’tis the season to be jolly
Being the modern-day equivalent of Ebenezer Scrooge, I can very easily buy-into everybody’s favourite all-round-good-egg Martin Lewis’s merry manifesto to ban Christmas presents. Thankfully, his targets aren’t the parcels from grandparents that sit under the twinkling trimmed-up tree, it’s the ever-widening circle of present-buying that people feel a need, an obligation almost, to fulfil.
Money-saving Martin argues that we’ve become disconnected from why we give/receive gifts and we simply swap things, potentially creating an unfair obligation into the bargain. Yes, giving can be hugely pleasurable but it’s vital we consider the people getting their grubbies on the goodies and appreciate that this generosity could actually be doing more harm than good. By giving a gift to someone, or their children, you create an obligation on them to do the same, whether they can afford to do so or not. If that obligation is something they will struggle to fulfil, and in these cost-of-living crisis days it’s more than possible, then you’re actually letting them down. Furthermore, Christmas gifting is often a ‘zero-sum’ game, where tat, knick-knacks and landfill often do the rounds between us all. If re-gifting were an Olympic sport, we’d top every podium. In short, we give gifts that are neither used, wanted nor appreciated.
He cites several examples where the buying-obligation results in situations where valuable pressie money could’ve, would’ve, should’ve been used to put food on the table, pay down the credit card or replace worn-out shoes. Martin’s aim isn’t to stop festive fun but to challenge the blithe, habitual nature of gift giving which many see as a chore, a list-ticking exercise which benefits neither pocket nor soul. Not every relationship requires a gift. Affection and friendship don’t have to be demonstrated through the ubiquitous gift-receipt!
However, there’s a real social stigma to suggesting this and it’s not an easy subject to broach with friends and family. To try to help, his ‘No Unnecessary Present Pact’ is a deliberate aim to create a supportive philosophy and explain that it’s not just me being tight. Again. Believe it or not, we’re not born with the retail snobbery gene but perhaps you’d be forgiven for confusing genuine joy with materialistic mass delusion in today’s commercialist season. Notwithstanding my continued and ever-increasing desire for a colour-matched Nespresso machine, I reckon it’s time to do Christmas differently.
