To think consumerism is spiralling out of control??

[Notcontent]

Just thinking about this tonight, as it’s Halloween and it seems bigger than ever before, with more decorations and more people buying sweets and stuff in general. The same at Easter this year - there was so much Easter related stuff for sale. People are also buying huge quantities of what is literally disposable fashion - clothes that are only worn once and then thrown out.

How did this happen?

I don't think I've ever bought a book or a pair of pjs wrapped in plastic and my hot choc is in paper sachets

Completely agree OP and I'm particularly pissed off by advent calendars for adults with beauty stuff, candles, beer or whatever. That and bloody Christmas Eve boxes, these new 'traditions' that keep popping up so you spend more more more (or you're being a Grinch). The advent calendars for some reason piss me off the most, when did these become a thing? Can't adults be adults and just enjoy some mulled wine and a mince pie?

I've not reallynoticed this and haven't ever met anyone who buys an item of clothing and throws it out. You must mix in very affluent circles.

Well Poundland, Lidl, Aldi, home bargains, etc are all full of fairly disposable super cheap Halloween costumes and accessories.

I have never seen a Christmas Eve box that has plastic anything. It’s pretty much universally PJs, hot chocolate, food treat and book or DVD. It’s not random gifts

PJs - hard to get any that aren't completely/ partially made from synthetic fabrics unless you spend a fortune, hot choc - in a plastic jar/ sachet, DVD - made from plastic, food treat - often packaged in plastic.

Prof Moody - where on earth do you get hot choc in a paper sachet?

There's nothing in the Bible that says Jesus was born in December - in fact, it's unlikely shepherds would be out watching their flock in winter.

In Israel? Think you will find that the winter is a lot milder there.

where on earth do you get hot choc in a paper sachet

Tesco I believe, though it could have been Sainsburys. Dowe Egberts and the Fairtrade ones are in recyclable paper sachets.

This year we have spent the grand total of £1.45 on a bag of sweets and 79p on a pumpkin. I had a candle already so didn't even have to buy that.

and half the sweets were left over, so I'm eating those tomorrow

Morrisons had Halloween pizzas, flowers, dyed orange and black and apple bobbing bowls, ie an orange plastic bowl, and people were buying the stuff! They will probably be moaning next month about what Halloween has cost them and they can't afford Christmas, Serves them right for being such gullible fools.

I find it amazing that Jesus was born bang on Christmas Day. Now what are the odds of that?

I was told by a religious friend that Christians wanted to celebrate the birth of Christ but didn't know the exact date of his birth. So they chose a day when it was generally miserable, cold and bleak and nothing of note happened. I there might have been a mention of Pagan festivals, I can't remember.
Anyway, it was never suggested that Jesus was born on the 25th December, rather that his birth would be celebrated that day iyswim.

YANBU. I went shopping the other day and was horrified at the amount of Xmas tat gift sets for sale. All of those mugs and mini hot chocolate whisks will end up in the charity shop or landfill, along with the novelty hip flasks and dancing Santas.

If you want to know how this started, look on YouTube for a documentary called The Century of the Self. It explains how advertising moved from being practical (eg these shoes will keep your feet dry) to being emotional (these shoes will make your life better). You only need one pair of shoes to keep your feet dry but you need dozens of pairs to satisfy your emotional need to feel good about yourself. Add in the explosion of cheap imported goods and suddenly everyone is consuming way beyond their practical needs.

I hate consumerism. People should buy things because they need them not because someone else tells them so. We are all just pawns in corporate games.

It's shit like this I don't understand

Santa mankini -

This is for the office 'secret santa' where there's a £5 limit and this will be such a 'giggle'

Never worn
Donated to charity
Then thrown away

Not really funny is it?

I was flipping through an old housekeeping book of my mum’s a while back - this book was published late 1970’s / early 1980’s - and one of the Christmas tips was, basically, throw out all the Christmas decorations at the beginning of January, and then buy new decorations when the next festive season started.

The author’s argument was that it was easier and cheaper to throw it away and buy new than it was to take it all down and store it. The cheaper argument was to do with man hours, as in with all the time saved the housewife could go do something more productive than boxing up ornaments.

The wastefulness of this approach didn’t merit a mention.

I'm not doing xmas any more due to the crass commercialism. I reject the values it promotes. The shops are going too far now and I've had enough.

So much plastic crap. So many more ‘opportunities’ to buy it cheaply. The planet and the human race are doomed.

Not really funny is it

Not in the slightest.

Lolling at a set of special Christmas bedding being used for a total of two and a half months over ten years being considered sustainable.

I'm buying (cotton) pjs, hot chocolate and books anyway. I don't see any problem with presenting it as a Christmas Eve box.

The issues with plastic go far, far beyond Christmas.

Did I say it was sustainable?

It's a set of bedding - I absolutely love it and I love using it every year. It's not something bought and discarded for the sake of it. It brings me pleasure and as my life is pretty shit what with my wheelchair, pain and mental illness, then I'll do what I can to enjoy the small things, and it's something that I do enjoy.

If I stop enjoying it, then it will probably get made into something else. I use fabric for many projects so it's not as if it'll just be chucked out.

If we suck the joy out of everyone's lives, we won't have anything left.

I'm not doing xmas any more due to the crass commercialism. I reject the values it promotes.

That's just throwing the baby out with the bath water.

Don't buy the crap (no one is forcing you). Celebrate the traditional values of family, togetherness, community, celebration, comfort, joy.

It’s all well and good people saying that they reuse stuff etc. I do. We have Christmas decorations that are 20 years old. I probably add a few new bits every year. But the fact is that the supermarket aisles packed to the rafters with themed plastic tat shows that loads of people are participating in a throw away culture. It’s getting harder to buy quality items that will last years and years. Not impossible but definitely harder. It’s very depressing going in charity shops and seeing all the crap novelty gifts still in the packaging gone straight the charity shop and will probably end up getting binned in the end.

The world’s gone mad, the planet’s going to hell in a handcart, and it’s all because of stuff.

No, it's not because of stuff, it's because of overpopulation - too many people having children. The greatest thing you can do for the environment is not to reproduce. Having children and then virtue signalling and scolding others for consumerism is a bit rich.

But the fact is that the supermarket aisles packed to the rafters with themed plastic tat shows that loads of people are participating in a throw away culture.

Absolutely. The supermarkets wouldn’t bother stocking all this stuff if there weren’t lots of people buying it year after year.

Professor that’s useful, I am constantly searching for plastic free alternatives. The sad truth is that the default setting in the supermarket is plastic wrapped (everything, even cucumbers) , and if you want a recyclable alternative then your options are to search for them, to not buy them, or to pay more for them. Things like pasta sauces for example in plastic pots marketed as ‘fresh’ compared to glass jars. The plastic is sold as the better, healthier, fresher choice. You have to be a pretty savvy consumer to shop like this and to challenge your ideas about every single item in a weekly shop and I think that is driven by desire to change- most people simply do not have the desire to make these sort of changes (or the time, money, or energy) and sometimes plastic is literally unavoidable for certain items.

Regarding advent calendars, I raise you ‘12 days of Christmas calendars’ - for after Christmas. These are everywhere too. Upwards of £25 on a calendar for kids is disgraceful. I absolutely love Christmas so it’s not a bah humbug thing, but it’s just ridiculous.

The Christmas jumper thing surely came about after a few witty hipsters took to wearing their actual 1980’s Christmas woolly that their nan knitted into the office on the last day before Christmas. Now everyone goes to primark to buy a new jumper that looks like an old jumper, and no one’s laughing because literally everyone has got one. The irony.