EASTER Sunday - the most important date in the Christian calendar - is celebrated by many with a lavish dinner. Yet there is no lengthy build-up to this culinary event, with weeks of advice on what food to buy, how to cook it and what to serve.

Shops don’t go overboard with mouthwatering goodies we could eat on the occasion and TV adverts don’t broadcast banquets worthy of Henry Vlll, to get us in the mood. Newspapers and magazines don’t show us 150 ways to roast a piece of lamb or stuff a chicken.

Christmas dinner, on the other hand, dominates people’s lives for months beforehand.

From October onwards the nation is bombarded with culinary tips on what you need for a successful festive meal.

Magazines are crammed with Christmas recipes, with details from cooking times - it’s best to stick the turkey in on the day you open the advent calendar - to 150 ways to cook a 40lb bird.

It’s relentless: you can’t open a Sunday supplement without some chef telling you which type of glazing to use: ‘Celebrity chefs’ Christmas dinner tips’, ‘The Christmas dinner side dishes celebrity chefs swear by’, ‘five more celebrity chefs share their best tips for Christmas dinner sides.’ It goes on and on.

We are plied with ideas not only on how to cook Christmas dinner but how to present it, how to dress your table to maximum effect and even what nibbles to offer your guests before you sit down to tuck in.

We all feel so pressured to conform to what we think is the norm that we end up devising hugely complicated Christmas menus that are time-consuming and stressful to prepare, when a Sunday lunch with a few extra trimmings would do just as well.

I can’t have been older than six when I came to the conclusion that my mum was crazy to get up at 3am to put the turkey in the oven. It must have been the size of an ostrich. All morning the kitchen would look like a Turkish bath steam room as dish after dish was cooked and placed on little warming trays. We all helped, but my mum was firmly at the helm. The meal was always delicious, but it struck me as such a lot of effort.

Across the country everyone goes overboard. Then, just three or so hours later, it’s time for tea and another huge spread to lay out on the table.

It’s no wonder there’s always loads left over. Which? has revealed which food people in the UK most likely overbuy at Christmas and what they waste money on. Cheese was the top grub we buy too much of, followed by biscuits, and chocolate.

Around 11 per cent of shoppers buy too much alcohol, while the same number bought too many Brussels sprouts and other vegetables commonly used in Christmas dinners.

One in ten buy too many mince pies, while eight per cent of people find they vastly over-estimate on the size of the turkey.

Buying too much food leaves us with a post-Christmas fridge piled high with stuff that - despite its profusion - won’t make a proper meal. So we exist for weeks on cold meat sandwiches, watery turkey soup and a wealth of unhealthy snacks laden with fat and cholesterol.

Cupboards are crammed with puddings and cakes that last until March and mince pies seem to go on forever.

Those who have prepared the feast are exhausted afterwards. My mum was always visibly tired on the evening, often opting to sit and relax while we played board games.

I appreciate that Christmas is celebrated at the bleakest time of the year when, in days gone by, food resources were minimal and people needed to stock up until spring. But now we’ve got supermarkets open all hours and vans that drop off supplies at the click of a mouse.

We really don’t need to go mad. We should use the end-of-year break to relax. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to turn our backs on it completely - switch on the telly, grab a pot noodle, feet up, take the pressure off.