So, polar opposite to Christmas Necessities..... how about some Christmas 'I buy these every year and I never use them and never learn'

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I'll kick my list off with
Christmas Crackers- yes when the DC were little they were fun, but , IRL they are full of tat, they don't make a good 'bang', I always end up with bits of paper everywhere.

Christmas Pudding/Cake- I make these if I have a housefull, if not then they don't get eaten

Big Tins of Sweets- you just know the manky ones will sit there fossilising till they get thrown out

Cheese- the ones you think are special for Christmas (usually in fancy packaging) they sit in the fridge judgily

Big tins of biscuits - only the nice ones get eaten, the tin hangs about forever with two custard creams in the bottom.

Gift sets- the ones they sneak out for Christmas , lots of style of substance . Would I buy them individually? Probably not .

Christmas cards- I see nice ones , some for the DC to send to friends. I post out to family but the rest sit there , unwritten till they get pushed into the loft (where I forget them next year)

Copious amounts of cheese. I love cheese but always end up overdoing it and having a fridge full for all eternity.

Also agree with crackers.

My mum buys me a Christmas pudding each year and I end up sending it to the food bank in Feb when I realise it will never get eaten

Eat me dates
Christmas pudding and cake
Crackers for cheese - still got loads from last Christmas.

The dates and the Christmas pudding/cake eventually end up going to my mums.

I bought two mini Christmas puddings last year , I ate one in about March , the other one is still in the pantry.

Last year we got some crackers from Oxfam with no plastic tat, they contained little cardboard decorations. They were lovely. I wish I could resist the cheese/nice biscuits. I'll never buy wrapping paper with glitter on it again and I'm hoping I don't get given any toiletries.

Nuts!

Every year we buy loads of nuts that you need nut crackers for, because, you know, tradition 😏
Every year we eat all the 'normal' salted peanuts, cashews and every year the 'proper' nuts get left in the bowl until I give in and bin them as part of the January-must-eat-healthy ritual.

Gift sets - Especially smelly sets! I have no idea why MIL and my mum think I like Soap and Glory. I can't stand the smell of it and last year I got a set from each of them. They both went straight to charity, and I felt bad that they had spent £10-15 on something I had no use at all for.

I agree with @Disfordarkchocolate about glitter wrapping paper - it's the devil's dandruff. Never again.

Tubs of Celebrations always end up with the bounty bars left and tubs of Heroes have the creme eggs left. Last year I reused an empty tub and put mini toblerones and other wrapped chocolates that we liked in. They ALL got eaten I had to refill it

I only make mini Christmas cakes and still end up eating it all myself until I'm sick of it and chuck it out so this year I'm going to make a chocolate Yule log instead.

Mince pies - only DH eats them and I make some every year and then find myself doing my best Mrs Doyle impression trying to get him to eat one every time he has a cup of tea.

Candy canes. I buy them for a bit of variety in the advent calendar and only one of the DC like them so I keep finding them shoved in a drawer in the summer. partially melted and very sticky.

I'll second the big tins of sweets. I get a decent bag of Leonidas dark chocolate orangettes instead which we much prefer!

And the biscuits - I get a selection of nice packets that I know we will eat, and open maybe 3 different ones if we have a few visitors, more if we need them, but we only need 1 if we're alone. And any we don't open can be opened another time when it suits us - and they will still be fresh!

Or the "crackers for Christmas" selections - again, we get a few nice mixed packets and use all those up over the couple of weeks, and then go back to buying portion packs for most of the year.

I keep forgetting the other kind of crackers - I have a couple of "make your own" kits that I always forget to put together, and can never find nice ones in the shops. We use Santa hats instead usually (if they're dry again after a Christmas Eve swim in the sea).

I only get big chunks of cheese that we will definitely eat - never the naice "perfect for Christmas" individual ones that really aren't that nice. So a large slice of stilton off the block, some good strong cheddar, and something soft that is ripe enough.

Definitely no fig wheel, or cheese chutnies, or sandwich relish, or any of those accompaniments that "make Christmas".

No chestnuts.

No bread sauce.

No slabs of beer (I might get a 6 pack of 1 particular type a neighbor loves, and a few Christmas/winter beers as DH and that neighbor both like something different).

Christmas Cake (as I'm the only one who likes it and can't eat that much - and no shop makes it like my mammy, so I just have plenty in her house when I visit).

And definitely no wrapping paper with glitter!!

I came to say Christmas crackers.

Every year I buy them because it's what you're supposed to do and every year I say that they're a waste of time, money as generally shitty for the environment.

Maybe this year I'll resist 😁

I stopped doing Christmas cale a couple of years ago as i was the only one who ate it - great for me, not for my hips i muss making it, but hey ho. I might try Christmas Cake ice cream instead.

Crackers we can't get in Spain with their bang, post-9/11. So we haven't had them for years, can't say we miss them much.

I make mince pies by buying a jar of mincemeat and make them with ground-almond pastry. Lovely and light.

Cheese we go steady on - there's nothing like finding something green and anonymous sliding round the fridge in February

Cards I make between 6-10 to send to relatives/good friends abroad and receive about that many back. Nothing excessive but still thoughtful.

Don't bother with bread sauce - i have NEVER eaten it, Xmas day or otherwise. I do make a huge amount of pigs in blankets because they get wolfed down amazingly quickly.

My ideal Chistmas would consist of pigs in blankets, mince pies, cheese and fuet

elQuinto what, pray tell, is fuet?

After eights......nobody touches them! But I buy them due to the adverts

Yule log.....just a cheap chocolate Swiss roll really, usually with a plastic holly leaf sat on it. Goes dry before we get round to eating it.

Baileys....too sweet. Never gets touched,but again,the ADVERT!!

Baking Camembert.....requires bread. And we are always too stuffed for bread!

Tree chocs.....cut these out s few years ago now

I have a recipe for a Christmas cake cheesecake which we loved last year. It's massive though (you make it in a tall, 8 inch, cake tin).

We always get too much cheese. I can't help myself. I'm also a mince pie-foister (made up word!), but I love making them!

I don't need chutney etc either. We still have some lurking from last year. From fancy Booths, but still ignored.

Tomfoolery can I please have your after eights, camembert and Bailey's?

You can have my too-hard-to-crack nuts?

We love all the Christmas food, all the chocolate but always buy too much cheese and never eat the nuts that need cracking.

I wish people would not buy me gift sets. I only ever use the shower gel so get left with bottles and bottles of body lotion.

If anyone buys Celebrations and has surplus Bounty bars left, I could set up a PO Box to relieve you of them

Ditto gift sets - no body needs that much body lotion!

I don't buy tons of sweets for all the reasons listed above

I'm guilty of buying nuts to crack and binning them in January

I think I might have honed my Christmas shopping quite well though. No wastage here. And I love crackers!

Xmas serviettes.... no more!!!

Christmas cake and brandy butter here!

And I do purchase the Christmas issue of the Radio Times which doesn't really get used cos everyone looks up stuff online-but it reminds me of childhood Christmases when it was pored over and highlighted to identify which channel should be watched and which recorded on the VCR

Pickled beetroot...

Radio Times - £5 for something I get for free with Sky (I.e tv listings!)

Quality Street - crap chocolate and I them all to work on 2nd Jan.

Port - only me that drinks it, don't buy a big bottle again!

Cranberry sauce
Nobody eats it
I’d use those after eights mind you..

I'll fight you for them Polka

Babycham! Why Pinky why?