It is three days after the main event but I am still very much living the Christmas lifestyle ! No work, no school run , still eating & drinking the Christmas stash, random piles of presents stacked up in the living room, staying up too late and having long lies. For me the Christmas period lasts into the New Year when thoughts turn back to uniforms, packed lunches and getting back into a routine.

Are you the same ? Have you already gone back to work ?

The mince pie window is approaching its end, but I continue to grapple with the same problem I have every year - the lack of availability of quality mince pies in the American market. I grew up in South Africa, and mince pies are as much a staple back home as they are in the UK, but they are a niche product in America - stocked in speciality stores catering to expats and Dr Who enthusiasts.

Generally, two brands are available in the US: Walker's Mince Pies (their shortbread is widely available throughout the US), and Burt's Mince Pies (which claims to be Welsh, but appears to have virtually no presence online). Frankly, both products are awful - chunky shortbread pastry, gritty sickly-sweet filling. Were they my only point of reference, I would be mystified by the popularity of mince pies in the Commonwealth.

Is either brand of mince pie actually available in the UK, or are they inventions for the export market? When every supermarket and bakery makes their own, I would be surprised if anyone in the UK was eagerly awaiting the appearance of Walker's Mince Pies on supermarket shelves in October. I've certainly never seen them in any of the annual "best mince pies" write ups.

The obvious solution is to make my own - but I simply do not have the patience to make my own mincemeat. As with mince pies themselves, commercially produced mincemeat is sometimes available on specialty shelves: Robertson's and Tiptree. I know both brands are British institutions, but is their mincemeat as beloved as their jams and marmalades?

It is worth noting that in some parts of America, mincemeat pie is considered a Thanksgiving tradition. However, this is typically a large, open-faced pie served by the slice.

If you've read this far, thank you for indulging my obsessive interest in mince pies. My wife has long stopped listening to my monologues about the dire state of mince pies in America.

What is a Crappiest Christmas Present you had this year or in the past? My starter for 10 is a roll on deodorant with a pubic hair on the ball,

So, a couple of weeks ago I (35m) was walking through Birmingham New Street station and a guy came up to me and asked why I had been staring at him. I hadn’t seen him at all before - he had approached me from behind, so I just said “I haven’t been staring at you”. At this point he starts kissing his teeth, swearing and saying “you’ve been fucking staring at me”.

Thankfully I noticed some police just ahead of me so I started heading in their direction, which I think he noticed because he went another way, but I keep wondering how I should have dealt with the situation if they weren’t there. I have no idea what the guy was trying to achieve, but given that he approached me from behind he can’t genuinely have thought I was staring at him, so what on earth was it about? How do you de-escalate this kind of situation? Was I lucky to get away?

One Sunday afternoon I went to an Irish pub in East London with my father in law to watch the football before dinner. At halftime, they started selling raffle tickets for the meat raffle. The level of anticipation was palpable, although my wife was calling me saying they needed us home for dinner, we had to see the conclusion and we won 12 sausages (3rd prize)

It got me thinking..is this how Sunday’s roast dinner is played out for some families?Rather than going to the shop to get a joint, instead go to the pub , get sloshed and enter the meat raffle.

You come home a hero slap down a rack of lamb on the table, the kids jumping on you in excitement, or you come home empty-handed still drunk with a promise of winning next week.

I’m so unhappy. Really. The amount of anxiety I’m feeling right now is through the roof. I need to grow up.

I’ve always been the laid back type, but this means I avoid stressful life things that need to be done. I’m so nonchalant with the working world that it’s enabled me to underachieve.

Now, after being triggered by something, I ended up comparing myself which has in return meant I’ve been forced to reflect on my current position and how completely unsatisfied I am with it. I’ve had enough.

I’m ashamed to say I’ve even felt suicidal a couple of times, and I’m the nice guy type who has lots of dopamine and empathy, etc. Sure I have some anxiety going on because I’m out of the loop with everything but it’s situation-based.

I lost my sister after I was made redundant, which meant I had no employment to be eventually forced back into, no money still coming in, meaning finding employment was impossible when grieving during Covid. It fucked everything up. I was 27 and I feel like I’ve lost a valuable 4 years of my life where there’s a gap.

I make around 10k a year at absolute best. My 0 hour job is event crew work and I make money through a regular photography commission. I studied photography in my early 20’s.

What should I do? I feel like I’m well and truly fucked. I need to renew my ID, I need to learn to drive, I need to move out, there’s just so much that it’s overwhelming me into complete surreal anxiety.

Should I go for something entry level and different? Should I embrace my talent of photography/degree and use transferable skills and continue this side of me?

