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 ?!?!?

London. I'm not missing the point at all. I wasn't being condescending any more than hells was. Hells bought that material and hasn't used it for anything else, it's not recycling, it's using something that can be reused but probably won't be and which has an environmental impact just the same as single use paper. Another poster said they used pieces of worn out clothing, that's recycling.

People that post they're not sending Xmas cards but they're donating to charity on Facebook bug me. It's a bit of a stealth boast. I'd have more respect for someone who tells the truth and says they just can't be arsed. I always want to put a status saying I'm doing Xmas cards and charity this year, but that would be passive aggressive! I like sending and receiving cards.

I think it's ok to feel that way about FB card announcements, provided you're not the sort of person who feels entitled to a card if they sent one out and who'd whinge about rudeness. Judging by the card threads each year, there are many such people out there.

Personally I like seeing those announcements from people who'd previously sent me a card. Means they're not going to waste time, effort and resources on it this time. I approve!

I'm glad Christmas is changing. I hate the obligation to send cards, it's a waste of paper and time. I detest writing them and opening them, and the dusty clutter they create. It seems such a dated way to wish people merry Christmas when you're connected online/social media/in person etc. People are becoming more environmentally conscious now. I'm delighted the new trend is not to wrap gifts (or to wrap in cloth or brown paper and string, which can be re-used). Foil, glitter and shiny wrapping paper can't be recycled.

I intensely dislike the pressure to buy gifts for people. The marketing pressure to shop and spend is huge and we're suckers to it. It makes Xmas meaningless if you need a pile of presents and crackers to feel festive.

In our family we give a few small gifts to kids, parents give adult/teenage kids money in an envelope. People bring hostess gifts (chocolate and wine mostly) but there's no pressure. We have a simple roast on the 25th. Friends and family get together a lot in the holiday, which is what it's all about imo; socialising, playing games, sharing food.

Christmas associations will be different for every generation. Traditions change and evolve. What's Christmassy to us doesn't have to be passed down.

Im so shit at remembering to do cards. I buy them then never send them.

So this year im thinking of a blanket facebook message - we are not sending cards this year because i can't be arsed!

Donation to charity? What? To equal card spend? £1.99 from home bargains aint gonna go far is it! I donate enough tgroughout the year, buy coffee/sandwiches for homeless on occasion but feel no need to plaster it all over facebook

After watching MacMillon rob the ALS challenge blind, and learning of the five year NHS nurse scheme, I have been sceptical about charity.

Reading this weekend in the Times scandal of the Big lottery fund indoctrination via Mermaids promoting the Eugenics of Autistic and gay children along with Stonewall and the cotton ceiling/male Incel rights movement - I am done with charities.

I'm another one who puts Christmas cards straight in the recycling bin. I have a tiny house and my Christmas decorations make it seem cluttered enough.

Traditions change and in 50 years I doubt there'll be many people sending Christmas cards.

"Christmas has become about who can waste the most money on the most tat. Courtesy of the marketing people"

And one of the earliest marketing conspiracies was those that started the 'Penny Post' and the lithograph printers.

LeftHook, that grant is now under review.

There's lots of Charities to choose from, including small local causes.

"Donation to charity? What? To equal card spend? £1.99 from home bargains aint gonna go far is it!"

Have enough people donating and it goes very far.

We've had a lot of complaints in our Family because some of us decided not to do Adult gifts, those with children said that they were happy for them to not buy for the children also.

I just reminded them that in the 70's, in our WC Family, Friends etc, all this gift buying didn't happen. Yes, we didn't have the amount of cheap goods that we have now, but those cheap goods have come at a cost to the planet and people, whose water supply have been poisoned, or redirected.

We really need to rethink the lifestyles that we've been pushed into.

As well as the planet, the MH of our children is going down the drain. There's never been anxiety, especially in young, successful, Women, as there is today.

As said, I'd rather it becomes about Charity, or good deeds, as it once was, rather than consumerism and consumption.

some things are beyond parody