To give PIL gifts to charity shop immediately

[frenchfigs]

Disclaimer: this is absolutely a first world problem.

PILs are lovely, generous people and love giving gifts, and this year is no different. Despite saying they wanted a more minimalist Christmas year, they have gifted us with many presents for the house, like mugs, kitchen gadgets, cushions. I hate most of them. They're just not to my taste.

DH feels guilty about giving stuff to charity straight away, but I don't want it all cluttering up the house. Should I be firm and insist?

How do I delicately stop this from happening next year? DH has already hinted in the past that we don't really need gifts, but perhaps a firmer approach is required.

90 tiny Santa hats that you put on your mobile phone and they light up when it rings

Sympathies on the name change fail, OP! Don’t worry too much about it or about earlier wobbles on the thread

We used to keep a lot of unwanted gifts out of guilt, and they’d get stored in the only large cupboard in our small flat. One year just after Christmas, sleep-deprived and desperate for somewhere to put yet more enormous unwanted items, I finally cracked and pulled everything out late one night and carried eleven huge refuse sacks of crap out to the car for charity/bin/recycling. The car was parked quite far away and it was raining and I was like a zombie going up and down the stairs with these cumbersome bags, full of heavy stuff with corners poking holes in them. It felt incredible to walk right into the cupboard afterwards though.

Op could your dh ask his parents if you could have the receipt to change the things as you dont have space for any more mugs and the xxx are the wrong colour, you already have yyy gadget etc etc but that as you'd really love abc experience/membership/cushion in the right colour etc and you'd love to think that it had been their gift to you.

Might be a bit tricky but at least you won't have to suffer the clutter, they will get the message that they can't fill up your house with stuff they like.

Wow. Some people on here are just vile. Is making life a drama really worth being so cruel to people? This post is bad enough, but then someone's suggestion to tell them you don't want anything in future 'because you don't like their choices'...?!?! Just awful.

I assumed that post about not liking their choices was sarcasm.

Oh no wait, it was another similar one I thought must be sarcasm (“just tell them their presents are tat”).

I do genuinely think it is valid not to like or keep unwanted, un-useful gifts. And also perfectly valid to wonder whether there might be a way to convey this politely - not least to relieve well-meaning givers of the endless pressure to buy more stuff at this time of year.

How is that “bad enough”? Most of us do have too much stuff. Many of us dislike seeing our older relatives buy pointless unwanted items for us, partly in response to cultural pressure.

Having to 'accept' endless amounts of unwanted gifts and then being expected to keep it all in your home is just nonsensical. Especially when you've specifically said "please don't spend money on me, I'm looking forward to spending Christmas with you and that is gift enough".

It is an extension of rife consumerism and I'm surprised by the amount of posters saying you should keep it all and be happy with it too! Considering the amount of threads I read about decluttering and minimalism and a recent one about reducing waste, it feels like you really can't win.

I'm with you OP. I love all the gift givers dearly and have actually specified I don't want gifts. They think I'm pretending?!