Anybody Think Christmas Gifts Are A Huge Waste Of Money? (1 Viewer)

[David Von Pein]

Don't you feel a lot of years that Christmas gifts are a big waste of time & cash? I know it's "the thought that counts", it's just that it seems to get harder and harder every year to find presents for everybody. It's a sign of old age I guess.
I guess it's not as much of a waste when you're buying for little children (although: how many Christmas gifts have you bought for a wee one, just to find them tossed aside on December 26, never to be re-visited again?). So, I guess you could say (much of the time, but not all) Christmas gifts for kids are the biggest waste of all of your hard-earned $$. But, still, you've got to have gifts for the kiddies.
But what about when you get to be old, grumpy farts like myself. No kids to buy for. Facing the impossible, agonizing "What the heck am I gonna give everybody this year" crisis year after year.
Anybody else face this dilemma every single December? (Probably most people. )
I'm sure I'll get some flames hurled my way for this anti-gift approach to this sacred holiday. But, this is the way I feel about it. Why spend lots of cash (or even a little) just for the sake of HAVING to buy a gift for someone/everyone, when most of the time it's completely forgotten in the blink of an eye anyway. Just makes no sense to me.
(Gee, I wonder if my green skin and middle name of "Grinch" has anything to do with this attitude toward gift-giving. )

 

[Jeff Ulmer]

Bah, humbug. Don't fall prey to corporate guilting. Presents are unnecessary...unless they are for me.

 

[David Von Pein]

Jeff U. is absolutely correct.
(He's the only person I'm buying for this year.)

 

[Rain]

I have 1 or 2 people I may get a gift for, but that's about it.
I'm not all that close with my family and they are in a different city, so we don't bother.
My friends, much like myself, are usually short on cash, so we don't bother either.
So yah I guess I'm agreeing with you.

 

[Jeff Pryor]

I only think it's a waste of money to give gifts to co-workers.

 

[Steeve Bergeron]

I'm with you there! Christmas gifts are so unnecessary.

 

[Chuck C]

I don't want to stray off topic, but what bothers me most is that Christmas has been the subject of marketing, and it grows worse every year. I saw a report about a single mother holding down two jobs. Her son had his heart set on this popular toy. The belegared mother worked overtime just to afford this gift...her sister paid half the cost too. Another low income family was struggling with telling their son that he couldn't have this certain gimmicky toy. It's not that the father didn't want to buy it, it's just that he couldn't afford it. He was heartbroken to tell his son that he couldn't buy his son the toy he wanted for Christmas. These two stories came from a marketing video I watched in class (recent video cicra 2001). Marketing folks are targeting to younger people as a ploy to reach into their parents' pockets. Commercialization is now reaching schools...billboards on school busses in one city! Philip K Dick's Minority Report-esque commercailized America doesn't seem too far off.

That being said, I can empathize with older people being socially 'forced' to buy gifts for their kids.

 

[Carl Johnson]

At 27 I've yet to reach the "What the heck am I gonna give everybody this year" phase but I see how it could happen. My brothers are easy to shop for, I just get them something I'd like to have. My parents are different, I get them stuff that they're just too cheap to buy themselves. Their VCR, CD player, DVD player and surround sound system were all gifts from me and this year I'm getting them a TV. They have been using the same raggety ass broke down not even worth the $250 they paid for it set for 12 years now and last month it finally died. Dad had the nerve to call me saying that dropping it off at a repair shop was on his to do list. I had to beg him to let it go, Santa Claus will bring you a new set.

 

[MikeAlletto]

Christmas is about one thing...



presents



yeah...presents.

 

[David Von Pein]

Mike A. (above) is evidently hinting that he'd like several HTF members to chip in and get him a nice stocking-stuffer on 12/25.
Perhaps........

 

[Joel Mack]

Christmas is about one thing...

Ham!

 

[Martin Fontaine]

I guess me too I'd think that this year, Christmas is gonna be expensive! Especially now that I've started seeing my mum and my 2 sisters again (After 3 years of not talking to them) so that makes 3 more people to buy gifts to. But that doesn't bother me, it's just the normal thing I guess. My biggest worry here is not spending more money on gifts this year but actually figuring out what to buy them since for many years I have not spoken to them and now only recently (Well ok, 6 months but still rather recently)

On the incoming side, that's easy, everybody knows what I like! Last year I got a record-setting 85$ in Movie Gift Certificates! I wonder if this year I'll break that record...

 

[David Von Pein]

Christmas is about one thing...

Watching this great TV Movie on Christmas Eve. ......

Who could forget the great scene at the end of the movie, when John (Daddy Walton, played by Andrew Duggan) relays his encounter with Santa Claus! Watching him tell the kids of how Santa's sleigh "...went flying across the sky and landed right on top of this house!!", to me, is one of the best scenes in TV history!
Sure would like to see this Classic arrive on DVD.

 

[Peter Kim]

Dad had the nerve to call me saying that dropping it off at a repair shop was on his to do list. I had to beg him to let it go, Santa Claus will bring you a new set.

Put a big grin on my face, Carl...our dad's are exactly alike in this respect. 13 year old tv broken and he took it to a repair shop. Broke my heart to hear that he hauled it in himself and what he paid for the repairs. Somehow, he didn't think there was any alternative.

Anyway, I buy gifts strictly for my family. I'd never implicity or explicity push my faith on anyone else.

 

[Nathan*W]

Anyway, I buy gifts strictly for my family.

Modified to be immediate family (ie. wife, son). Mine and my wifes parents get a gift and that's it.

 

[Todd Hochard]

What, are you guys Anti-American, or something? You WILL consume, you WILL work your ass off to do so, and you WILL like it!!!
Yes, I'm over it. And, I'm in a better position, financially, than most to afford whatever I'd like to buy for most. It just seems that the "spirit of giving" has been supplanted by the "spirit of buying."
Luckily for me, my daughter (19 months) seems to be overwhelmed by more than a few gifts, so we limit it. If this is one character trait (the virtue of creativity over consumption) I can instill in her, then I will have succeeded as a parent, IMO.
Todd

 

[Michael Reuben]

My brothers and I adopted a simple rule that I proposed some years back: no more adult exchanges of gifts at Christmas. Now, on the surface, I appear to lose out, since I don't have any kids and they do. But it's a worthwhile trade-off to eliminate all the gifts for them and their wives. (And their selections for me always miss the mark.) My wife and I divide the responsibilities: She buys for the nieces, and I buy for the nephews. Makes it all pretty easy. Then we concentrate on finding gifts for each other, since we're the only ones in the world who really know what the other one likes.

M.

 

[Bob McLaughlin]

I agree, Mike. A couple years ago I announced at Thanksgiving that I would only be buying my wife a present for Christmas, and no one should bother giving me anything, because I think all the spontaneity and goodwill has been sucked out of Christmas gift-giving. Now it's more like a chore or a duty.

Guess what? People still buy me presents even though I don't get them anything. But at any point during the rest of the year, if I see something that I know they'd like, I do not hesitate to buy it for them. I'm not doing it out of any sense of guilt, or balancing the scales. It's a genuine spontaneous desire to do something nice for someone else. I get a big kick out of seeing their faces when they get a surprise gift with no strings attached in the middle of the year. And I think they appreciate it more than just another present to add to the heap on December 25th.

 

[Lew Crippen]

On (what appears to be) the flip side, I truly enjoy finding a present(s) for my wife. And grown son.

And look forward to what they think will please me.

I felt the same for my Mom when she was alive and my sister’s children when they were young.

 

[Patrick Sun]

$5 DVDs - that's what I'm giving out this year to my friends and cohorts.