to find level of consumerism over Christmas slightly nauseating..

[sockmuppet]

I am not judging others as I am party to this group activity at this time of year but as each year passes with my 3 dc's I have come to both love and dread the season in equal amounts.

Whenever I am out and about I see so many examples of children acting unbelievably "spoilt" (including my own) as they fail to cope with the sheer volume of consumerist activity surrounding them.

AIBU to be starting to find the whole over indulgence slightly nauseating and think that I am not alone in feeling this way?

YANBU

Its probably nauseating because you feel so involved.
My dd doesn't all of a sudden become spoilt at Christmas.
We don't over indulge. We get the presents, we have Christmas dinner. But we don't do the 'big shop' and buy loads of shit we don't want/ need just because its Christmas.

You don't have to be involved.

I agree. The whole concept of getting DCs to write a huge list and them bankrupting yourself to get them everything on it. I saw a few threads on here recently about the amount of money people spend on their DCs - one poster said £700 each which made me . And another thread about how important it is to buy your 6mo baby a massive pile of presents otherwise you are a neglectful parent. All makes me a bit sick, especially when there are lots of people out there who can't even afford to eat properly.

Go to church, I find the Nativity story and being part of a church family takes the edges of my consumerist rage.
Helping others at Christmas is a good way to explore the good side of the season. As a family we donate outgrown clothes and toys to charity, and we assemble the Christingles together.
Presents are not the important part of our Christmas (we still have presents, token gestures mostly), and we don't buy/eat much more than usual, the shops are only closed for one day.

Bradywasmyfavouritewiseman

Do you/have your kids go not to see Father Christmas or get involved with school nativity or anything else?

YANBU I include my own dc in that. All together they have over 30 presents each (that is including clothes pants and socks toothbrush ect) but it really annoys me that I've made it so they expect to have loads. My mum will buy them loads, then my nan my sister and brother and I have no idea where it will all fit. Is actually sickening and I am a hypercrite (sp).

So as not to drip feed....

In the past pre children I have volunteered at Christmas and it has cross my mind when my youngest is a bit older it would be something great to do.

Also I do not go mad with presents at Christmas or birthdays. 1 or 2 small presents each, although family do go mad which is slightly out of my control.

inmysparetime

Good ideas, thanks

Do you/have your kids go not to see Father Christmas or get involved with school nativity or anything else?

Dd doesn't do nativity as on the younder years do and yes she has seen Santa at my mums work party.

We have Christmas days out a celebrate fully. But don't do the spending till we have nothing left or spending hundreds of pounds on presents. Or spending hundreds of pounds on food because the shops are closed for 1 day. Or buying mountains of cakes and chocolate because its on offer st the shop.

you can have a fab Christmas without being dragged into the gluttony of it.

I can't stand going to church, even the dc nativity play in church made me want to heckle when the vicar came up after sprouted how christmas is the most important story in the world and no one will ever love us as much as jesus.

A few months ago I really wanted to start going to church, just to feel more part of the community ect but after going once it's really not for me.

My kids don't get very much at all apart from Birthdays and Christmas. This year I have guilt shopped because their Dad and I split this year. Next year I think it will be a much leaner affair.

I am a fairly new Christian and I do think that I have allowed myself to be sucked into the consumerism on offer.

I would like to do it differently next year. One gift from Santa plus stocking and one gift from me.
I would also like to do more volunteering at Christmas time.

Ideally Christmas would be less about Santa and more about Jesus.

brady

thanks for the post. Just for the record I absolutely do not go mad on presents or food. We don't have tins of special offer chocolate and we are definitely not gluttonous at Christmas.

Ideally I'd like to change it where I spoil them on their birthdays a bit more instead of everything at christmas. It's getting worse and worse I started buying in September didn't realise I had had half of the things I actually bought so pulling it all out to wrap thursday night was a shock to me to!

In fairness to them I asked what their favourite part of christmas was and they replied eating marshmallows for breakfast and having christmas dinner with all the family. Was fairly happy it wasn't a because of presents answer.

I do buy tins of chocolate nuts treats posh booze posh biscuits ect ect, but feel getting back to basics, maybe doing Yule next year up stone henge and only 2 or 3 presents christmas day with family would be better. But when they expect a huge pile of presents and still believe in santa you can't say well mummy and santa are only buying you one thing each now.

Oh here we go again. As long as they can afford it, what people spend on children's presents is their business.

luciemay

If we never had an opinion on anyone else's business this site would not exist! Thank you for your opinion on this thread though.

OP so what is your point. You don't like the consumerism of Christmas and admit you do it as well. But then say you don't
If it makes you nauseous, stop doing it.

YANBU.

The phrase 'main present' makes my teeth itch

Yes, it's none of my business how people spend their own money, but I can observe that some of my acquaintances see buying a lot of presents for their children as an indication of being a good parent. And I can observe that this makes me feel sad.

YANBU, it always grates on me, but I too get drawn into it in a kind of "how much is enough" way.

InNeed I'm loving the idea of the vicar sprouting - very seasonable

Thats my first genuine funny other meaning typo bumping . The gas coming out his mouth could quite easily of been made by sprouts ...

YABHUMBUG.... Spoilt brats created by indulgent parents exist 365 days of the year and Christmas makes them no better, no worse.

brady

My point is that I am party to the consumerism of Christmas because, I buy some presents and we cook a special meal. I mean I am party to it because I celebrate Christmas with gifts.

I don't buy shed loads of presents and ridiculous amounts of food.

I think you are muddling consumerism with over indulgence.

Even jesus had 3 decent gifts. I do think christmas is about receiving just in my own case it's gone a bit mad the last couple years.

I turn a blind eye to most of it.

(read that as "I keep the heck off of Facebook for a few days")

InNeed