To think charity is starting to steal Christmas!!

[KnightlyMyMan]

So to clarify - we are charitable- we donate generously via monthly direct debit to several good causes and in person (before anyone jumps on the scrouge bandwagon).

However, I’ve just (for the zillionth time) been faced with another ‘don’t buy gifts/ Christmas cards - just donate money in the persons name’ appeals.

This year seems to be really really pushy about this 😡 more so than ever before and it seems aimed to make people feel shitty/ selfish!

• I’ve noticed a trend in not sending cards - with several friends putting blanket messages on social media saying they won’t be sending any but donating instead so obviously it’s working!

Awesome- I’ll hang your Facebook message on my card tree shall I? 😒
Am I the only person who likes receiving cards (already in aid of good charities?), who actually enjoys opening them and displaying them? I recycle them all post Christmas and buy recycled cards each year so really don’t see the harm - it feels like a lazy cop out to say ‘I’ll just donate instead’ and not very festive or personal!

And no, I don’t really want you to donate in my name and present this to me as a gift. Charity is a personal thing and shouldn’t be inflicted on anyone! I have struggling family members who actually rather rely on Christmas gifts for rare luxury items but have too much pride to say anything if suddenly we started ‘donating in their name’!

Also- One ‘stuggling’ familiy member mentioned yesterday their anxiety over donating cash becoming the ‘social norm’ as they currently make very low cost gifts and wouldn’t be able to give cash. They felt that this becoming ‘the done thing’ It would highlight who can/can’t afford to write cheques! Like being the poor kid at non uniform day- adult edition.

Next it’ll be ‘don’t do a big fancy Christmas dinner or crackers- just donate the cost and have a burger instead!’

I get that it’s a good cause but can they just stop trying to steal Christmas out from under people who enjoy it ?!?!?

Yanbu. Why not cards and a donation to charity?

Yanbu

How much energy is needed to make the card to make Christmas cards, which then need to go through another process to be turned into something else? Not buying them reduces the demand for them which in turn reduces energy used and trees cut down.

Simples.

If you’re feeling hard done by I can send you all the cards we’ve received that we don’t want. They’re in the recycling - I can fish them out.

Rather than deny friends/family the pleasure of a Christmas greeting, people who want to give to charity instead of indulge could cut their own expensive treats- food, booze, cost of presents, size of tree, new decorations etc) and then they'd have a much bigger sum to give.

And wouldn't need to put up wanky message about it.

I actually wonder how many people who say that theu are giving to charity instead of cards actually do?

We give charity donations every christmas but still do presents etc. too.

I feel conflicted about Christmas cards. I love to send and receive them. But the environmental side of it does concern me... if you think how many billion of them get sent every year and how many trees and how much energy that will have used.

I think Christmas cards belong to a different era to be honest. I like not having to sort them out and send them.

I think people can do as they wish to be honest.

YADNBU

I dunno. I just think in general social media puts people under pressure to donate to things or feel tight if they don't.
I've got direct debits set up for a couple of charities and tbh that's all I want to give to. So I mainly ignore the requests from friends on social media, then wonder if they think I'm mean.

If you're buying the cards directly from the charity shop (not via a supermarket or store that only donate 20p per pack), then surely you're meeting both criteria?

The environmental issue is a separate matter but recycling is now law. Plus, Christmas postage is a boost for the post office as the need for their services decline.

I find it odd that people care about Christmas Cards. They're old fashioned, expensive and bad for the environment. I'd far rather people put the money towards charity and tbh I think that people who grudge this rather than receive their annual card aren't very nice. Clearly you're not alone though op so perhaps I'm the odd one.

The environmental issue is a separate matter but recycling is now law.

?

Yanbu. BiL told me this week that he donates money to charity rather than buy presents for nephews and nieces. Well, OK, they are in their 20s. My DCs are younger. My teenagers would be fine with this but my littlest still thinks Santa brings presents.
Btw-we still buy for BiL’s dcs... eldest of whom is almost 30!
I suspect what BiL actually means is ‘I can’t be arsed thinking about you guys and I could donate a fiver to charity and pretend I’m so caring’.

Plus, Christmas postage is a boost for the post office as the need for their services decline.

At 64p for a stamp for something that is going in the bin, you’re not kidding!

I work for a charity and have people ask me could I print them out “I have donated on your behalf in lieu of a gift”, no amount specified. Usually after giving £2

I think it is a good thing.
Christmas has become about who can waste the most money on the most tat. Courtesy of the marketing people.
I don’t spend much and I don’t expect others to spend it on me either. It’s all fine. Even 20 years ago things were a little calmer. Plus you don’t have to donate if you don’t want to. No one really minds.

I think Christmas cards belong to a different era to be honest. I like not having to sort them out and send them.

This. I've hated Christmas cards since the mid-90s. They just make me feel very uncomfortable. I don't want to send them and I hate receiving them. They rarely feel personal and in most cases I know they are just a bit of a chore that people are doing for no reason. Almost none of my generation send them and when I have talked to friends about them, the conversation always turns to how glad we are the tradition is disappearing.

The only ones I like are handmade children's cards sent to immediate family or close friends. I do think that a card made by a child for their grandparent/aunt/uncle/cousin can be very nice. Children have so little independent means to give gifts to the people they love, making a card is something that is often very special to them.

I buy charity Christmas cards. Doesn’t cost in stamps as the people I give them to are people I see.

I donate to charity year round (it comes directly out of my wages) but I like sending and receiving cards.

YABU

We know more as a society about the harm and good we can do with our day to day actions. Christmas is a massive landfill producer and personally I'd enjoy it more if it was about time with family and friends, reflecting on the year, doing good deeds and being inclusive and kind to disadvantaged people.

I don't need another crappy secret Santa plastic tat, or a plastic toy in more bloody plastic, or a plastic tree covered in plastic crap that will be landfill next year.

I like sending cards too and will continue to do so.

YANBU on the whole, but I've not noticed it myself this year.

This is the first year I haven't done cards. I just didn't see the point, when the people I would se n d them to either live near me or are on social media. Charity is taken.care of through constantly subbing my kids and my form for charity events in school.

Charities trying to convince people to donate money shock horror. Yabu.

I hate Christmas cards. They are just clutter so I always put them straight into the recycling bin. I still get 3 or 4 every year, but it's definitely got much better since I stopped sending any.

I don’t really care tbh, as long as people leave me alone to do whatever I want to do. Although I always find the “not giving anything because giving to charity instead” thing a bit wonky - surely the idea is to tell everyone not to give you presents or cards and to think about donating what they would have spent on you to charity instead; not to say you won’t be giving presents yourself. I feel the same way about people asking others to sponsor them to give up alcohol / chocolate / whatever - I always thought the point was donating whatever you would usually spend on those things to charity, not rinse your friends for money!