I’m at the point where my friends are beginning to get better jobs than their already decent ones, and I’m here stuck seeing £24k as absolute wealth. Yeah……

Am I simply panicking? Am I simply one new job away from it changing? My stress, anxiety and somewhat depression in waves is absolutely situational

My dear old parents live in a small community exclusively made up of elderly people, and a handful of families with very small children. There is one exception. One family consists of a very...unusual woman, her husband who doesn't speak, and their adult son who is one of the biggest bellends I've ever encountered.

Bellend only has a job because his mummy rang up and threatened to sue the company for discrimination if they didn't hire him, and is an Andrew Tate loving cretin of a man. He has a small group of friends who come up to the house almost daily to work on their cars. All of the cars are obscenely loud, big exhausts and the like. They'll rev them from morning right through the night.

This week, they've been welding until 3am. The noise is ridiculous. Their neighbours have two small babies and were in tears due to lack of sleep. There is never any peace for a full day. If you go and tell him to shut up, he acts like he had no idea what time it is. One of them almost got run over the other day, because they'll lie under the car with their legs sticking out into the middle of the road in pitch black darkness. I'm genuinely convinced it's only a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured.

I went flying the other day because they'd left piles of bricks across the entrance of the road at night, and I didn't see them. I moved them all out of the way, but I dread to think what could have happened if a car had driven up before I did.

Several words have been had with him, but he just stares blankly and clearly couldn't give less of a fuck. All of the elderly neighbours are too scared to say anything to him. Multiple people have spoken to his wet lettuce mother, but she just goes "Oh darling Tomsy, I can't say anything he just doesn't listen to me!" as if he isn't living under her roof rent free.

I know there's not much the police can do unless it's one of his late night welding and revving sessions, but nobody has had a day's peace since he got the car, and all of the elderly neighbours are absolutely terrified of him and his dickhead friends. Its a very small, quiet retirement community in a village, there is genuinely no other noise or issues aside from him. He's such a weird incel lover (likes torturing animals, hates women) and he's just causing absolute havoc. People are too scared to go outside and can't get a moment of quiet in their own homes. I went to the house across the road the other day and it sounded like he was drilling through their walls it was so loud. What can be done to stop him being such a raging, inconsiderate prick?

I'm 16 and I have a large group of friends. I'm asking the age old question what the hell can teenagers do to occupy themselves on the weekends. At this point, loitering is the only idea we've got that won't rob us of our allowance. I'm getting bored of having absolutely no social life that isn't behind a screen cause there is nothing even vaguely interesting for teens to do in person anymore.

In most UK houses you have a light switch in the downstairs hallway that controls the upstairs hallway light. Why do we also not have a switch upstairs that controls the downstairs hallway light?

Waitrose is a partnership so all the staff and employee are given a stake in the company and all share ownership.

I’m not sure if they still do it, but I recall each member of staff would get a yearly bonus depending on how much the company had profited that year.

Are there any other companies like this? Why is this business model not used more often?

I know this question is a little late, but I've heard and seen some Christmas dinners that look a bit sad but don't seem too bad, but I'm wondering if anybody has had an horrendous Christmas dinner and what was included in it.

I’ve noticed that a lot of British people seem to really dislike their hometowns, calling them boring, run-down or lacking opportunities. But it’s not just hometowns… it feels like people are increasingly keen to leave the UK altogether.

What I don’t get is that, while the UK has its flaws, we also have so much that people around the world would dream of. Yet I sense so little appreciation for what we do have. People seem so ungrateful and quick to moan about every little thing.

And yes, I get the irony haha I’m moaning about people moaning. But seriously, is this just a British thing? Are we just culturally programmed to hate where we live? Or do people genuinely have valid reasons for wanting to escape?

Would love to hear your thoughts – and maybe someone who actually loves their hometown can share what makes it different!

I need some parental guidance, please.

I can imagine how this question might sound. That I must be some anti-woke dad who wants his son to be a ‘real man’ and for his daughter to grow some ‘balls’.

But I feel I am actually quite the opposite of that. I am starting to question if maybe my attempts of modern parenting has something to do with how fragile they are currently.

I don’t spoil them and have always encouraged them to express their feelings. I think I am on board with this because I do see its logic. Better than bottling it all up.

However, it’s become quite clear that both my kids (5+7 yrs) are mentally very fragile.

Whenever they hit a stumbling block, they just crumble. So I try to talk to them to understand what’s going on in their heads. Then I try to encourage them to try again, but they often won’t and give up.

I have always tried to be encouraging and have tried very hard to respect their wishes.

But is there a line to this? If I respected everything then they would eat ice cream for dinner and never do their homework.

