What wasteful purchases do you treat yourself to, at Christmas? Do you take any measures to reduce the affect of the waste on the environment, your bank account...?
I usually buy a Christmas tree every year, because I love them. I generally buy one that is growing in a pot, to replant in the garden. So far though, the longest I have managed to make them live is 9 months. When they die, I chop them up into little pieces, and sprinkle them around the garden, because dying supports new life apparently, even if the new life in my garden is generally of the weed variety. I am not much of a gardner.
Reply to this hehe love it Mel. Maybe this year you'll make it to re-using the xmas tree as a xmas tree!
Ummm....my answer would be Yes. We are very wasteful over xmas. I love xmas and i've already put our tree and decorations and lights up and have bought most of my presents. Hmm....i do do a bit of re-gifting with awful presents we've been given the year before...and these days we tend to use gift bags rather than wrapping so that would save a little on paper. I've been using the same cheap plastic tree for the last 10 years but thats mostly because i dont want to pick up pine needles from the floor. But i think thats about it. So rather poor form on any environment or just saving front but i've got little kiddies now so its the one time of year they get spoilt rotten, we all eat ridiculous amounts of food and hang otu with family for a good 3 or 4 days in a row.
Reply to this Consider this....in Bangkok, they are selling french imported cut trees for 330usd per tree...if they propose it, I guess there is a market...but wow, isn't this an ecological none sense?
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At this point we do most of our shopping on the internet ....so, we are decreasing our carbon foot print microscopically. But, the emotional impact is great because we no longer drive store to store, stand in lines dealing with stressed out shoppers, clerks and the like.
We put up an artificial tree and limit the number of hours we burn the lights. In the old days we left it on all night. So again, minor improvements.
Reply to this No it isn't! Not if you refuse to celebrate it 😊
Back in 1993 my ex-wife went Jehovah on me and after that, Christmas was summarily banned in the house.
Apart from my two beautiful children, that was about the only good thing to come out of my 16 year marriage. To be honest with you, Christmas lost its magic long ago, with decorations and Xmas gifts appearing in September. Commercialism and corporate greed has unfortunately ruined it for me and Christmas is now nothing more than a chore that I want out of the way as quickly as possible.
So, bah humbug to one and all 😉
Reply to this Oh-- Nick,
I hope some day you can change your mind on this issue. I agree that greed and commercialism has changed this holiday, all of our holidays, in addition to making up a few. I'm not overly religious so this holiday does not have the meaning for me that it does for others. I enjoy studying religions of the world and how they embrace and celebrate.
But if you allow it, Christmas can have a magical quality to it by creating your own private way to celebrate it with those you love. Many people are nicer this time of year and it spreads.
I hope some day you will soften on this and expose your beautiful wife to all that is Christmas. She may be fascinated by how it is celebrated in England and the US -- even with the commercialism. Nothing better than sitting in the car on a cold winters night looking at a house that has been tastefully decorated. Don't forget kissing under the mistletoe.
Dave and I don't care for shopping so at this point it is all done on line before Thanksgiving. After Thanksgiving, when the town has been decorated we go to one of the nicer hotels in town to have lunch and talk about travels and adventures for the next year. It is lovely
It sounds like Christmas got banned from your life because of your ex-wife. She is gone now so maybe you will want to revisit how you feel about it. That may not interest you but I'm just throwing it out there.
Enjoy the season no matter how you decide to embrace it.
[Edited: 2011 Nov 30 14:26 - D MJ Binkley:42569 ]
Reply to this Hi Merry Jo 😊
I suppose in a way I will have to resign myself to agreeing with you on certain points. I remember back in 1992, we spent Christmas Eve at my ex-wife's parents house which is situated in the Swedish countryside. Her father had arranged a special surprise for the kids, which he had also failed to mention to us adults too.
We had just finished dinner when the phone rang. My ex-wife's father then summoned the kids to the front of the house and told them to look carefully out of the window. A few minutes later, dim lights could be seen approaching through the snow laden pine trees, the kids were dumbstruck.
Two horses and a beautifully illuminated and decorated sleigh appeared on the snow covered driveway a minute or two later with the cousin to my ex-wife's father dressed up as Santa holding the reigns. The smiles on the kids faces is something I will never forget.
But now, my children are all grown up, I live in a tropical country where the tradition of Christmas is almost non-existent and to my own mind, I feel that I have no reason to celebrate it any more. While I have a huge family, we never really keep in contact with each other anyway. The only time we ever meet is usually at funerals haa haa.
Nick 😊
Reply to this Nick,
Thank you for sharing the story about the sleigh-- that was lovely. That is the magic of Christmas and wonder that I'm talking about.
I understand about living in a tropical land that does not celebrate the traditional Christmas-- makes it easy not to celebrate or it feels non-existent.
One day, when the time is right maybe you will create a Christmas moment so your wife will understand what traditions you grew up with. We women always like to understand our men a bit better. She may find it interesting.
Happy holidays.
Reply to this I used to love Christmas when I was little. It was magical. Now, I feel most people seem to have forgotten what it's really about. My mum claims to love it - she's already got all the decorations up, is buying presents for the dog - even for the dog to give to other dogs! - at the same time she's stressing about everything, keeping a list of people who sent her cards last year, so she can send them one back, worrying about what to buy people. I love giving presents - but I buy when I see something I think someone will treasure and love, not just because it's Christmas. All this concentration on one day is phoney - I reckon we should spread the magic all year round. As for me I'm off to Morocco on Monday - and staying until Jan. 13th - escaping Christmas (almost) altogether.
Reply to this Christmas is about love and sharing. That's great if you have loves ones and people to share with. Sadly, the higher level of urbanization has also brought more individualism, and if you feel lonely during the year, you won't feel better at Christmas time.
Having a great family, I feel on the fortunate side, and Christmas is really important for us...even if we are not close to all our family members due to the distance.
Reply to this Dax and I are not really into Christmas: we don't put up any decorations and we don't give any presents to each other.
Having said that, we do like the so called 'Christmas spirit', mainly being with the family, so when we go to Spain (where I'm from and my family still lives) we do celebrate the whole thing, because we stay at my family home and they celebrate it, so we just go with the flow. We get presents for them (because they buy presents for us, even if we tell them not to, and we feel guilty otherwise!), but they're always either hand-made or second hand.
Saritrace, I hear you about the dog thing... my sister also buys presents for her dog... it's nuts!!!
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