Christmas and Empathy

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I totally agree. I hate hearing people say, i'm going to have to buy such and such a present because christmas, valentine's day, their wedding anniversary, their birthday etc. is coming up. It's a burden to them. An obligation. And I think that is sad. I want people to only give me gifts when they actually want to. I much prefer giving spontaneous gifts. Someone once told me I could buy spontaneously and save the gift to give on a special occasion, but why should I be constrained to certain days to give gifts? It makes no sense.

And it irritates me that most people don't know what the original purpose of these special days was and what they were meant to signify in the first place. Like a few posts back someone said why do people give each other gifts when it's Jesus' birthday. It's coz it's not Jesus birthday. It's an ancient Roman holiday where they gave each other gifts and the church hi-jacked it to draw in more people, sneakily changing a festival of the worship of the sun to worship of God's son. In the words of Sheldon Cooper, it's Sir Isaac Newton's birthday, why can't he in at the top of the tree?

Although I do enjoy having time off work at christmas.

I don't celebrate Christmas as i am a Muslim.

It's the time if the year I'm really glad I have no friends and have lost contact with my family.

I can stock up with food & beer, grab a few decent films and put my feet up and enjoy a couple of weeks off, without any of the pressure of gift buying (which is mostly done out of obligation/guilt anyway) that makes christmas such a nightmare.

I couldn't have said this better myself...

I am participating in buy nothing Xmas as always.

I'm looking forward to christmas very much. With amazon - which does not only allow you to shop all presents you can think of while sitting on your bed, but also wraps every gift up if you want - there is no reason for people who don't like shopping to be stressed out. With regard to deciding who gets what, it is advisable to have a list and whenever during the year somebody mentions that he likes something, then it should be noted on the list, which can be consulted before birthdays and christmas. I also like making a donation in the name of the person who expects a gift. Unfortunately, those persons often did not like that idea

Well, I can see why: you didn't give them a gift at all, while claiming that you did. I sure wouldn't like that. What does "in their name" really mean, when you think about it? This idea very likely came from charities themselves and their sales pitch seems to be that the person in whose name the donation is made is supposed to feel good about it, as if they made the donation. But the fact is: they didn't. They never conceived of the idea, spent the money or were otherwise involved in the donation. Is the good feeling you get from being charitable really transferable to others at will? I very much doubt it. Of course, it would be different if the other person asked you to donate to a charity instead of buying them a gift. In that case they would get to feel good about it, because they would feel that they voluntarily gave up receiving something they want to give to a charity instead. This is not intended as an attack, by the way, I just thought I'd explain it since you posted the (confused) emoticon. You make good points about Amazon, though.

While on the subject, I think gift cards are the worst gift of all (for the recipient). They're a brilliant marketing idea by stores that issue them, but from the recipient's point of view they're really just cash that you can only spend at one store, aren't they? On top of that, they can't get any "change" from gift cards, so they have to either find something for the exact value of the gift card or effectively lose a part of their gift to the store or buy something of higher value and pay the balance themselves. Giving plain old cash is much better. It still says "I couldn't be bothered shopping for a present for you", but at least it's always going to be genuinely useful and won't place any burden on the recipient.

Edit: Funnily enough, I just walked past a store today that had this sign displayed:



Hey, at least they're being honest about it, rather than saying "a gift card from our store is the perfect gift for... pretty much everyone"

I only buy gifts to my immediate family, to the rest of my relatives I usually get to write my name on the gift that my parents buy them. Me and my brother have decided to buy our little sister quirky plush animals until she turns 50, she's now 11.

I'm sure if I stayed with my family they'll just lie to me again about my sister coming over *with* her boyfriend. She behaves when he's around, otherwise she's a total b***h 24/7. Since last time I ended up stuck in my old room eating Xmas dinner on my own, I might as well celebrate on my own at my place.

Really? It's Newton's birthday? Hmm... Well now that DOES give me a reason to celebrate... Newton's birthday, that is, but definitely not christmas. I shall celebrate by sitting in a tree and throwing apples at people.

Ah... That was me, and I know it's not really Jesus's birthday. That's why it was in quotation marks. But yes, I too hate how nobody knows the origins of any holiday anymore. All every single holiday is... It's an obligation to buy s**t. That's right, go out and buy s**t. Why? Cuz it's a holiday, and we said so. These days, every holiday is for the celebration of being a big fat consumer whore. Then again, even with the original holiday meanings, I still see them as just another day. Most are religious, which I'm not, whatsoever.