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.

I've decided to stop buying for people who don't need stuff and donate to my favourite charity. Not to look 'worthy' or 'great, but because genuinely I didn't see the point of constant choosing, buying, debating 'will they like it' and it became hard work.
One if my friends is exceptionally generous and I thought she'd be hurt or disappointed but she agreed with me! It almost strikes me that people are waiting for someone to suggest it. As for secret santa .... dont get me started...

Charities will benefit hugely - especially if they can claim gift-aid. It's a win-win.

Do you know anyone who actually replaces all their decorations every year?

They're will always be people starting from scratch, first house, seperations etc but nobody is chucking decorations out every January and buying new every year for the sake of it.

No I don't know anyone who does this and suspect if they do exist, they are few and far between.
To pretend that everyone apart from the poster buys mounds of 'tat destined for landfill' every year gives the poster a nice warm fuzzy feeling that they are one of the good people, unlike everyone else.
Then they can judge and post on MN about tat destined for landfill, others can join in and air their competitive abstemiousness, feel superior and so the myth continues.

Yes, absolutely, buying Christmas tree shaped crumpets and such like -or any of the items that will be delicately placed in the overflowing post-Christmas bins-has always and always will mean that the buyer is a Christian who displays the true spirit of Christmas. Anyone who dares say anything about rampant consumerism is a puritan, a miser or an extreme atheist who is undermining the very principles of our civilisation.

Yes that's exactly what people have said. Behave.

Who would buy tree-shaped crumpets and put them in the bin?
Most people would eat them in would have thought.
Still if it makes you feel superior, carry on judging people for things they don't do 😶

No tree-shaped crumpets were harmed in my post :) I'm not judging, were all being conned into thinking that buying and accumulating stuff will make us happy, or make any of the celebrations we would have had in any case more "magical" or meaningful. Me included. None of us can really push back completely against this level of social conditioning, unless we go and live in a hut in the forest. That being said, it's not forbidden to try and take a step back. If that makes me a sanctimonious prick, fine. To show penance and how truly ashamed I am, I'm off to buy a reindeer cushion, a gin advent calendar and a festive plum pudding onesie or two. That should appease the Christmas gods.

🙄

I don’t really but tat or follow trends. You often see something promoted on Instagram a Christmas tree crumpet, for example and suddenly it becomes something everyone feels they need to have as they have (FOMO)a fear of missing out. I will always avoid rushing out to buy something a “creator” has been paid to promote.

My aunt bought me a good-quality Christmas ornament every year, and I still carefully wrap them away and use all of them, including the first one she gave me over 20 years ago. I really enjoy getting them out each Christmas. I also have decorations that belonged to my mother-in-law, as well as ones my husband bought when we had our first Christmas with our child, who is now 18. He’s already asked if he can take some of them with him one day when he moves out.
Because of the memories attached to these decorations, I don’t feel the need to keep buying new ones or follow a different trend each year. I know some people have a new theme every year but my style is quite traditional, which suits me and avoids passing fads.

I am a practising Christian with strong faith and I don't celebrate Christmas. All of the family have decided not to bother with Christmas this year because its too commercial and aimed at taking as much money as possible from people. Plus we lost a dear family member last Christmas so none of us can be bothered. I just want the cold weather to do one.

The Mahonia smells gorgeous too!