To think Christmas has descended into a pile of landfill?

[TheLostMonopolyTopHat]

I’ll start by saying this way of thinking is getting me down. I find it overwhelming and depressing as it takes the magic away but I can’t unsee it.

Everywhere you look there’s Christmas tat. As I was shopping in the lead up all I could see was shelves and shelves of total shit: plastic stocking fillers that wouldn’t last two minutes, plastic toys that’ll sit in landfill long after the children who receive them have grown up, plastic polyester Christmas pyjamas for the whole family you’ll wear for one night, Temu shit, SHEIN shit, loads of shit. People buying ‘token gifts’ or secret Santa crap, new colour themed decorations every year, shelves full of cheap stuff, it never ends.

I used to get swept up in it but the past few years I’ve found myself struggling to buy toys children in the family ask for because it’s adding to the destruction of the planet. I, like everyone else, have been guilty of buying things for the sake of buying and I hate it.

Christmas has become a consumerist hellscape. How much worse will it get? We’re all full of microplastics yet very few people seem to stop and think before buying it all only to chuck it all away.

Adult present giving is weird when you think about it.

A bunch of adults buying each other stuff that, if they really wanted it, would have bought it for themselves anyway. A hell of a lot of stress, and often no thought behind what is bought.

I have received clothes when normally I would buy from a charity shop, and books which I could get from a chazza or a library.

I get buying for kids, they don't have the funds or resources to buy a bike or a games console.

@TheLostMonopolyTopHat @Waitingfordoggo
I never mentioned wealth or income. Although these threads boil down to a
thinly-disguised attack on the 'type of people who shop in B&M and Shein/Temu'.

There's only one way to make it stick - you don't buy presents, even if your family does. It'll take a few moments of embarrassment (it's never fun to receive a present without giving one) but next year when you say, "I don't want or will buy presents" they'll listen to you.

I don't buy "stuff" for anyone anymore. I give my adult kids cash because I know they appreciate receiving a bit of extra money to buy things they need, and DH and I often don't buy anything for each other unless it is something we particularly want.

I quit years ago buying for friends and family, and they don't buy me anything back. It's truly freeing.

Agree

I don’t think it is sanctimonious for others to express not wanting to engage in certain parts of Christmas that don’t suit them and their families or actually makes things more difficult for them. Several expressing this aren’t saying they are better than others and if people are taking offense to how others choose and choose not to celebrate that is a them’ issue. Posters should be able to not be insulted or called Scrooges for not wanting to celebrate Christmas a certain way, especially when it comes to presents.

It goes both ways.

People use Christmas as an excuse for a lot of things and behaviours that they wouldn’t allow any other time of the year.

Plus, this is an anonymous forum. People come here to post and vent and tone is subjective until people start with insults.

For those posters who think threads like this are virtue signalling, it’s simply not the case. The amount of excess, the amount of crap in our shops, the amount of stuff that is bought and promptly thrown away is destroying our planet. I’m working class and I have undoubtedly been responsible for buying tat in the past but I have never seen such volumes of tat in shops as I do now. And tat that is now on sale and will likely end up being sent to landfill by retailers because there is nowhere else for it to go.

If a thread like this raises awareness of the fact that all of us can do something to reduce waste then it is doing a good thing.

And yes I will judge my family for buying excessive (and I mean excessive) tat every year because in doing so they are showing no concern at all for our environment and the planet. Worse still when they try to palm their excess tat onto me. We are locked into a cycle of people wanting ‘more’ and the only way they can satisfy the need for ‘more’ is by buying cheap tat, more than they could ever need.

I honestly think that companies who produce non essential plastic things should be subject to an environment tax. These things will be with us for thousands of years- it needs to be stopped.

You implied that many of the people who complain about ‘tat’ don’t mind ‘tat’ when it’s a more expensive brand. So that suggested to me that you think the ‘sanctimonious’ people worrying about the planet are complaining/criticising from a place of privilege and snobbery.

I also resent your misquote of what I said. I said nothing about a ‘type’ of person buying from Shein, Temu etc- just that I think they’re shit companies because of their ethics. It is possible to make more ethical purchasing choices without being wealthy. I know some folk without much money who buy a lot from charity shops and I know some pretty wealthy people buying Temu tat. It’s not about wealth.

