand that things are tough for a lot of people. However, ALDI are selling turkeys for £8 and their super 6 for £0.50. 70p per month gets a Christmas dinner.

Have you linked up with your local church? Our church donates food hampers to families in need, with selection boxes for the children and a good quality second hand children's clothes rail for people to take what they need.

It doesn't solve the wider issues but it is a little help.

She could discuss the unfairness of life without calling people greedy, obscene gluttons, though. She isn’t just venting about the unfairness of life. She deliberately chose to look at very obviously labelled threads solely so she could be nasty.

My dad died very recently. There are loads of threads on which people are moaning about hosting parents and how their dads are a pain etc. I would give anything to be hosting my dad on Christmas Day this year, and the unfairness of life is, quite frankly, hitting me pretty fucking hard right now. But I wouldn’t in a million years start a thread insulting people and being aggressive and bitter towards them just because they’ve got something I haven’t, because I recognise that the whole fucking world doesn’t revolve around me.

Well, we aren’t eating to excess - it’s just that we are hosting a number of people who we wouldn’t normally have to feed!
Having an over-full fridge is not necessarily boasting, OP. Having a fridge for 3 persons that suddenly has to cater for 12 over the festive season might require logistical and Tetris-like skills that don’t normally come into play for the rest of the year and ingenious solutions for this dilemma can be quite funny or helpful…

OK OK, I get it. The OP doesn't have to open those threads. But do PPs have to be so bloody nasty to an OP who is obviously feeling very down? Can't the point be made more gently and with some empathy?

Clearly for a lot of MN the spirit of Christmas is in the drinks cupboard.

PS And recognise that words like gluttony and greedy come from a place of pain not malice.

Seriously though, the idea that because some people won't be able to enjoy any feasting this Christmas, the rest of us shouldn't either (or should feel guilty about it) is pretty nonsensical.

I'm sure those missing out on feasting would happily be joining in, guilt free, if they had enough funds.

It's not as if you have to be wealthy to enjoy adequately indulgent Christmas food and drink. Many households on modest incomes and generally tight budgets will be managing the usual festive splurge.

Didn’t you JUST reply to someone else’s post saying you have a large American fridge, have a good career so earn a lot of money and a dozen people coming over? How is that verbal description of your fridge and income any better than what anyone else has done? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

I don’t give a shite about anyone’s fridge or the threads about them. I don’t host and wouldn’t click on a fridge thread because it’s of no interest to me. My point is that someone clicking on a thread called “fridge thread 3” when they are currently sensitive to the topic of fridge contents and then being angry when it was a thread about a fridge is just barmy to me. Just don’t click on it.

This totally, I cannot believe the reaction to the OP
Why do people have to be so mean and nasty, Mumsnet at it's worst.
I hope things get better for you in the New Year OP x

Stop reading them ffs

So, all three threads combined only contain three photos of fridges at the moment. One of the threads has no photos of fridges at all. OP, you must have incredibly, incredibly bad luck to have run into all three threads, which each have a maximum of 30 comments, in “active.”’

But she can hide the Christmas board and she wouldn’t see any of them.

Sorry for your plite OP, but you dont HAVE to open the threads. Just because you find something triggering doesn't mean the rest of the world and the Internet has to oblige you.

If youre working 2 jobs and relying on food banks then something is clearly very wrong for you. Id ask you to share, but you're already so agitated by a fridge - i think you'd just go mental if anyone suggested anything about how you could better your situation.

I dont understand the fascination of posting your fridge though? Bit like those wankers that put up a facebook post saying "hes been" with 400 presents under their tree.

In the OP she's thanking "those who donated", so this thread itself might well be part of a fund-raising drive.

I don't think we need to take the moralising too seriously, and in fact by including it, she may have needlessly alienated people who would otherwise be sympathetic.

Over the years, the fridge threads have been about a bit of light hearted fun. I’ve loved them just for the stacking skills. There’s always been comments on them re how they’re gone deaf, but this is the first time I’ve seen a dedicated thread before the fridge threads have really got started.

@TempNameForObviousReasons - am sorry you’re struggling, but it IS very obvious from titles what those threads are about, so I’d step away and hide them.

As an aside, I definitely wouldn’t have the funds to even consider cosmetic dental treatment.

I can't see anyone being cruel to you on any of those threads...

And you didn't HAVE to see them in the first place

You actively clicked on the thread to see them

me personally like to use the reduced sections / yellow labels to get various food bargins etc, so to a degree it is possible to have a nice selection on a shoe string budget

I'm sorry you're having a hard time financially OP. We do a full food bank shop this time every year and I always find it sobering knowing how hard Christmas can be for those in financial distress.

YANBU for not wanting to see those threads, but the solution is not to open them, or to hide them. We can't do more than avoid the things we find triggering. I hide all threads about baby loss on here because it's very triggering to me, but I don't expect them not to exist.

Also, you're not being insulted on any of those three threads. There are a couple of comments about this thread on one of them but they're not insulting or offensive.

I hope that despite everything you have a restful Christmas and enjoy the time with your family.

I'm spending Christmas by myself and I can't even make 'dippy eggs' because I can't use the cooker alone because I've just had brain surgery.

I had to give up work so I'm skint too and in a lot of debt. It's shite! But if it was really upsetting me that much I just wouldn't look at those threads. It's just Thursday. Hope your situation improves soon.

all the best and positivity

So just ignore them? I don't click on them because I have no interest in them. Ironically I did click on the threads shared by the OP 😊. Which she has shared on this link!? Nothing to see there and I won't be clicking on a another one, as boring as I imagined.

I've had skint xmases, my mum and dad when they were young also did. But now we have a bit more and indulge with family.

But to start a thread about this is bonkers, just scroll past.

@TempNameForObviousReasons I do hope things improve for you and your family in the new year.

I waited to have a nosey because I don't have much money or money for nice presents for my children but I got some ideas that I can modify to do a cheap and cheerful version.If I had been feeling upset I wouldn't have read the fridge threads.You still have agency, OP.I'm going to nip in to the shops on Christmas Eve to see what reduced and yellow sticker cheap stuff they have.

You're being ridiculous. You find these threads triggering so they shouldn't happen?

Not addressing your own nasty post to someone dealing with anxiety that was deleted or the fact you’re contemplating Invisalign/Sure smile whilst saying you can’t afford food foe your children and moaning about people posting photos of their fridge.

Also, you have posted ableist posts and posts begrudging disability benefits previously.

Yet you moan about others being spiteful.

Make it make sense!

Exactly

I found them quiet disappointing tbh as there were barely any photos and none of the photos made me think "excess greed"

OP must have actively sought them out to find such low activity threads so easily

I haven’t seen any but I am off to look because I love those types of threads. YABU, you can’t police what other people post online. What you can control though is what you click on and if they trigger you it’s easy to not click. Everyone has different triggers, I wouldn’t click on something that would upset me.

Sorry you’re struggling.