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As I ended my first post with, I’d take no gift at all over any of that. I’d rather have a good memory or a connection. For the most part Christmas gifts are a
by ljm 7y ago
As I ended my first post with, I’d take no gift at all over any of that. I’d rather have a good memory or a connection.
For the most part Christmas gifts are about balancing an equation by buying each other shit you don’t need and then hoping your spend cancels each other out. If it doesn’t, resentment and drama.
You can both spend/save the exact same money together by buying nothing. Club together on food, drinks, hospitality. Get some good ingredients and booze, some stuff for the kids, and then help make it happen.
Don’t bother trading things you would have already bought yourself.
Unless you’re a child.
- JohnFen 7y ago> As I ended my first post with, I’d take no gift at all over any of that. I’d rather have a good memory or a connection. I agree entirely with this. This is why my social circle (and most of my family) has a "no gifts" rule around gift-giving holidays and events (children excepted). But not everyone follows that.
- ljm 7y agoI tried it with my family and they still insisted on offering gifts. I couldn’t take them in good conscience and eventually I left that family, I’m happier now than I was playing their game. The only time I do gifts now are because I genuinely, altruistically, want to share something.
- JohnFen 7y ago> The only time I do gifts now are because I genuinely, altruistically, want to share something. And that is the sort of gift that actually has meaning! I frequently give gifts to my friends and family, but rarely around some sort of event. It happens when I see something that I know a particular person would love, so I get it and give it to them. I think that makes the gift truly meaningful. Not because its actually personalized, but because it demonstrates that I was thinking about them at a time when I was not expected to be.