Holiday shopping: Forced anxiety and debt?

I've been hearing from my co-workers how they're stressed out for the holidays. Heck, even customers are complaining because they 'need' to buy stuff for the season we find ourselves in. People make it seem like when X-mas comes around, you have to purchase things. They say idiotic stuff like, I'm going to be in so much credit card debt this X-Mas. What?! Lunacy. Since when are you forced to spend money?

My friend who is an amazing artist, made an original artwork for her boyfriends family for the holiday one year. They loathed the artwork and wondered why she didn't buy them something. The audacity!

I don't celebrate holidays. I haven't since 2018. I don't need a certain time of year to buy something special for people I care about.

I always used to be able to find some sort of new gift to get everyone, but I've thoroughly run out of ideas. I'm just doing giftcards, I think it's fair and it gives people a reason to go to X place.

Same here

Some people may feel like they're obligated to give someone presents if they know that they're going to receive them from them. They may not want to be seen as greedy or selfish, or broke or a mooch. I don't get why these people aren't honest and just say, "I really cant afford to buy gifts at this time." I think most people would understand that if they were honest, but pride could prevent them from wanting to reveal that they can't afford it. There's a lot of societal-pressure to participate in gifting so I understand why people would feel pressured to, but not necessarily forced.

It seems to me that some people who complain about having to buy gifts could be bragging about having extra money to spend, or virtue signalling that, even though they can't really afford it, they're just such a good person that they'll find some way to afford it because they just have to.

Art is priceless and complaining about a gift is a pretty crummy thing to do.

I feel ya about the not celebrating, I begrudingly still participate mainly just because it's one of my few oppurtunities throughout the year to see some of my family.

As @rewgle pointed out, I too just buy gift cards to my family and call it a day. Everyone in my family gets a $100 Target gift cards from me. I'm fed up shopping these days and so over it, buying gift cards saves me the trouble. Buy your own damn gifts.

I don’t get anyone gifts for Christmas, I give all year in some form. I know it’s cheap but for an example I am getting a payout for my yearly vacation once a year,usually it’s by February and I’m buying my nephew a new XSX and probably a NS for on the go gaming. Stuff going with the Xbox:Controllers,battery backup,headset,a game or two,6 months of GamePass,etc……. Not to mention one or two games for the Switch to start him off? I have an extremely small family left,so getting something for the family from time to time is usually not a problem. I’m not a millionaire so I don’t believe getting into debt for nearly a good chunk of the year because of a special holiday is such a bright idea? People don’t realize that Christmas is a Religious holiday and is the day that Jesus Christ was born. No meaning to Christmas anymore. Sad.

no surprise that most of ot is bah humbug.

i get pleasure from buying good gifts for people. takes time and effort to find something they'd really like but when i find the right thing, something i'm sure they'll love, i get genuinely excited. seeing their face when they open it is worth the effort.

most are skint this year so ive been explicitly telling people no gifts, i'm not bothered. i'm at that age where i've become the gifter rather than the giftee.

oh and gift cards are the worst, unless theyre for a store you know the recipient loves.

here you go, buy yourself something on me, but rather than me give you money and the universal freedom to spend it wherever you want, i'm going to lock you down to one specific shop. you dont want anything from there? tough shit, i couldnt be arsed putting any thought into it. merry fckin xmas, tra la la la la 🎵

I did some brief research on the origins of Christmas. Many other religions of the world would celebrate winter solstice during the December time frame; Oden, Mithra, etc. December 25th was chosen as the birth day of Christ by Pope Julius I. It is believed that this was intentional to blend both Christian and pagan traditions together within the church. According to what I have looked at, links will be provided, there really is no true knowledge of when Christ was actually born, so it makes sense why people would start to phase out the Christian elements of Christmas and begin to focus solely on the paganist aspect of it more and more.

As for Christmas itself and the neglecting of the Christ, I don't believe it's that people don't know what CHRIST-mass was designed for within the Catholic Church, so much as people want to keep Christ out of Christmas. The Western world knows who Jesus is.

