A better idea would be for private citizens, acting one by one, to bring the sick culture of non-stop gift-giving to a screeching halt. Other than parents and other adult relatives giving toys and such to children, and children reciprocating with hand-made creations, the whole thing should stop. Between bridal showers, wedding gifts, baby showers, Christmas presents to a huge array of people whom one doesn't know well enough to know what they'd like, birthday gifts, it's all completely out of hand. It's being fueled by marketers of mountains of junk that nobody needs. The symptoms are the proliferation of gift cards, "re-gifting", and mountains of consumer debt made higher by all the pointless gift-buying.
My holiday gift-giving is limited to something home-baked or inexpensively purchased (like $10 max) that will really be enjoyed and used, for ONE long-time friend and neighbor, and one practical and clearly wanted item for my 84 year old father who suffers from Great Depression-induced inability to buy himself anything nice even though he can easily afford to. I simply refuse to participate in the gift-exchange mania.
"I simply refuse to participate in the gift-exchange mania."
I agree, 100% After years a pleading & begging we've finally gotten both sides of our family to knock it off.
This will be our first gift-free Christmas with my Aunt and her kids and grandkids. I can't wait!
I do give gifts to friends and immediate family, but a lot of those are homemade, or something hunting-related for my husband (which reaps the added benefit of a game-filled freezer.)
Bah Humbug :)
Agreed. At one department at my office, whenever somebody has a birthday everybody else has to kick in $10 for a gift card. The net result over a year is that everybody ends up exactly even, minus the significant deadweight loss. Pointless and silly. Like you, I give gifts to a small number of people (and often not on designated days), and it actually means something when I do.
Don't make your discipline my law. ;)