Let’s keep it real

[WowHaveIGotExperience]

So, with such crap weather and not feeling 100% and being at a loose end I’ve watched quite a bit of TV today and looked at the Saturday papers and supplements. Much of it lifestyle stuff.
So at Christmas we should:

Prepare lots of special dishes, cocktails, warming drinks, party nibbles and festive specialities for guests both expected and unexpected
Buy individually chosen gifts for each of our loved ones, having shopped around online and in store for the perfect version
Wrap each of these gifts expertly with nicely curled ribbon and home made tags
Make our own decorations for the tree, room, table and display them like they’re part of Harrod’s shopfront
Not exceed our budget because we don’t want our family to make sacrifices in January.
Have the house clean and sparkling and ourselves coiffured, manicured and turned out like a Vogue model
And keep smiling!

Well, I’ve put the tree up.

So? You expect mags and supplements to show bog standard average Christmases? They are aspirational - they want you to buy stuff. But surely you can look at gorgeously curated tablescapes and take one or two ideas from them. I can admire a huge 10ft tree in a converted barn or large Victorian villa complete with perfect 2.4 tow-haired children in velvet party outfits and adoring husband mixing drinks from their liquor stash - I'm not going to be tearing my hair out that I can't recreate that.
You know your life. You know whether you need to have a few bottles of wine in pretty bags or chocolates wrapped in case of drop ins - I know I don't get drop ins so I don't. You know if you are having ten people for Christmas dinner and prepare accordingly. You do not have to make five different canapés and hand make decorations a la Martha Stewart unless that's the kind of thing you're into - none of your family and friends expect a personality transplant.
If you can't look at stuff without feeling inadequate then simply tune out.

How many houses have you been to OP which tick all those boxes?

I have, friend's parents largely, it was like being at a job interview, best behaviour only.

Give me a house with a cat swinging off the baubles anytime!

I haven't even got my tree up yet! DD's birthday party and family visit last weekend, and I've been feeling really sick today. Fingers crossed for tomorrow

Isn’t that why these magazines sell though? Because they’re showing things that people like to think they’d definitely do if they had more time/money/creativity/staff etc?

If you want to send me the price of a magazine, I’ll happily send you a photo of me laying on the sofa, looking like Grotbags, dropping biscuit crumbs all over the floor and ignoring the box with the tree sitting in it, because I can’t remember what I did with the fairy lights I just bought. I still love looking at Christmas magazines because they’re escapism. I’m not 14; I can’t be peer pressured into feeling inadequate by something that’s designed to look perfect. It’s not that serious.

They're suggestions/ideas not an instruction manual.

The weekend papers also include features such as '20 beautiful walks across the UK' or '10 best fine dining restaurants' but you wouldn't think 'I have to do all those walks and eat in all those restaurants'.

If, and only if, going for walks and eating in fine dining restaurants is something you're interested in, you might pick a couple that are conveniently located to try, but you'd never read the features and think 'I am now required to do all that'. The pieces about Christmas are exactly the same.

Ha ha ha.

Just for the record, I don't do cocktails or party nibbles, I don't make my own decorations and I've never once looked like a vogue model, regardless of season.

Christmas in my mostly clean house involves a tree, carefully chosen & nicely wrapped presents and a fridge groaning under the weight of food.

My festive efforts this year will include curly ribbon, some home made gingerbread Christmas trees and some marzipan fruits. If there is a fine day between now and the 25th, I'll pin the lights to the gables. Nothing will end up on Instagram.

Visitors are welcome and won't starve 🤗

I don't think this has gone the way the OP intended.......

Come to MN to be told that you are wrong to feel the way you feel. Not just at Christmastime but any time!

@MamaWeasel 😅 ain't that the truth!

OP forgot to put 'light-hearted' in the title and thus got herself a good telling off!

For the record - I have my artificial tree up (went up on December 1st); the Baileys has been opened.

And my house is basically a pig-sty - but I love Christmas...

Right! I think this was meant to be a joke, people! 🤦🏻‍♀️

My house is upside down and there are no Christmas decorations as we’re going away for Christmas 🤷🏻‍♀️

But the OP could tie herself in knots trying to keep up with aspirational features designed to make people spend money they may not have on things they're not particularly interested in to avoid 'the guilt' and 'the pressure' about not being a failure in life.

Or she could read the articles for entertainment and interest, laugh at some of the ridiculous suggestions and pick one or two things to buy/do because she wants to.

Or if she's not interested at all, she could ignore them completely.

So is it any wonder people are saying that you don't have to do everything in the articles?