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.

If you don't want to don't. If it makes you feel better a mid-winter celebration precedes Christianity and all modern religions, you just need something at this time of year to get you to spring.

There's a lot of doom & gloom in the world and if this cheers people up so be it. Leave them be. They aren't doing you any harm.

Ours is pretty simple and low cost I think.

Decs and Christmas jumpers out of the loft. Stockings have assorted chocolates, we buy a turkey, a ham, and a beef, the. We just need veg, yorkshires, cranberry sauce, pigs in blankets, gravy..

No more than £50 gifts each ( two or three things they have chosen, no “just because” gifts), a Christmas film, mince pies and ice cream. Then a cheese board and small buffet of savoury and sweet with board games on Boxing Day. Some booze, of course

We have a family of 5, me and DP don’t need anything from each other, so the whole lot should be about £250 - £300 ish.

Our parents are NC or dead, so I guess that helps 😬

Exactly why have you got to have a present.
Its so stressful anyway and expensive.
How many times have we seen on here about people moaning about what they have or havent got for Christmas, and people taking things back to shops or regifting.
Cant be that great.

What's wrong with sweets and chocolate, I buy it all year

Maybe…just maybe…some people like it?

If you don’t like gift exchanges, buying tat, secret santas etc etc then make a stand and don’t get involved, by all means.

But many of us do it because we want to, and enjoy it, so we will continue to do so!

@Greedybilly

Don't you think increased spending at Chistmas is a boost to the UK economy at all then?

Busier shops
Busier car parks
More spending online
= More VAT
= More income tax
= More van deliveries > increased fuel duty income

no?

What a miserable person you are. I love Christmas, I love to give, no I don't get into debt, or buy extortionate, expensive presents.
Lucky dips fine, what's wrong with a small chocolate. Christmas is what you make it and it does not have to be expensive.

@RollOnSunshine sure it will line the pockets of share holders to some extent- but spending via Amazon or at B n M on shite manufactured in Asia isn't really going to help is it?
Also it's an environmental disaster.

We need to tax the rich in this country and stop importing crap.
I don't think you need to be an economist to see that the current situation isn't sustainable environmentaly or economically?

I love Christmas but my friends and family stopped with buying stuff for each other years ago. We go out instead.

I still buy some bits for my DC and they have money for something they want.

I don't do Secret Santa anymore.

We have lots of food and chocolate on the three days.

I agree with Martin Lewis about the stress of Christmas. I'd hate someone to struggle to buy me something.

I totally agree OP.
Nice food/feast with family, small but well chosen gifts. Time spent with kids, playing with said gifts.

When did it become normal that kids get given vast piles of presents consisting of plastic crap from China, which are played with for half an hour then discarded.

Each to their own I guess - you pays your money and you takes your choice, as the saying goes.

I agree with you about the tat but you’ve been extremely insulting about a Christian feast

Could you describe your Christmas op, assuming you celebrate? i think that would be interesting - do you not buy or receive anything?

Would you be so disparaging about Islam, for example, as to publicly mock it by calling it all a 'fairytale'? Or Hinduism? Or is it just Christianity?

Of course all the rampant consumerism is unnecessary, but you lost me when you needed to insult the religion of others as well.

This is the way I see it really

A midwinter feast/festival is older than Christianity, Ho Saturnalia!

Agree, i also feel sorry for poor Martin Lewis who op has dragged into this from something he said in 2018. He was able to say it without insulting Christianity though.

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

How do you know she wasn't thinking for herself?

I like eating chocolate and finally getting to sit down with it for the first time all year. And having an excuse to see my family and friends- as I eat more chocolate! I don’t agree with buying stuff with batteries that stops working after a day but outside of that, our tackiest ‘tat’ has been going strong for twenty years so I don’t begrudge what other people want to buy.

As for teacher’s presents, my teacher friend lives for every single sweet and cup (she’s never had to buy a cup for her house and they all tell her family she’s the best so she loves them😅)

This.

YANBU, over consumption and disposable living boils my piss. Token gesture gifts of tat and nonsense, cheap toiletries, plastic novelty items, all destined for landfill. I’d rather not get a gift, than shite like that.

As for teacher’s presents, my teacher friend lives for every single sweet and cup (she’s never had to buy a cup for her house and they all tell her family she’s the best so she loves them😅)

I'm loving the idea of all the much despised by some "Best Teacher" mugs having a happy home and being appreciated!

Voted yabu as you conflate Christ with consumerism
@PassingStranger if you don’t want to spend, don’t. Why make an apparently offensively disrespectful about a world religion to support your stance?

I'd imagine that more people will just re-use the stuff they have from previous years, like I presume happened with Halloween this year and leave it to "influencers" to pointlessly update their stuff in a bid to start a new colour style etc trend?