AIBU to think it is REALLY daft to get into debt buying xmas presents etc.

[IceBeing]

Do people really go into debt over christmas and if so, why?

op. your dd is tiny! it is really easy at that age. they are often scared of santa etc. wait til she is a bit older

tbh getting into massive debt is not a brilliant idea, but life is for living and memory making, not counting pennies.

Yes Ice just try. Try really hard.

giles I totally accept that difference. But I am already a dickhead so its too late for anyone to notice I accept that difference.

The TAAT aspect was someone refusing to pay to get into work because she was saving for xmas.

"I don't give a shit about xmas "

you said it darling
so feck the fuck off with your up your arse thread
some of us make each christmas/birthdays special as we don't know how long we have.
so stick that up your arse

It is possible to do Christmas reasonably cheaply, without getting into debt, but if a family is living just within their means during the year, Christmas is the straw that breaks the camel's back.

Some people don't have enough slack in the system to cope with an extra £500 worth of expenses (that is a guess, for the average family including food for the holiday, maybe more or less for argument's sake).

Icebeing
If you have to go into debt for clothing then that is a) not a choice and b) nothing to do with xmas.
Have you ever heard the term school uniform or even the scary one PE kit let alone school shoes

YABVVVVVU
if you think that all clothes are luxuries
you clearly lead a very sheltered life - I assume you must be Emily Thornberry

Why the fuck do you think people do it? You seriously don't get it? I get into debt or my son gets fuck all

If you're still reading this, sorry but my dcs would get fuck all.

Aww bless you god loves a trier.

samcro what? you only make two days a year special coz you don't know how long you have?

Here in the land of smuggery perfectness we make EVERY day super special, full of high quality opportunities for personal growth.

Its the reason that xmas means so little....

Samcro, I love your name.

Shouldn't criticise someone until you've walked a mile in their shoes.

talkinpeace I didn't make myself clear - I was saying that if you have to go into debt to buy clothes then there is no choice in that you HAVE to do it.

I think you read it the other way as me saying you shouldn't go into debt for that.

What I was trying to say is that I only might sometimes slip into thinking people are daft if they CHOOSE to go into debt of non-essentials...like xmas.

but I am trying not to.

Ha, this is why I hate Christmas. I feel desperately sorry for people who feel compelled by the IMMENSE societal pressure to "do" Christmas.

If you have older children you cannot not get them presents WITHIN REASON - never, ever underestimate peer pressure OP. I'm a card carrying, devout, practicing atheist as is DH who was in any case born Jewish; we have never had a tree or a string of tinsel. Ever.

But we go to my parents every year where she has a full on decorations. I'll even clamber up the stepladder to hang the streamers and balloons, and our DDs decorate the tree. Santa was (they're too old to believe now !) a delivery service. Like FedEx. We never taught them that Santa bought anything.

We're in the stick it on the credit card a pay it off within a couple of months camp.

We'll go to the Markets in our nearest big city because the DDs enjoy it.

I take huge issue with your smug and patronising assertion that people "choose" to go into debt, however.

We've had massive, huge debts caused by serious MH issues following a bereavement. They're now paid off, but we no more chose to have these MH issues than anyone else, and Christmas still causes me a touch of PTSD. (diagnosed.)

So imagine how hard it must be for someone battling the stress and anxiety of living hand to mouth to resist the overwhelming pressure which has been going since September.

You would honestly not stick £200 on a credit card if it meant your DS or DD could have a few presents and a Christmas dinner like the Christmas adverts promised them they should have?

No, I wouldn't and fuck the Christmas adverts.

Peeps, Ice has said she only loved her choc orange and has never bought into the whole xmas thing...she is now conferring her personal preference onto her DD who will also probably only savour a choc orange .

Some people just don't get it. We are all talking on different levels here. I am just thankful people with ice's views seem few and far between.

In fact that chocolate orange is the only thing I have ever loved....sometimes I stand in the supermarket staring at the rows and rows of chocolate oranges...and I just know it was a one off....I'll never find the same one again...

solidur what I actually said is that I find it hard to think of people who do choose debt as not stupid. That is not at all the same as saying that all debt is a choice. Of course it isn't.

Anyone can be plunged into debt for any reason at any time.

Its the reason the santa bringing presents for good people business is a crock.

damn right MrsD. I posted a very serious thread about birth trauma and PTSD and got exactly one reply. So I thought I would try this just to check if I was still alive...

Chocolate Oranges are sickly. My Mum would never have allowed me to eat a whole one either, Christmas or not.

We had those selection packs in the shape of a stocking with the red netting on the front and a game on the back.

Spark that's what we had ....with a tube of spangles....hanging in the parlour....

ohhh the netting....scratch that - I now remember both chocolate oranges AND the netting off selection packs.