So as I decided and blogged some time ago I had decided to give up christmas consumerism. Of course, I am not immune to the pressures of the season. I certainly felt the pressure, and I did cave..... kind of.
I participated in an office gift exchange which over the weeks I probably spent about $40
I bought a t-shirt for someone else.
I spent $50 on my partner
I donated $10 to the food bank
I donated $20 to another charity to contribute to building and outhouse and a goat in Africa
I also worked 12 hours of gift wrapping with the proceeds going to the local sexual assault centre.
I also bought myself some presents but I don't know if I count that as christmas spending or money I would spend on myself or giving myself an excuse to spend money.
anyways, here are my thoughts:
to my own surprise when it came closer to the day instead of receiving lots of questioning and teasing I hardly received any. Almost everyone seemed to respect my decision and thought it was ok. at least this is my interpretation.
One thing that surprised me as that for the few gifts I did give out I expected bigger reactions from the recipients. One particular case sticks out where the recipient said thank you and as far as I can tell enjoyed the gift but I wanted more of a reaction. I felt like "it's a big deal that I am giving this. you're special because you ARE receiving something when others close to me are not. give me some gratitude" I then realized that it was just my ego wanting to be overly fed and that the response I had received for the gift was completely appropriate. I didn't need anything more but I think I had expected more of a thanks.
part of me did miss the excitement of shopping and giving and receiving gifts. the excitement of buying for others and thinking about what to buy them, wrapping the gifts, and of course waiting and wondering what is in the gifts for me and anxiously waiting for others to open the gifts I had bought them.
On the other hand I did not miss anything as far as the reasons for quitting christmas. I didn't miss the stress of shopping and more than anything I did not miss having an empty wallet.
as a final conclusion: I'm glad I did it but at the exact same time I don't know if I would do it again, or if I did do it again if I would do it as rigid as I was this year. maybe I could just tone it back. it was certainly a learning experience.
1 comment:
Your experience has been an interesting one to follow. I've had a similar experience this season, but anti-gift giving more out of unemployment than real choice. But, the outcome appears the same. I feel like I appreciated Christmas all the more because my time was spent baking cookies (or learning new recipes to share with friends and family), or knitting (if you have a talent in something, why not share that with others at Christmas?) my gifts for others, rather than getting stressed about buying gifts. The only place I think our experiences truly differed was in the disparity of gifts given vs. received....and that's a tough but to handle...Merry NewMas!
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