Funny you posted this as H and I bought a book today called _Unplugging the Christmas Machine_. Each year we end up spending thousands of dollars on the holidays and it has to stop (yes, you read that right--a childless couple, one of whom has no siblings, spends thousands of dollars on Christmas). We are opting out next year. We plan to send letters in March telling everyone that we will no longer buy gifts for any holiday for anyone who is not a child or in desperate need. We will also not answer any "What do you want for Christmas?" questions. If anyone feels compelled to buy us anything, we will accept it in the spirit it was intended but we will feel no need to reciprocate.
Last night we received a George Foreman 8-in-1 Grill Monstrosity. Ugh... What to do? Amazon? Save it for a garage sale? Burn it in the yard and invite the neighbors to watch? Someone wasted their money, time and effort on this thing we don't like or want (or would not have wanted had we known it existed before it arrived via UPS) and it would have been far better had the relative spent the time and money on herself.
And the preceding paragraph is a distillation of my entire family-oriented Christmas/Yule experience... GAR!
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Date: 2005-12-17 12:02 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-17 01:09 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-12-17 07:21 am (UTC)Last night we received a George Foreman 8-in-1 Grill Monstrosity. Ugh... What to do? Amazon? Save it for a garage sale? Burn it in the yard and invite the neighbors to watch? Someone wasted their money, time and effort on this thing we don't like or want (or would not have wanted had we known it existed before it arrived via UPS) and it would have been far better had the relative spent the time and money on herself.
And the preceding paragraph is a distillation of my entire family-oriented Christmas/Yule experience... GAR!