LUXURY biscuit assortment, cheese board, mince pies, Quality Street or Roses, walnuts, 40lb turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, bread sauce, Christmas pudding, Christmas cake, brandy sauce and all the other trimmings of Christmas.

These are all food items which for the rest of the year the majority of households who celebrate Christmas happily do without.

In addition beer, wine, fortified wine, spirits and Bucks Fizz often hit the shopping trolley. Christmas is an expensive business and lots of it goes to waste.

The Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs indicates that the UK wastes around 15 million tonnes of food and drink per year, with 4.4 million tonnes still fit for consumption.

So people are often simply buying too much or not managing what they buy. Not only does this waste cost money in the first place but it also costs to dispose of.

However the costs are not only to do with the product, but the by-product too.

Christmas weight gain has short term costs.

New clothes, gym membership, diet aids, exercise equipment? Long term health impacts are a whole bag of cheese straws in economic terms.

Can you have the Christmas feel-good without the waste or waist?

n Lawrence Bellamy is associate dean at the University of Chester's Padgate campus and writes a regular column for business.