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’Tis the season for groaning festive tables, enthusiastic indulgence and unfettered generosity. But when does going overboard at Christmas cross over from seasonal indulgence to gross excess? Julian Baggini decides that post-feast fasting can wait a week or two…

We all know that our good health requires us to cut down on calories, sugar, alcohol; the good of the planet that we cut down on waste and packaging; and the good of our finances that we shop thriftily.

Once a year, however, all that goes out of the Advent calendar window. Not even a decade of austerity has stopped the British tradition of seasonal indulgence. Fifty-one weeks of belt-tightening culminates in one week of epic belt-loosening.

There are some puritans who object to any kind of feasting as excessive. Humbug to them. For the rest of us, the question is not whether we should indulge ourselves but to what extent. What’s the difference between joyous feasting and grotesque excess?

Part of the answer is context. For most of human history, food was not always plentiful and people never knew for sure if they’d have enough in the future. Meats and rich foods were also rare treats. That meant that feasts were truly exceptional opportunities to indulge. If people went a bit overboard, that was perfectly understandable.