Anyone?

I don't plan to not do no more non-shopping this year, thats for sure.

Yes. I may buy something during the holiday season, but not for a holiday. I'm not Christian, don't want to make this thread political, but I think celebrating Christmas would be hypocritical of me. I'm not designated as anything which has a holiday this season. I'll spend time with my mom and exchange pleasantries for Christmas, her holiday, but I don't overtly participate in the Christmas marketing machine.


Nathan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/08/2006 05:46PM by silvarios.

we decided not to exchange gifts this year. No small children in our family. It is fine by me.

---

Bryan
______________________________________________________
Mac Studio 2022
MacBook Pro 14 inch 2021
iPhone 14 Pro
Location: Cincinnati

Does grocery shopping for Christmas Dinner (for 30) count ?

A couple of us lobby every year to stop the madness and give money to charity instead. There's a couple of holdouts, however, and the rest of us are blackmailed once again to exchange gifts. There are no small children in our family, either, and I would like to buy toys for Toys for Tots or someone, it would be more fun than buying gifts for adults who can buy what they want when they want it. My brother and I are going to make another attempt in 2007 so cross your fingers.

---

I ordered gifts for a few clients; and that's the probably end of it for me.

Quote
silvarios
I'm not Christian...

Christmas isn't Christian, either. Gifts have been exchanged at Yule since time immemorial; in fact, most holidays are really very old ones masquerading as new ones.

I know that some folks go overboard and get deep into debt at this time of year, and I guess you can say that that's part of a "marketing machine", but it doesn't have to be that extreme or materialistic. Christmastime is really just a fun day of the year to give and express good tidings, regardless of your beliefs. I love to give and receive gifts, and I can't even fathom the idea of not at least giving a token to friends and family, even if it's just some cookies that I baked.

---

Le poète doit vivre beaucoup, vivre dans tous les sens. - Verlaine

Christmas used to be a pretty fraught-with-anxiety time for me because I worried about making people happy and getting good presents.
I always wanted to be somewhere like Dubai or Japan, where there wasn't the big Christmas deal but you could still drink.

Now tthat my kids are adults and my sister and ex girlfriend (and her husband) don't need much, it is a lot easier. The kids are easier to buy for now, and I get fancy olive oils, chocolates and the like for the ex and the sister. They don't need much more "stuff' intheir lives anyway.

I actually can enjoy going out and browsing around. Sometimes I buy something for myself.

---

And we should consider every day lost on which we have not danced at least once.
—Friedrich Nietzsche
Western Massachusetts

Foolish reason to shop.
No shopping here.
Hate to break it to the "religious holiday" folk, but it is actually a Druid holiday, no connections to "El Nino", just made up to put butts in the pews.

BGnR

---

"Good heavens, Miss Sakamoto! You're beautiful!"
"If we dig precious things from the land, we will invite disaster."
"Near the day of Purification, there will be cobwebs spun back and forth in the sky."
"A container of ashes might one day be thrown from the sky, which could burn the land and boil the oceans."

I just ordered a new MacBook & Airport for my sis... I LIKE buying presents for my family (and I like getting them, too). I'm not much into the religious aspects (Druid or others), but enjoy the holiday spirit.

Christmas is a great excuse to open up the purse strings and show appreciation to loved ones. I do have small children and their grandparents give an amazing amount of their time to care for the kids after school so I don't have to use after school care programs. Any time I'm sick they are there to help etc etc. I bought them fantastic gifts this year and ahve gotten them some great stuff in the past including an imac one year. So I enjoy the holiday giving.

I think my own grandparents might not be giving out as many gifts this year though which is fine with me. I don't expect anything but enjoy giving as I can. The top gift request I have every year is family pictures in a frame. Really I'd enjoy a good lunch and chance to catch up with everyone the most.

Dave

I got cool things like bikes and radios growing up. Electric trains! Whats wrong with that.? Kids getting Toys and Excitement. What the hll is wrong with that.? Older friends is a nice touch.

---

Da Good Life



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/09/2006 07:35AM by spearmint.

My parents weren't terribly wealthy when I was small, so most of my childhood memories of Christmas is doing things, rather than getting things.
I rather appreciate that.
A different pace, today.

Same as billb. Childhood holiday memories include getting gifts from less un-wealthy relatives from California which mysteriously dissapeared the next day. Mom returned them to buy us clothes. And hoping for some extravegant gift, like an erector set complete with motor, and then being dissapointed when I got what we could afford (or couldn't afford-- ultimately bakruptcy was filed).

Love $tevie's idea. Keep plugging away. There's nothing sadder to me than that damned re-gifted wine rack in the grab bag pile. In some ways we're like the "decadent" romans we like to stereotype as eating and vomiting in order to eat more . . . just wallowing in excess and practicing unnecessary wastefulness to "celebrate."

I do see the value of celebrating and having something to get excited about at what would be a bleak time of year otherwise. Probably the origin of the whole winter holiday ritual. In Eurpoe the celebration is much more about eating everything you can possibly fit in your stomach, then doing it again. I'd guess that was originally to use up foodstocks that wouldn't keep through a winter.
I like to focus on the january/ mid-february time to do have parties and plan fun events for that reason-- that's when we need it.

I'll admit the #1 thing that's made the holidays survivable for me is the internet . . .

I'm sure there are 1,000 sites like this, but:
[www.buynothingchristmas.org]

Wow, you guys seem really down on christmas. When I was a kid my family was poor also. That didn't spoil christmas though. If you find giving gifts painful for some reason maybe you should look into giving to charities. People need help this time of year.

Dave