MONEY MORAL DILEMMA. Do you break the no Christmas present pact?

secretlass_2

I feel the need to get this off my chest. I bought my sister-in-law, brother-in-law and their FIVE children gifts this year totally over £120 and my husband and I received nothing in return. I know that you don't give to get, but they could have got us a box of chocs or something. My sister-in-law didn't even seem embarrassed - she said that she thought that the deal was that the whole family were doing children only but we didn't know about this deal. And anyway, how can it be fair to do children only when they have 5 and we have none????? :mad: Thank you for listening - I feel better now that I have got it off my chest!

LameWolf

We took the opportunity to stop doing presents at all, several years ago when my husband was out of work, and we have carefully never re-started it.

So anyone who knows us well enough to be on their present list in the first place knows we don't do presents, so is unlikely to give us anything.

Short_Legs

This happened to me this Christmas just gone. I had told the girls at work that I didn't want to partake in the Christmas gifts (they were expecting each girl to spend £10 on each other girl and that adds up to £50!) A few days before Christmas I get a present. I say "Thanks but I didn't get you anything in return". "Don't be silly" was the reply, "You don't think I'd buy everyone else something and not you, do you?" (well, yes, I did - that was the whole point!) Nothing else said. The day before Christmas Eve, two more presents are on my desk. I send an email thanking the girls for the presents, but saying (as nicely as possible) because I hadn't got them anything in return if they wanted to take the gifts back and give them to somebody else I wouldn't mind. I got an email back saying "I don't know how you enjoy Christmas" and basically making me out to be some kind of Grinch.

Anyway, in conclusion, I still didn't break the pact. They didn't get anything from me and won't be doing this year, either.

mr-tom_2

I got completely stuffed this Christmas.

The family agreed that we were spending the absolute minimum as some of the others are on a very tight budget. Ironically, I'm was the one who wasn't worried about the cost of presents.

Then came Christmas day. All I'd got for people were bottles of wine within budget, whereas the rest of the family had been far more generous.

I felt like Scrooge as I was the one who was best able to afford the excess.

I won't be agreeing to such a pact again.