I’m genuinely looking for any advice, as I see myself slowly failing as a parent.

Please help.

Our current house is too steppy to have a robot vacuum but we're moving early next year to a new one that isn't that bad.

Are robot vacuums good for UK houses? Do people find it helpful for a quick go around one a week?

I only ask as my husband and I with some friends are travelling down there today in full Victorian outfits as we are off to an immersive Christmas carol show and decided to dress up so if you see 4 people decked out in full Victorian clothing on the tube, that's us - we are not (that) crazy!

It’s 5:30am on Saturday morning. I just had a coughing fit and now can’t get back to sleep!

EDIT: it’s now 6:38am and have not been able to get back to sleep. Going to make a hearty breakfast, get my belly full and hope that will put me into a food coma and then sleep.

As we get into the new year I am thinking of all the things I can give up as I need to start saving a bit of money and finances are dire. Of my everyday “luxuries” I’ve a few things I will keep on, as they spark me joy - these are atrociously expensive bath bombs from a certain high street retailer for a weekly bath and a streaming service subscription as I watch a lot of films (including in that bath).

I appreciate not everyone has the choice to keep any luxuries as many struggle to keep warm and keep food on the table. I hope this doesn’t come across as insensitive towards those people.

Received some Cutter and Squidge stuff for Christmas and everything in the hamper is worse than anything M&S own brand I could buy. Definitely not worth what my mum paid for them, whatever it is she paid.

Also got some Fortnum and Mason biscuits for Christmas and they were DIVINE.

The family over the road from me have just acquired a new car for their daughter. I don't know what type of car it is but it is huge.

They already use their drive for another car, so the daughter parks it outside their house, directly opposite my driveway.

I live on an old estate so driveways and roads are quite narrow. I drive an 08 Nissan Micra and even I can't get my car all the way down to the bottom of my drive!

When the daughter is parked opposite my drive, I cannot get my car off my driveway and onto the road. I asked the neighbour politely if they could stop parking there and use the grandmother's drive instead who lives next door to me. They said they would.

However, over the last few weeks the car now seems to be parked there permanently. I work from home so don't need to be out all the time, but I am now having to give them notice when I have to go out so the car can be moved.

I told them Xmas Eve that I needed to be out early Boxing Day as I had plans, but when I woke up, the car was parked there so I had to call them to move it as they had forgotten.

What do I do here? They move if I ask, but I can't live my life like this! The daughter hasn't passed her test yet so the mam has to move the car. The mam is out a lot for work as well so isn't always going to be home when I need to leave my house.

The whole situation seems mental to me. I don't think what they are doing is illegal, but surely I have the right to leave my house when I want to?!

EDIT: Thanks everyone for the helpful and often funny responses. The unhelpful ones were also unintentionally funny. Guess we can spot the nightmare neighbours... My top 3 (un)helpful suggestions are:

1) Pay to widen my own driveway. 2) Learn how to drive better. 3) Only leave my house at set times of day.

Thanks Reddit; I love you.

I'm from Germany but always enjoyed eating a sandwich in the UK. Took mine usually at Tesco. Cheddar and Onion was fire. How about you?

What premium/luxury mattresses do you have?

I'm looking for a mattress for about £1.5k. It's just impossible

I returned a hybrid simba pro as it was sagging 2 months into having the mattress on a new £600 divan base. It was very comfortable though.

Hypnos, Vispring, Relyon - Major brands I'm looking at, but I'm reading reviews where people have major sagging issues even when following the correct turning procedures and having a good base.

i moved from london to kent nearly 3 years ago and the first thing i noticed was how nosy everyone is here😭, at least in my town. it’s like a ‘sit on the doorstep in a robe with a cup of tea and watch it go down’ nosy. and occasionally the neighbours actually step in. its sort of creepy because everyone knows everyone’s business, but it’s nice at the same time. i also like how people talk, and how cheap things are, and that it’s okay to leave the doors on latch when a guest is coming over 🤔 and bluewater isn’t even that far away which is great

Which brands are good value for money and which aren’t but appear to be?

Finally started to get on top of things financially and was hoping to look at buying a house in the next 2-3 years.

Wanted something remote with a little bit of land. Would love some woodland haha.

Seen loads of places I like the look of up north and in Wales but all seem slightly off for what I want in one way or another

Always wanted to build my own house. By that I mean learning and doing what I can and outsourcing the rest. But I’m always being put off by everyone’s horror stories I see online.

Was just wondering who’s actually had a crack at it? And what was their experience?

See loads of stuff online about people who have been involved in self-builds and people who known others that’ve done it but nothing about the people who’ve done it themselves.

It’s just a thought at this stage, nothing serious so just asking around essentially.