To not want a goat for Christmas?

[TheGoatOfChristmasPresent]

I understand that people give these charity gifts with the best of intentions, However charity is a very personal thing and I don't think that it's right to decide on someone else's behalf what charity they should support.

So if people want to give to charities that is of course their perogative, but i'd rather they didn't do it in my name as I'd like to decide personally which charities I'd like to support.

Yes MIL is getting a goat this year- as expat says it's a lovely way of saying "fuck you" to a woman devoid of love and affection (and she reads the DM)

Well I got smug SIL and BIL a goat for Christmas last year following advice on MN. They are foul - no really they are - and earn huge amounts of money and shun my family persistently and are very rude.
Very childishly DH and I really enjoyed selecting a charity present for them - I really wanted to get them a charity toilet but DH felt that was too much so a goat it was. Needless to say the gift was not acknowledged - we didn't expect it to be.
This year , to save me from tears , I 'll give it to someone special.

True Expat true.

Yes PardonMC- I took a perverse childish delight deliberating between the goat, the camel (too expensive) and educating a woman in Africa. The goat won.

Emnity gifts? Fuck off oxfam. Better think of a new trick for next year huh?

I think wasabi has it; We've all run out of pointless crap to buy each other.

as solidG and Expat have said - excellent presents for someone that you really don;t want to give a preseant to but must, or people who say "I really don't need anything" (& mean it!).

If anyone bought me one I would take the hint pronto and suggest that we stopped buying for each other.

to the OP - YANBU to not want a goat for christmas, have a turkey like everyone else

......oh, sorry, have I misunderstood?

Thread has cheered me up. And choke on my tea. Very very funny.

Goats eat all your plants and flowers, and do the most whiffy farts. Do not accept a goat.

Although nanny infant milk costs a bomb - so perhaps you could develop a money making side line to do with dehydrating goats milk and slinging a few vitamin powders in it. Thereby neatly undermining attempts to make us all aware of how lucky we are etc etc.

I received a flock of chickens from MIL a few years ago. I was not impressed. not with the notion but with the thought that this had been done in my name with a charity whose ethos I personally don't agree with (evangelical Christian) so I felt a bit hijacked. I wouldn't buy her a present which clashed with her beliefs (although I'm open to persuasion on that one) and she is very familiar with how i feel about such operations.
it just feel wrong to donate to a very specific charity in someone else's name.
She is a very generous and giving person and wouldn't even have the insight to guess that charity on behalf of someone else can be a minefield. Thanks goodness she has such a mouthy DIL

Goats are the new socks.
Can't think of anything to buy, get a goat.
Do you have a problem with recieving goats? Then mention your holey sock drawer. Or just generally make it easier for them by having a lovely long telephone call to catch up, and slip in loads of hints about what would be wonderful to recieve.
Then try to enjoy christmas when you still get the goat.

ooooh, Are goats a recyclable present? Can you re-wrap them and send them back on their birthdays?

Not the goats birthday, that would just be cruel. The birthday of the person who sent it to you.

Would just like to add that my tutor group have just had a whip round & we've bought ourselves a goat.

Naughtiest Boy v amused that you can buy two teachers for the price of a toilet.

I agree with the principle of not giving unless you're pretty sure the recipient would be happy with the gift - but then, that applies just as much to dodgy scarf & glove sets.

Isn't Oxfam fairly uncontroversial? Would definitely not appreciate gifts from evangelical charities.

YANBU

I dislike charity gifts unles theya re only given to people that you know for certain will appreciate them, or who have asked for them.

I do not want someone to donate to charity on my behalf.

I do my own charitable donations, in my own way. I prefer it that way. Charitable dnations are, IMO, a personal decision.

I would rather they didn't send a gift at all in such situations, but donated to charity themselves, on their own behalf. It feels patronising otherwise.

Fortunately we have not actually had this happen to us.

YANBU. If people want to support Oxfam etc they should ask for goats etc for their own presents. Buying a goat for someone who hasn't asked for one is really just not buying them a present at all but choosing to spend your money on something else in which case you should be honest and just say "I didn't think you needed anything so I've not bothered getting you a present" rather than pretending they have got you something. At least if you know someone isn't getting you a present you can do the same.

Surely everybody would prefer a good box of chocolates?

Even people who are in actual need of a goat?

Phew Hulababy. Imagine the horror!

hate the conspicuous giving of goats etc.smacks of we is sooooooooooo rich we will give you something of nowt value to you to demonstrate we care not for money and but how very worthy we are

come on expat - the value of a toilet compared to some shite box of bicarbonate of soda in various physical forms (oh its a bath bomb! Oh its bubble bath! Oh its shampoo! oh its body wash!) is actually a lot. Its not about being worthy, but about spending money - that you are going to spend it anyway, on something that might actually make a difference. (Unless you really need that bath bomb in your life )

If I got a toilet or a goat from my DH I'd be pissed off, but I know that my great aunt would otherwise buy me fifty quid's worth of toiletries from M&S - I'd rather some girl had a goat.

sausagerolemodel - well, what can I say. I am pleased that this has not come up. I am more than capable of making my own charitable donations.

my understanding was the goat is unsustainable and environmental impact assessment suggest

the goat's overgraze on land
consume water
reduce available resource.not balanced by milk production

World Land Trust and Animal Aid actively campaign against such promotions