Great 'Biggest Christmas waste of money?' Hunt

beanielou

What a nice first post on MSE RobertC.
Welcome to MSE

bratz81

I love Christmas, sorry all who hate it! I love the tinsel, the twinkly lights in town centers, snow, Christmas songs, the smells of cinnamon and mulled wine, and I love spending ages making exactly the right present of people. For example, my bf's mum loves lavender so I've made her lots of lavender soap, and my Dad's gf loves bathroom stuff so I've made her hand cream, body scrub, soap, lotion etc.

What I do hate about Christmas though is that my birthday is the week before and people either forget, or get you a joint present that's a £10 voucher, which they never do for people who's birthday is in June, for example. I get it's an expensive time, but I'd rather you don't buy my a birthday present at all and come out for a drink with me, or a coffee...and just spend some time really.

PasturesNew

Works parties where people are allowed to bring their other half, and it's in an evening, at a posh hotel 70 miles away.

It means you've got to fork out on an outfit, drive to the venue, eat a meal, pretend to be jolly, and possibly pay out for an expensive hotel room just to get your "freebie" of a Works' Xmas Meal. Complete waste of money, so I've never been. Total cost of that could be: £25 dress/outfit, £15 petrol, £5 drinks, £70 hotel. Easily £115 to eat a meal that's probably not that great, sitting next to somebody you don't like and their annoying other half, while all the marrieds talk about is their kids.

£115 saved if you don't go.

JayD

Hezzawithkids wrote: »

I vote for bread sauce! I make it every year because its "traditional" but no-one eats it so it sits there untouched and congealing in its jug and gets washed down the sink.

Also, I'm not serving a starter with Xmas Day lunch. :eek: I usually serve smoked salmon and/or prawns but although my guests love it they fill up on it then don't get the most out of the main course - so this year it's straight for the turkey & trimmings!!

I have never served a starter or bread sauce!
2 courses is enough to slave over!

Traditional roast turkey lunch followed by Christmas Pud, and/or Mince Pies with cream or sorbet.

That's how it will stay. Never thought I was depriving anyone!

HappySad

My view I think are more extreme... as we don't by anything extra as presents for Christmas. I have children & I never by present just because it is Christmas. I do give them present at Christmas; but if Christmas did not exist they would get them anyway.. So 3 months before Christmas I keep back all the things that I would normaly buy them aside & give it to them for Christmas.

They have always ended up with good Christmas presents that they would get anyway. I usually like to buy fun educational presents for them. This year one is getting Lego Mindstorm and his brother getting medical kit. I have bought presents in the sale or charity shops too.

My father started this trend many years ago with us and now we have all followed...He announced that he no longer wanted any more Christmas presents. My friends & family don't give each other presents at Christmas now. We instead meet up for loads of meals with each other at various restaurants as we would rather spend the money there.

Remember about 2/3 of present are given when the person would not want them and make no use of them. I personally don't like the over commercialisation of Christmas where the shops jump for joy as they go on and on at us to buy all sorts of stuff we don't really need. In the past I have accepted presents and just given them away to Charity; but now most don't give presents so this is OK.

megsykins

star_trek_fan wrote: »

OH is off from Dec 23rd to Jan 4th (his workplace shuts completely), this annoys me as it's not that we've anything to do other than cleaning the house or walking the dog. We'd both prefer him to have extra time off during the spring/summer/autumn.

This annoys me too ... I like Christmas, but I resent being told that I have to save 5 days of holiday which I would rather take at other times of the year, so they can close from the 22nd til the 4th! In previous jobs I've worked those middle days and really enjoyed it as it's quiet and you can get stuff done!!

HappySad

globetraveller wrote: »

secret santa! What a waste. I watch colleagues opening theirs and pretending to be delighted. I said no to it this year and have added the money I would have spent to an amount I always give at this time year to a small Indian charity which I have actually visited. They go round slum areas as Santa and the kids most like..... toothbrushes and toothpaste, pencils and paper.

this is a great idea. My son's school decorated shoe boxes and I then filled it with present for children for a child that would really appriciate pens, pencils etc.

vfm2006

For me one of the biggest waste of money at Christmas are alkaline batteries - mainly for childrens' toys. I object to buying them and so I search the old toys to find the rechargable batteries in them!

jintyb

beanielou wrote: »

What a nice first post on MSE RobertC.
Welcome to MSE

Hey Beanie - fancy seeing you here!:rotfl:
I agree with what RobertC said.
I do like Christmas, but there are things I think are a waste of money - see previous post.
However, I thought this thread was about what we thought was the biggest waste of money, not whether we disliked or liked Christmas.:o

trixietoes

minuettoallegretto wrote: »

I know it's not an original idea - but I'm not sending cards this year. We buy them, write them with care, and post them, and they're looked at briefly then thrown away or recycled. Instead I'm sending the money saved to charity.
I announced it to the family on Facebook, and I had more "likes" than I've ever had before...maybe I've started a new family tradition!

I did this last year and got a positive response too