Done It Again With “ Magazine Envy/ Inadequacy “

[EternalOptimist7]

I have posted before about trying to avoid glossy mags at Christmas as they make me feel totally inferior & that I have to go out & spend a small fortune for the perfect festive season. Well I took out a subscription for Woman & Home, not calculating that the last issue would be December, and all my insecurities have come flooding back. Everything looks so wonderful! But it’s all I can do to clear my table of crap before the big day, let alone come up with the jaw droppingly stunning decorations that grace the pages of my mag. And as for the food.....! Then there’s the tree, presents, outfits, invitations stacking up on the mantelpiece. I don’t even HAVE a mantelpiece! Anyone relate to this?

It's a staged photoshoot, not real life. You live a real Life which counts for far more than a staged photoshoot.

I tell myself that when my tree looks wonky with badly made decorations but it's MY tree with decorations that my child made. A magazine tree won't ever be as meaningful.

No to be honest. I look at magazines for inspiration, I don’t compare or try to compete with what is basically a staged fantasy.

I entirely empathise. My dad used to work for a magazine company and used to bring loads home. I had to give up reading because I got too depressed looking at curly haired children in Victorian nightdresses hanging up homemade stockings by candlelight in perfectly decorated Georgian manor houses alongside ravishing mother in velvet evening dress about to have elegant supper with sophisticated friends cooked on her reclaim aga.

I get this 100%!! It’s actually quite funny when I read someone else saying it because I do realise it’s ridiculous as it’s all staged ‘show home’ type stuff. But yes, I often have feelings of inadequacy around holidays etc. I feel thoroughly average when my decorations go up!

No, because I've no compulsion to be that swish! I like looking, but that's as far as it goes!

I get the same decs out every year and think they look bloody lovely! And there's only so much food you can eat. Posh roast dinner Christmas Day, some nice chocs and booze. Some Aldi/Lidl mince pies and stollen.Job done.

No because I always worry for the people in these photos having to clear it up once Christmas is over

I like to imagine the photographic equivalent of when they yell “cut” - the children start crying or swearing, the couple start fighting, the Christmas tree has to get moved back to its real position half-blocking the door to the loo so that grandpa’s ugly recliner can be put back in the living room, the bifolding doors get opened up, receiving all the crap that was flung out of the way for the photos ....

@TheLastStarfighter - that's brilliant There was a recent thread about messy houses where someone said that their friend has a house where the downstairs rooms have been photographed for interiors magazines, but the rest of the house is a complete shit tip!

Haaaa @tobee that made me laugh so much! I get food magazines only for similar reasons. At least I can afford a turkey or whatever.

I echo that! When our house was photoed for a magazine I had just had an operation on my knee and the layer of dust everywhere was worse than usual as I was only semi-mobile.
"Don't worry, dust never shows up".
True! The photos were much better than the reality.
No recliners to hide but plenty of stuff stuck willynilly under the beds.

Balance the W&H magazine with a couple of the cheaper Christmas magazines. Things like prima, home style, your home etc. They tend to have more realistically priced products for their displays (think Tesco, Asda, wilkos dunelm etc)
I love looking at the fancy magazines, then look to the cheaper ones for ideas on how to replicate the products.

I know what you mean OP. I always feel compelled to rush out and buy all manner of festive cushions, throws, bedding sets, towels etc to ‘dress’ my house with. There always this year’s tree theme too so I feel I need to ditch all last years decorations and go for a pristine all white and silver look.

In reality I have a word with myself before getting out the familiar box of decs from the loft with its eclectic mix of battered old ornaments made by the kids together with a multi-coloured assortment of baubles and bits we’ve picked up over the years. The tree might look shambolic and unfit to grace the pages of a glossy mag but we love it!

Comparison is the thief of joy. Christmas won't look like the glossy magazine pictures for anybody this year, we're all going to be trying to make it as cheap and cheerful as possible I think.

@Inastatus my tree sounds like your tree!

No one will have invitations on the mantelpiece this year, that’s certain!

@Twilightstarbright - they are the best 😊

I don’t get that feeling with magazines, as they’re kind of from a different world and staged. I think I will feel it with Instagram though. Only recently set up an account, as we’re planning to renovate next year and I like looking at interiors. I often feel a twinge of sadness that my house doesn’t look as nice as others yet. Wish we’d renovated before the virus, as we spend all our time at home now!!

Just look in the backgrounds of some of those magazine 'Christmas' shoots. See all the trees in full leaf? A lot of them are done in high summer to be ready in time for the Christmas market.

Now imagine sweltering in thirty degree heat hanging baubles, trying to find a 'Christmas tree' that doesn't look as though it's just coming into leaf, persuading your children to wear Christmas outfits when they want to be in the paddling pool and trying to get the cat off its favourite window ledge position in the sun so you can mock up presents heaped casually.

It's all fake. All of it. The write ups about how people spend their Christmas day - all Midnight Mass and presents around the tree and family games...all bollocks. It's crying kids and lost batteries and bits of plastic and the dog being sick under the table.

It's not so much the decorations that do it for me as DH has perfected this over the years but the endless Christmas party articles. I haven't been to a party since I was made redundant.

I love the Christmas magazines! Everything looks beautiful but it's not something I'd want to emulate.

I extremely happy with what I have.

Happiness is wanting what you've got, not getting what you want.

Or summat.........