I dislike the general consumerism of Christmas.

//insert whatever gift giving occassion you want in place of Christmas if you have some other holiday//

I grew up in a household without Christmas or Birthday parties. We did visit relatives for Thanksgiving, and my grandmother did give gifts and birthday cards with a fiver, some years a ten, so its not like Ive been completely sheltered. Even so, every schoolyear, fellow students would get excited about the things they wanted for Christmas, and then inevitably be wearing fresh clothes and showing off their stuff in the new year.

As an adult I got to start doing Christmassy things, like decorating, buying, wrapping and giving gifts, occassionally being invited to a party. But it seems all so superficial. Theres this sense of obligation to give gifts, and it makes me realize how much stress it is to try to guess what someone would like, what would be useful, how much to spend, etc. And it happens not only for Christmas, but birthdays too. Its exhausting, and not in a way that makes the work involved worth doing. It needs simplified.

There was a time that giving cash was tacky, an example of not knowing someone well enough to give them something with thought put into it. In recent years thats been turned 180, as if you dont get some big gift like a new phone, car, playstation 8, a vr headset, YABA TV, then cash is preferred (sats are better)

Ive been trying to give consumable gifts in recent years to reduce the long-term-total-cost-and-hassle-of-ownership burden on gift recipients. They can use and be done with it, or simply trash. Theres no worries about needing to remember who bought what, and having something prominently displayed in the home if they are over for dinner.

I dont know what to gift this year and the clock is ticking. The stress is heating up. Maybe i dont give anything. Maybe i make a last minute dash to TJ Maxx or something for some random stuff i can wrap. ugh. no good answers.