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Are you giving post Christmas gifts?
- Thread starter moecat
- Start date
Xmas is causing untold misery in my community. Many folks here have lost their jobs recently, but they somehow feel compelled to blow the little money they have on crappy gifts anyway.
Last January, my next-door neighbor told me he couldn't afford a full tank of heating fuel, and had to cut down on heating in his house. I managed to keep my mouth shut and not tell him about the empty wide-screen TV cardboard box I had seen on his doorstep on the morning of the 25th...
And just this morning, I witnessed my other neighbor across the street rowing with his estranged wife, like they do every year: he invites her for Xmas Eve, and then the morning after, they fight - Every. Single. Year... They'd never see each other if they didn't feel compelled to organize a fake happy family dinner and gift-giving session for the kids.
And I'm not even talking about people who live alone, who feel depressed during the entire holiday season because they feel left out. Or those who live in the street, who watch the society they're excluded from all year round, and have to take a double-helping of that image right in their face from Black Friday to Xmas day - sometimes when they're lucky, they get a crappy Xmas Eve dinner at the soup kitchen, no doubt to remind them even more how excluded they are.
The best thing about Xmas is when it's over. So, post-Xmas gifts? Really? Don't we have enough of that madness before the 25th already? D'you really want to extend it AFTER that? Really??
Last January, my next-door neighbor told me he couldn't afford a full tank of heating fuel, and had to cut down on heating in his house. I managed to keep my mouth shut and not tell him about the empty wide-screen TV cardboard box I had seen on his doorstep on the morning of the 25th...
And just this morning, I witnessed my other neighbor across the street rowing with his estranged wife, like they do every year: he invites her for Xmas Eve, and then the morning after, they fight - Every. Single. Year... They'd never see each other if they didn't feel compelled to organize a fake happy family dinner and gift-giving session for the kids.
And I'm not even talking about people who live alone, who feel depressed during the entire holiday season because they feel left out. Or those who live in the street, who watch the society they're excluded from all year round, and have to take a double-helping of that image right in their face from Black Friday to Xmas day - sometimes when they're lucky, they get a crappy Xmas Eve dinner at the soup kitchen, no doubt to remind them even more how excluded they are.
The best thing about Xmas is when it's over. So, post-Xmas gifts? Really? Don't we have enough of that madness before the 25th already? D'you really want to extend it AFTER that? Really??
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Same here. I always buy what I want right away and after doing a lot of research and reading reviews instead of leaving it up to the chance of somebody getting me something that isn't very good. I just tell people to get me a gift card if they want to get me something. Not being a religious person, and after working in retail or warehousing for 15 years, I have come to hate the holiday season so xmas just seems like another day to me and one I can't wait to pass.
On a side note, post-xmas gift giving? Why the hell not? Everything is half price then. Especially since lots of times companies will *increase* prices around the holiday season to milk extra money out of people. So if you want to save money, wouldn't it be logical to just shift your xmas celebration back a few days? Buy much cheaper gifts on the 26th, wrap them, and put them under the tree to celebrate xmas on the 27th.
I had xmas, and birthday gifts crushed out of me at an early age.
Shitty, rude, or ill thought out half assed presents thinking it is funny is just cruel, and in my family a few took it as fucking Olympic sport.
I know it is the thought that counts, but there is a line that should not be crossed.
Shitty, rude, or ill thought out half assed presents thinking it is funny is just cruel, and in my family a few took it as fucking Olympic sport.
I know it is the thought that counts, but there is a line that should not be crossed.
In my neck of the woods, many people exchange "gift promises" on the 24th, and buy a few days later for cheaper. Only it doesn't work anymore, because companies have caught up with this. Nowadays, prices only start dropping after mid-January. You can't escape big business, you can only be slightly ahead in the cat-and-mouse game...
Been through that as well. I know where you are coming from.
Honestly I told one cruel gift giver to stop, since he could not give a fuck about anyone else outside of his own level of sadistic satisfaction and cruelty, which ended up with many threats and berating but stunned me the family sided with me.
That and he was enraged almost to the point off violence when after years of this abuse was given a fresh laid shit in a box for his xmas gift. With the note... I HOPE you enjoy receiving this as much as I enjoyed giving it to you... kindly go fuck yourself.
The source of my cruel gifting, was my own mother. Even though it pissed me off at some of the things that were done to me, I would not do something like that to her.
I have an Uncle that used to think it was funny, when I was a boy, to pin me on the floor and put his chew on my face from the can. Of coarse, it ended up my nose and in my eyes. It made him cackle like a fool when I would scream for him to get off me, as my own mother giggled at how funny that was. Sure was funny when my sinuses and eyes burned from the chew getting everywhere. What a hoot the holidays were......
Oh just wait, the payback is that you choose her nursing home.
Mine was my cousin, we had a weird family dynamic.
So anyways the thing that put me over the edge was the last disrespectful "gift" was an insult to my service in the Navy.. I tossed his bought present in the car and used the box to take the duece in.
Midniteoyl
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Wow... Just, wow... Me thinks a new perspective needs to be achieved..
I did choose her nursing home. I just refuse to harbor ill feeling toward my own mother. I made sure she was in a nursing home that gives her the best care. I'm not about to sink to cruelty because someone else was or is. I choose my own path. I will not allow others to control who I am.
I'd rather ignore/not be around someone that makes me feel violent. I keep a distance from those people. I do not speak to that uncle. I know myself well, and conduct myself accordingly.
I hear ya.
It is the cruelty that I just do not get.
That and lack of shame a ton of people have.
Like not telling someone who has cancer at the last minute they are not invited to spend xmas with the family because they do not want to deal with it.
This is heartbreaking.
Midniteoyl
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That is selfish BS... I really dont see where people like that come from.. Have one still in the family like that and I just dont understand it.
You just have to understand people tend to be a weird lot. You can only control YOU and who you are. If you sink to their level, you are just like them and build no blessings in life. You only build the same negativity and karma they have. You have to answer for you someday, and I don't believe excuses will be heard.
Be happy with life and enjoy it. Don't let others eat up your life and make you miserable. Misery loves company, friend. So deny them the company.
I've seen that too. Electronic Retailers are notorious for doing that.
Kinda like getting a set of used thrift store flatware when you are 10...
I'd say it would probably be better just to forgo the gift thing completely based on what you just posted.
I did 20 years ago.
I stopped dealing with that crap for many years, only reached out for the sake of mom... until the snub 2 years ago.