Now on sale in UK supermarkets eg Tescos, M&S etc

Good or bad thing? I don't mind the fact it's regarded as "too early". Why limit nice food to one month a year?

Don´t have UK supermarkets here, so dont bother me. bought some back a couple of years ago, totally threw my Spanish friend re the meat bit lol

enjoy, you could make them during the year

One of the few Christmassy things that I really enjoy and would eat them any time except I guess then I would not think of them as so special to me.

This year my OH decided to make some mincemeat for me, it smells delicious and I am looking forward to making my pies with it.

Rosemary

It's something I only have for Christmas. Just as in Spain I only have turrón, mantecados polvorones and similar for Christmas, even though you can start buying them now.

My mum always wanted us to keep them as something special for the season, and somehow she managed us not to enjoy them if we could have them anytime. We only start having these sweets on the night of the 24th of December as we make it a family occasion. My family is not religious, but we like to make something different and have the spirit of "being good".

Just as we try to go out and celebrate Nochevieja to make it a special night, give each other silly presents for Reyes... or my mum only makes torrijas for easter, even though we all love them. We just keep things special that way rather than having them as a normal other day, so we will long for them the rest of the year.

Mmm you are making me hungry, Agree, I just love them.

Bought a box in Iceland on Thursday, all gone by Friday morning !!!!!

jajjaaaa.. I guess you are the kind of people who look everywhere for their xmas or birthday presents, open them carefully and then put them back and pretend to be surprised when they are handed...

Happy I have a Morrison's close by

Across here in Argyll I saw in our local COOP reduced price haloween fancies which were past their "sell by" date.

me too!

Am I the only miserable, Scrooge-like member of this forum who doesn't like mince pies, nor Christmas pudding, nor Christmas cake? All far too sweet, and if you eat a wodge of Christmas pudding it sits in your stomach like concrete for hours afterwards.

Last year for Christmas dinner I treated myself to some chocolate fondant type puddings with liquid centres, to be eaten with cream of course, and as my OH hates sweet things of any kind, I was forced to eat all four of them myself (not at the same meal, I hasten to add!). The things I do for love (whether of him or chocolate puddings, I'm not saying).

I always wanted to produce an xmas range of striped, mint sweets, with a pic of a sheep on the side, called "Baaa Humbugs."

Mince pies are good........ hell on the waistline tho. If you have a hypo and needle to hand, it's fun to inject them with a couple of ccs of brandy prior to a quick warm in the microwave.

I dislike much of Xmas - all that extra tramping around shops to buy suitable presents, all the adverts and hard selling techniques, too much travelling around at the worst time of year. Perhaps worst of all is the forced socializing, the efforts you have to make to tolerate family or work colleagues whom you'd sooner never meet .. So I allow myself to indulge in the naughty food items! Best part of the festive season imo. Well actually, I'll admit seeing younger children get their presents is good too, but that's normally history by 8am!!

Stevie I am with you there. When we first lived in Spain I loved the fact that Xmas only appeared the week before the 25th. Bit like the UK now, not quite so bad. Have seen cards etc in some shops for at least a week totally ludicrous, a big turn off. All the wasted food, useless presents bah humbug

I would not be upset if I never saw mincemeat pies, christmas cake or christmas cake again NOW if somebody said no more homemade dumpling then I would be very upset ...a real treat especially made by my brother in law I am not fond of turron and polverones either.

I stopped most christmas presents a few years ago and the card list is less and less. I don't actually miss it.