Just stop all this crap buying?

[PassingStranger]

Woman in front of me today at shop buying a load of secret santa stuff this morning. I heard her telling the assistant. She also mentioned some of it was for a lucky dip. It was all sweets and chocolate too.

Can people not make a stand now and refuse to get sucked into all this crap.

Just because of a fairytale about a virgin birth sometime in December possibly the whole countries been brainwashed for years,into thinking people have got to have presents and secret santas and lucky díps etc?

Does anyone actually need any of this stuff anyway and more chocolate?
Will the world end if we start to push back?

Its so heavily entrenched into people's minds, they feel its Just something they must do.

I look forward to the day more people start to reject these things and think for themselves?

Is this really want I want to do or am im doing it because its something I have always done?

Do people really need what i am buying?
Martin Lewis seems to be on track with it.
Its ugly.

Wind yer neck in love.

"And a happy New Year"

Just buy what you want to buy and let other people buy their stuff. None of your business, really.

I Love Christmas but I agree because I hate the tat.

id rather ppl buy chocolate than plastic crap destined for landfill though.

my nan went all out at Christmas, decorated her whole house. Same decorations every year. Now people go to B+M and buy tat by the trolleyful every single year.

Alright Ebeneezer calm down

It's CHRISTMAS! You buy what you want, I'll buy what I want.

I agree. I hate all the crap. I would much rather have a couple of indulgent treats than à bucket load of shite. Also… stuff that can be really enjoyed and consumed is what I am choosing for gifts this year.

its just never ending… (as a teacher, I get a double load, most of which ends up in a charity shop!)

No one is forcing you to buy it but presumably she did

I might be being a bah humbug but I agree. Its all just CONSUME CONSUME CONSUME and so much disposable plastic tat and palm oil sweets that lots of us can ill afford but feel the need to do because we're conditioned to see it as the norm. And it's easy to say you don't have to but realistically children expect things like chocolate advent calendars and workplaces do secret Santa events and nights out and there's only so much you can bow out of. A couple of friends have talked about work doing secret Santa where you either buy the silliest gift you can find, or ones where you don't know who you are buying for. What percentage of those gifts do you think are well received and end up anything other than in landfill or a charity shop?

You'll have changed your mind by the time the third ghost comes and visits you.

and therefore you don't buy plastic tat?

tbh i am bemused by all the virtuous posts here about all the other people who buy plastic tat. I, and nobody i know, buys plastic tat nor ever has.

I mean, clearly some people are buying this stuff - they have their ressons i guess.

I'm with you OP, can't stand all the mindless consumption and waste of Christmas. Martin Lewis has it spot on about the pointless tit-for-tat giving.

Agree, I have said to some people let's stop buying for each other any it's gone down fine.

As a Christian I have to disagree. It’s not all about consumerism for everyone.

Agree OP. I also don’t see the need for elves, Christmas Eve boxes, reindeer breakfasts, etc
When I was a child we were excited to open a window on an advent calendar to see what the picture was!

But consume, consume, consume is what drives the economy! Growth is what we desperately need right now!

I mean I kind of agree about the tat and don’t like getting it or buying it on a personal level.
I’m not sure you can dictate that on a global level though because some people do enjoy it.
Also, if people didn’t push the boat out at Christmas wouldn’t the economy suffer?

We do Christmas Eve boxes but it’s literally just some Christmas pjs and socks to put on, nothing major. Also do the breakfast on Christmas Eve morning but it’s snowman and Santa Claus pancakes so doesn’t take massive effort nor expense. Just small traditions we’ve done since they were toddlers, now the older DC are teens and they still expect it!

I absolutely agree.

We don't need it. The people we're giving it to don't want it usually and wouldn't spend the money on it by their choice. We can't afford it and it is causing environmental degradation to countries poorer than ours.

Your Christmas tat is making someone else's life somewhere else more miserable by the chemicals/byproducts of it's production and also by being dumped elsewhere at the end of it's short life - so happy Christmas to them eh?

Dickens said it better:-
Merry Christmas! Out upon merry Christmas! What's Christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in 'em through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? If I could work my will," said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"

Everyone has too much money. I think we should tax them more.

I think it’s sad because Christmas can be so nice without all the tat. Choosing one decoration a year to put on the tree is lovely and it builds up which is nice. The rest of it I just don’t get, special curtains and cushion covers and whatnot just for December? Not for me.

Just because of a fairytale about a virgin birth sometime in December possibly the whole countries been brainwashed for years,into thinking people have got to have presents and secret santas and lucky díps etc?

Most of it's pagan/midwinter etc. not Jesus. Evergreeens, candles, food, we need cheering up in the middle of winter. Almost every cold country has a midwinter feast. No tat needed though! We don't do boxes and pyjamas and crap. Just lovely food, same decorations as last year and friends and family.

I do hope you're an equal opportunities disrespecter of all world religions OP, not just Christianity.

Yes i knew a teacher and she put alot of her unwanted presents on a Facebook exchange site.