• Shadow@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    Celebrate without buying gifts.

    Why do you need to spend money to celebrate? Spend your time with people instead.

    • Boozilla@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      I 100% agree with this. Unfortunately it’s also one of those things that a lot of people say but don’t really mean. Like when they say it’s OK for men to cry.

      • BertramDitore@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Oh this man cries, often. And this man thinks it’s completely natural, acceptable, and often enjoyable.

      • otp@sh.itjust.works
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        11 months ago

        It’s definitely OK for men to cry. Or, it’s equally not okay for a woman to cry than a man. Lol

      • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        11 months ago

        I totally cry.

        I also tend to give gifts when I see something a friend would swoon over, and giving gifts for Christmas is weird.

        I also don’t really care about my masculinity or if I’m seen as sufficiently manly.

    • kpaniz@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Same thought. I just said to people close to me that I don’t want gifts neither for christmas nor for my birthday and I’ll never want them. As a kid it makes sense, getting something you really want from someone else because you don’t really have a serious job or money at all so it’s one of the few chances to get something. Now if I want something I just buy it, otherwise I just don’t want it. And if I can’t buy it because it’s expensive why would I want someone else to spend that kind of money? Plus all that thinking about what would be a good gift. And if it’s about “showing you care about me” then really, just say merry christmas or happy birthday.

    • Lifecoach5000@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Everyone close to me knows I ain’t a holiday gift giver. I like giving surprises to people on the fly when they don’t expect it.

    • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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      11 months ago

      Personally I like giving other people gifts. It’s part of the fun. Last year I got my brother a drone and he got me a thrifted, pit-stained t-shirt for a band I don’t listen to that much. I don’t care, I just like to give other people cool gifts!

  • Aermis@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    People that celebrate Christmas and have not bought gifts yet do not celebrate Christmas with gifts, or at the very least are not important for the celebration.

  • swordsmanluke@programming.dev
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    11 months ago

    I know a guy who grew up occasionally homeless. He has ended up as a well paid tech manager and his approach is that his family can usually just afford the things they want, so instead of buying stress gifts the last month of each year, his family picks a charitable cause to donate time and money to instead.

    They’ve bought goats for third world families; paid for education, transportation and home construction; fed hungry and clothed the naked.

    He’s a cool guy.

  • TurboDiesel@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    A few years ago, I had ordered a bunch of gifts for my family to be delivered to my mother’s house shortly before Christmas. The morning my flight was supposed to leave, I got an email from Amazon saying my packages were delayed until like mid-January. Given that I needed to be on a plane in a couple of hours, and it was like 3 days before Christmas Day, I ended up just printing off pictures of the stuff I bought and giving everybody a card with them in it. We had a pretty good laugh about it.

  • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    Make plans after Christmas day and buy presents on boxing day on discount is what I’d do tbh.

          • dutchkimble@lemy.lol
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            11 months ago

            Fun fact: it got known as boxing day because of all the Christmas gifts given and opened on Christmas day all around the world, leading to the most number of empty boxes the next day.

            • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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              11 months ago

              I always heard it was called boxing day because it’s the day you start boxing up all of your holiday decorations (which isn’t even true since most families keep the tree and stuff out for a few days after.

      • EurekaStockade@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        It’s a thing in Commonwealth countries. The origin is not really clear but these days it represents discount shopping and a big cricket match

  • lazylion_ca@lemmy.ca
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    11 months ago

    Count my money while browsing boxing day sales and chuckling because I don’t actually need anything.

  • joystick@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Saw people buying gifts at the grocery store this morning. Like cheap perfume gift bundles and stuff like that.

    • ElderWendigo@sh.itjust.works
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      11 months ago

      Could be stocking stuffers. White elephant party maybe. Something for the surprise holiday guest so they feel included and welcomed.

  • TheInsane42@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    Not ‘celebrating’ Christmas here.

    Yesterday we had my wife’s parents over for diner, they areived at noon and left 4h later so the pets could be fed. Was fun to chat and have the rest of the day off. My sisters come tomorrow with kids. Haven’t had them around to visit for over a decade. We usually go to them, as some have pet allergies and we have loads of pets. Alas, I’m unable to leave town for a few months, so we haven’t seen them for a few months now, so they decided to drop by. No decoration apart from an paper ‘table cloth’ and some chrismas cookies for the kids to decorate.

    When you normally see each other almost every month, why go trough all stress for the holiday season just because everybody celebrates a nice story. (is tricked into spending loads due to ‘tradition’) We had a not so simple meal with my inlaws (my wife liked to cook something special) and tomorrow it’s soup with sandwitches and pizza (the kids would want notuing fancy anyway and it’s easy for a big group).

    No gifts, apart from each others company this year, although normaly we just dig inmfor the weeks and hide (with december being the only month in the year without birthdays). We already get to stressed about all the stress in/around the grocery that’s almost in our back yard.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    11 months ago

    No gifts, just a card. And that still caught her off-guard, because she knows I’m opposed to materialism (for the sake of materialism; I still buy nice things for the things I need).