As someone who has read and studied religious books, I've always wondered why people chose to celebrate the birth of Christ when the Bible gives no date as to when He was born. It goes without saying that this list isn't exhaustive. I'll look more into it so as to have a more educated thought on the holiday. :)

Links:

https://voiceandvisioninc.org/blog/entry/a-brief-history-of-christmas/

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christmas

https://www.history.com/topics/christmas/history-of-christmas

The act of "gift giving" is important to many cultures and societies, and it is a fun custom to be on the receiving or giving end of.

But modern capitalism has wormed it's way into what was once a beautiful fruit and made it rotten, as it does with just about everything it touches.

So sayeth your resident Gamespot socialist.

But on a serious note, yeah, I think too much emphasis is put on spending money for the holidays. if you have little kids, then yeah, buy them some toys and maybe a big-ticket item the family can use year-round (if it's in the budget). If there is no money, then make something or maybe do a nice gesture.

Damn, that's F'd up. I just might cut that person out of my life, or at least revoke their friendship card.

Almost everyone knows that.

What is lesser known is that it was a holiday stolen by christians from at least one other culture.

So really you could argue there wasn't really much meaning to it to begin with, but we've changed it into both a religious and commercial one.

Oh, I enjoy it. Quite a bit, really. But I shop throughout the year, and my family started a tradition a long time ago that turned part of the gift buying itself into a sort of game. I'm sure @mrbojangles25: would absolutely hate it based on what he posted above, but c'est la vie.

Honestly I love it 😁

I buy my niece and nephew LEGO stuff and then we spend all day building it.

I'm not a religious person but the whole Christmas thing is mostly about Saint Nicolas is why we do these exchange in Christmas presents and Saint Nicolas (aka Santa Claus) kinda reinvent Christmas holiday. Saint was born during the Roman Empire era and is said to be Greek too. Between Saint Nicolas & Jesus Christ resurrection, you should check out that South Park episode where both fighting which one celebrates who lol.

@mrbojangles25: I found it hard to swallow that you were a scrooge, lol.

I used to get stressed finding gifts. Now I make a few batches of fudge and give everyone a brick of it.

I did some brief research on this holiday, which you can find above, but to your other point, some Christian men tried to remove Christmas from the Christian religion, and apparently they were successful for a time, but then it inevitably came back years later, maybe decades, and it became what it is known for today. I believe it's in one of the three links I provided earlier on in this thread. The Catholic Pope at the time is the one who made the decision to celebrate the birth of Jesus on December 25th, though whether or not Jesus was actually born on that day could perhaps actually be true, in which case it wouldn't matter whether or not other religions had their day "stolen" as it would be a day in which the Messiah was in fact born. However, I'm not sure if anyone would be able to say without a shadow of a doubt that December 25th is the actual day. I do think one could infer the date, I don't think it would be hard to find a closer timeframe. But this isn't about religion, so I'll go ahead and leave the room now. XD

I"ll probably just get my nephews gift cards as they are picky with gifts. Same with my nieces as well like Roblox maybe $20 each. I know my mom's giving everyone gift cards this year. Not sure about my brother maybe a gift card.

I don't give gifts and don't expect any. Most of my extended family is now the same way unless they have little kids. We just get together for a big meal around Christmas day and that's it.

Reading the source text, one would infer that Jesus' date of birth was a time of year where it was warm enough for shepherds to sleep in the fields at night w/ their sheep. So it wasn't during a winter period.

OT: I give gifts year round, I don't give into the holiday shennanigans. You should give when you can (affordability) and when you feel compelled (motivated), not when you feel forced (social pressure/traditions).

as adults my siblings and i used to exchange gifts for years and it did feel forced at times but we enjoyed the tradition. now that we all have kids, we just get gifts for each other's kids instead. we're all well off enough and responsible enough with our money not to be incurring massive debt for xmas.