@Waitingfordoggo
If you want to take offence, be my guest.
You have been pretty offensive about other people who you regard are not as good as you are, so whatever 🤷

Several of our kids presents were second hand this year- playmobil sets, schleich knight figures, othello board game, disney princess dolls and End Blyton book set from eBay and a dress up set from vinted. They were all loved and I don't think the kids minded at all as I bought things in good/ almost as new like condition. I did buy several magnetic block sets new from Shein though as these are newly released toys - this was probably my minecraft obsessed sons most played with present on Christmas day. We didn't buy any new decorations- several were inherited from my grandparents when they passed on- and even our plastic tree is in double figures now for Christmases used. They got new items too of course but we do try to be mindful. Especially when young I don't think the kids notice or mind whether something has come in cardboard packaging.

I’ve never been one for Christmas tat but I’m completely bored by the amount of lecturing holier-than-thou professional misery threads on it on Mumsnet this year.

This pretty much sums up my thoughts too.

Sorry, who have I been offensive about? Can you point to the post where I’ve been offensive about someone?

I haven’t taken offence to what you’ve said. (I said I resented your post because I felt it misrepresented what I’d said).

Exactly. It feels like being lectured by those who have ‘seen the light’ (ie they used to buy into it all and have now had an epiphany), when some of us have never brought into it, but haven’t felt the need to lecture others. It’s a bit like reformed smothers I guess. They have to tell other people about it as much as they can.
Apart from anything else, this has got to be the 20th thread in this exact same vein in the past week alone.

I agree OP. What really annoys me is the people who buy from halfway across the world and get it shipped, probably made by someone in unsafe working conditions, (possibly using cotton from slave labour camps) pumping god knows what into the ocean on the way and claiming they saved £5. It's nothing to do with affordability, the people I know use any savings as a means to buy two or three of something, not essentials. Then they complain the city centres are all closing down and dodgy and there is no employment for young people. Apparently pointing out the ridiculous irony makes me sanctimonious. Fast fashion is one of the biggest pollutants and completely unnecessary, excessive Christmas items are too, don't get me started on Halloween cheap decorations and wear once costumes. I just can't understand why we are all ok with it. As far as I can see it's mostly women buying this stuff and very little discussion on a predominantly women's website.

Smokers, not smothers!

Very little discussion? Are you kidding? Type ‘tat’ into the search and you’ll see just how often this has been discussed in the past few weeks alone.

I think it’s great that people are talking about waste and trying to shop more ethically. It’s about time!

Anyone who doesn’t want to read threads about the issue can simply avoid reading them. You can only feel like you’re being lectured if you spend time on threads where you think people are lecturing. And if you’re already making thoughtful choices about purchasing and waste then you aren’t the one being lectured at anyway.

@GalaxyJam in the overall scheme of things it's not discussed much. Its still niche, the occasional thread, just a small percentage of the I hate MIL and all men are evil threads. This is something I believe propelled mostly by women and among the many many complaints about the patriarchy here is something women have control of but collectively don't take much responsibility for. That's just my own observation

It's good it's being discussed at length.

Maybe some of it will filter through to those who need to feel they've been given permission to get off the consumerism merrygoround before they can actually do it.

Even I've been inspired to try to do more and I feel I already do quite a bit.

You think if the first 19 threads this week about the subject didn’t get through to them then the 20th might?

Good!

This is exactly right. There are even a few on this thread saying they used to do it (I presume when they had less money to stretch further or children piling on pressure) but now they have seen the light, they need to share their new-found evangelism with others, dressed up as concern.
As you say, some of us have been doing this for years but just assumed it was entirely normal until the born-again anti-tatters came along to tell us we are unusual apparently as 'everyone else' buys mounds of tat and bins it within 24 hours. Apparently.

They might not have seen any of the first nineteen, but just happen to be on MN when the twentieth pops up in Active.

For something you're not interested in you seem quite exercised by the subject.

I am interested in it, I never said I wasn’t. Like I said, I’ve never bought into the whole thing. It’s the condescending tone of the threads I’m objecting to, not the subject itself.

Agreed. It’s the born again anti-tat evangelists that seem to think the rest of us are laying prostrate at the altar of some rancid influencers wearing matching Shein pyjamas. Well most of us aren’t. We are dragging our old Christmas shite from the loft once a year and dusting it off. Lots of mine has been passed through my MIL and is donkeys years old, including the tree.