at the best of times. But give him the
Christmas routine and he spouts off
about how anti- he is to everything Yulish.
This has also been a common theme in the UK.
Why exchange gifts with adults at your
office when nobody gives a shit about
anybody anyway? On that, they're right.
But, true friendship doesn't need an office
gift pool. It just worked out that way, because
they're Anglos.
It seems that the Anglos are so keen not to
have any obligations towards
friends, or family, because it just complicates
their "happy" lives.
Oh, and they're cheap.
Leave them alone in the corner, please.
and Happy New Cheap Year
Here are Mish's very logical arguments, but they only
make practical sense if you're a cheap misanthrope.
Checkitout: Mish
Do
Gift Cards Make Any Sense? Is it Time to Ban Christmas Presents Altogether?
Here
is the "Black Friday" question of the day from Martin Lewis at the
Telegraph: Is it time to ban Christmas presents?
Is it time to ban Christmas presents?
Across the country people are growling at the enforced obligation to waste
money on that they can't afford, for people who won't use it. Festive
gift-giving has lost its point, risks doing more harm than good, misteaches our
children about values and kills the joy of anticipation of what should be a
joyous time.
Before you think this is just curmudgeonly
bah humbug, this rant isn't about presents under the spruce from parents or
grandparents to children or spouses. It's about the ever growing creep of gifts
to extended family, colleagues, children's teachers and more.
The next year, I polled 10,000 people on
whether we should ban presents. Seven per cent said ditch all of them, 30 per
cent said to all but children, and a further 46 per cent said limit it to the
immediate family. Fewer than one in five supported giving beyond that.
Social convention says give a gift to
someone, or their children, and you usually create an obligation on the
recipient to buy back, whether they can afford it or not. If that obligation is
something they will struggle to fulfill, you actually let them down.
Gift giving misprioritizes people's
finances.
Christmas presents are a "zero
sum" game, as people usually swap gifts of similar value. Look at it as a
simple equation:
David gives Nick a £40 blue tie for
Christmas; Nick gives David a pair of £40 designer orange socks.
The net result ... Nick has spent £40 and
got a blue tie; David has spent £40 and got orange socks.
Effectively, you pay to receive someone
else's choice of object. Fine if people have wealth, but consider Janet and
John. Financially, everything's bonzer for her, so she decides, generously, to
buy gifts for all and sundry. In her cousin John's case, it's a pair of £25
funky cufflinks. Yet he's skint, in debt, and has three kids but pride obliges
him to buy her something of equal value.
Without the gift giving obligation, would
John have really chosen to prioritise spending £25 to receive cufflinks?
Instead, perhaps he'd have replaced his children's shoes or repaid some debt.
Worse still, maybe he borrowed more to buy Janet her gift.
In other words, giftswapping skewed John's
priorities. He would've been better off if Janet hadn't bought him a present.
Gift
Cards
Gift
cards are popular, but what the hell is the point?
I
give you a $50 gift card to Kohls and you give me a gift card to Home Depot? Is
there any point to this madness?
Getting
a gift card to a place I shop certainly is better than getting something I have
to exchange (or throw away), but how is a gift card better than just getting
$50 in cash. Yet, if I give you $50, and you give me $50 what is the point?
The
obvious answer (yet one that few see), is there is absolutely no point at all.
Christmas
Is For Kids
Young
kids cannot shop for themselves, nor do they have any money, so I suppose a
case can be made for getting children presents, provided one does not break the
bank to do so.
Matter
of Practicality
Other
than shopping for kids, the whole Christmas charade makes no practical sense
whatsoever.
Yet
every year, the vast majority acts like a herd of lemmings, rushing around
wondering whether or not Aunt Martha or Sister Suzie will like will like the
gifts we bought them.
I
actually like shopping. However, I hate crowds and I hate shopping under
pressure.
Instead,
I buy gifts for people that I am sure they will like, whenever I see them.
Frequently my Christmas shopping is nearly finished by June.
This
way, shopping is a joy, not a chore. And gifts from the heart are always more
appreciated.
For
everyone else it's high time to be practical.
Call
the Whole Thing Off
If
all you are going to do is exchange gift cards, or worse yet buy any damn thing
just to get Aunt Martha, Sister Suzie, or cousin Louie something they may not
need and/or could not afford to buy on their own, then why bother?
There
is no need to ban Christmas, but there is certainly a need for common sense,
and common sense suggests the best thing to do is have a "family
gathering" suggesting to call the whole Christmas exchange charade off.
