Does anyone else just feel guilty about Christmas?

[gunge]

The expenditure, the waste etc

I'm trying my best this year to spend less but now I'm thinking I should have done brown wrapping paper and not bothered with cards.

Normally I'm well into it all with gusto but I've lost someone close to me and I'm exhausted/low. So the guilt is even greater.

I have young children so I also want to treat them and make it nice for them of course.

This year I've asked everyone to get me Unicef gifts. I can't bear the huge heap of presents under the tree. It just feels so wrong. Every year I say I want a smaller Christmas next year and every year nothing changes. I'll be a bit peed off if I get any more toiletry sets I'll never use. I want someone else to get something they really need instead.

MIL cried when I told her. She thought it was such a nice thing to request. Everyone will be getting Unicef presents next year methinks.

Haven’t done cards for 13 years
I just stopped and rang people instead
This year ... no one is getting a gift to open
They are getting a pantomime ticket and money

I might not even put up a tree

We are away till the 20 th anyway

It’s a lovely time to come away
Hot and sunny and no Christmas pressure
Parties or drunks
Love it

No tinsel, no glitter. Just a very few cards. No wrapping paper, although I'm considering how festive or not sheets of newspaper might look No extra food, no chocolate which has contributed to the destruction of the rainforest.

Christmas is no longer a religious festival for most people, it's become an exercise in how much more we can bugger up the planet.