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 don’t get the argument about the economy.

Future landfill / Xmas tat is nearly all imported anyway, so the only ones it is benefiting are the multinational shareholders.

If we rein it in we would all have more money to spend on better quality items that can be used throughout the year.

Missed the vote but YANBU.

a lot to unpack in a pp's statement that we need tat buying to 'grow the economy'.

whose economy grows?
who benefits?
do the assembly line workers get paid a living wage?
What are the ecological effects of the manufacture, transportation and disposal of all these items?

I genuinely try and answer these questions before buying anything for myself or others.

No. That involves critical thinking and problem solving. Which is much harder than page after page reverse boasting about how little pps buy, and how what they do buy is well-researched and from a charity shop.
Please don't spoil the party with your reality.

I do it because I enjoy it. Christmas is a great time of year for my family to come together and we always share gifts. It’s not stressful in the slightest.

Op, you are being unreasonable, tone deaf and entitled.

There are a lot of people (including myself) who have to stick to a tight budget all year
No meals out, no treats. Christmas is the one time of year when we have time off together, can spend time with our families, eat drink and be merry. Celebrate and express love and affection by buying them gifts.

I agree no-one needs elf on a shelf or some of the manky plastic rubbish that people buy but children enjoy it and get pleasure from it. I don't buy those things but I'm not so arrogant as to deny those who want to.

Perhaps put a note in your email signature and on your front door saying Christmas free zone. Let others celebrate how they wish.

It’s supply and demand….If people didn’t buy tat, but invested in purchases that gave more lasting use and satisfaction, the supply side would adapt accordingly. And we wouldn’t be in a cycle of people’s efforts essentially going into a pointless activity of producing things that are of very limited value.

We tend to fundamentally misunderstand the economy and think all “economic activity” is good when much of it generates very little of actual value

The horseshit anecdote helps make the point… This person has a pile of horseshit he wants moving… so he pays their friend £100 to shovel it into their yard… the friend agrees. The friend then decides they don’t like the smell and the original person who paid for it to be shovelled is now short on cash… so that person agrees to shovel the horseshit back into their yard for £100.

From an economist’s perspective, £200 has been added to GDP. In reality, nothing has changed. Economic growth for growth’s sake just makes everyone into busy fools. Genuine economic growth comes from innovation and efficiency, not mindless activity. Sadly GDP measures the former not the latter.

We stopped presents except for the 2 small grandsons years ago. We have a drawer of Christmas jumpers so if someone needs one for work they come here, find the one that fits and that's that. I'm in a sewing group. We have a lovely lunch and do secret santa(£10). The gifts are always lovely so I've no problem doing that. It's at the beginning of December so its done and dusted long before Christmas day. We host a get together at our house just before Christmas. It's from 2 to 5 so we serve a variety of cakes which I buy from a supermarket. On Christmas day everyone has lunch in their homes in 2s or 4s. No massive , stressful stuff. We don't like Christmas lunch so we don't have any of it. We see our grandchildren abd anyone else who wants to come on Boxing day morning. We have coffee / tea and a cake. No stress,no hassle, no making yourself ill and exhausted for other people benefit.
My friend said, on Friday, that she buys for 35 relatives for Christmas and not one of her godchildren ever says thank you. Bugger that.

🤣🤣🤣

To me it's not a problem what other people do, as long as I don't have to participate. I'm sure many get great pleasure in the frenzy and buzz around the shops and so on, and if that makes them happy that's great. Nothing and no one can realistically stop the buying of tat as long as it's on sale and available for those who want it.

As an antidote to the madness I leg it out of here for a few weeks starting soon! Sayonara and Merry Christmas to all.

You’re obviously not wrong and other countries do far less of this sort of thing. I guess at least you know how far away the mindset is from your thinking.

The majority of stuff now is meaningless tat.
The money could be going on things that add value. People’s money would still be going somewhere, it doesn’t disappear because they’ve not bought gift sets and chocolate tubs every week since October.

You do what you want and let others do what they want. Live and let live and realise you can only control changing yourself and not other people.

Speak for yourself - plenty of us enjoy a lovely Christmas without being ‘brainwashed’ into buying a load of excess tat.

It's rather patronising that you keep going on about "people not thinking for themselves" and "brainwashing" just because you have a different opinion. I am neither not not thinking for myself or brainwashed.

On what planet is chocolate classed as"tat"???!!!!

It is winter. The pagan festival of yule helped brighten the winter months and Christmas is the modern equivalent.

'admit you've been brainwashed from birth'

Wow so much anger!!

Your fairytale is my faith. I love Christmas. My family love Christmas. Not because I'm more stupid than you are, because I'm different from you.

You keep Christmas however you wish, but don't spend your time judging others for doing it differently.

Totally agree!

Although as others have said, at least chocolate will be eaten and used up, unlike the rest of that tat which will be in landfill in January.

I agree. I can live with the chocolate but the mindless buying of plastic landfill tat when the planet is already on fire is so depressing. Some people just can’t think beyond their own small world though or maybe they just don’t care

😂

But you can do you, and let others do what they choose. Of course you’re entitled to your opinion, but to try to dictate what other people do is silly. I’m sure there are things you might prioritise/do that other people hate, but we’re all different aren’t we? …….

Yes, and actually what's the point of marriage or relationships? We should all just live in our own dark cave for the duration of our adult lives and only come out to meet up at mating time then retreat back for foraging and a nap.

Next OP will be claiming Die Hard isn’t a Christmas film…. 😪

It IS depressing. And I don't think we can automatically say, "Well if that's what makes them happy they should be allowed to do it." Not if it's harmful to us all, they shouldn't! We can go back to making popcorn strings and having Christmas ornaments that we re-use for years on end, even generations. Does anyone need a new "elf on the shelf' every year?

I love chocolate! A world without chocolate would be a very miserable one….I pray for the day when scientists suddenly realise they’ve been wrong all along, and that chocolate is one of our five a day!

It's loads of fun in my house on Christmas morning even when we don't give each other anything. There are many ways to have fun beyond the exchange of landfill tat.