SmarterFitter

Tis the season to be merry.

Things have been a little quiet around here. Tim and I are preparing to fly to Chicago this Saturday for Christmas, so we've been packing in the Christmas parties.

Yesterday was my office's Christmas lunch, a party that started early at an Italian restaurant and ended very late in a neighboring pub. This morning, back at work, many of my colleagues were nursing headaches and wondering how they got home the night before.

This is how the Brits do Christmas.

In fact, this is how the Brits do drinking in general. Same could be said for Americans, or so was my experience in college and graduate school.

Why is that?

This highly dugg article on MrCrip's Blog is a short commentary on this subject. He contrasts the drinking culture in France vs Britain, claiming that the latter's excessive approach to alcohol consumption is due to the way we introduce young people to alcohol.

In France (and many other countries) young people are taught to drink moderately and responsibly. They will routinely see their parents and other adults consume a glass of red wine or a glass of white wine with a meal. This would be a daily occurrence, setting an example of moderation which is then followed by young people as they grow into adulthood.

This responsible approach to alcohol consumption contrasts sharply with the British way of teaching our young people about alcohol. Youngsters will, typically, be restrained from any amount of alcohol consumption until they are eighteen. They will have witnessed their parents, older siblings and other influential adults always looking forward to the next big night out when they will get ‘rat-arsed’, become belligerent and argumentative, spend the following day nursing a hangover from hell and then talk about what a great night they had, even though they can’t remember much about it.

MrCrip isn't telling us anything new, but it's interesting food for thought for a season that's marked by excessive consumption of food, drink and headache pills. The cause of binge drinking might be obvious, but the solution is less so. While I didn't get totally shit-faced last night, I did do my fair share of drinking, and I confess that I found it an effort to moderate myself throughout the day. So is it possible to turn an excessive habit into a pleasantly moderate one while still enjoying the activity to its fullest?

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