MSE Blog: Will you be signing a No Unnecessary Present Pact this Christmas? 26 November 2013 at 5:25PM in Special Occasions & Other Celebrations 13 replies 2.7K views

Former_MSE_Helen

Hi all, this is a thread to discuss the MSE blog:
Will you be signing a No Unnecessary Present Pact this Christmas?

"Don’t get me wrong, I’m no Christmas grinch. I LOVE buying Christmas presents, and receiving them, of course! But..."


Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.

DigForVictory

I'd love to! Unfortunately it Takes Two & so far my family are as disorganised as I am & thus we'll likely fall into the Pit Of Fumbled Intentions again.
The relatives I see, I may give a signed card regarding Christmas 2014....

LauraLou1982

all the adults in my family do a 'secret santa' idea...we all pick one name out of the hat and spend £50 on that person...saves massively compared to my ex, who had to spend about that on each person in his massive family...the only one not included is my two year old, everyone buys something for him x

Nile

Years (decades) ago, our family agreed to stop buying Christmas presents.........except for the children.:cool:

Now the children are grown up, me and the other half don't have to stress over the ToysRUs Christmas shopping expedition.:p

I'm happy with chocolate and the other half is happy with chocolate as our Christmas gift to each other.

He likes chocolate covered marzipan................I hate marzipan.
I love chocolate with nuts in it.........................he hates nuts.

So, we don't have to share our chocolate..........yum.:D

I say we don't have to share but a Christmas tradition (started by his mum) is to share a selection box. So, we buy a Cadbury's chocolate selection box just for a bit of fun.;)

VoucherMan

I've already told them.

No pointless Christmas presents. 'Present money' will be going to their nominated charities.

Blessed2bea

:A Sadly yes - gifts to grown-up nephews. I do feel a bit sad about - but it makes sense, and when they have little-uns we'll be more than happy to buy for them - it's more fun!

Former_MSE_Helen

Hi all, this is a thread to discuss the MSE blog:
Told us about your No Unnecessary Present Pact this Christmas? Here’s what you’re all doing…

"Over the last few weeks we’ve been encouraging you to come up with a No Unnecessary Present Pact (Nupp) for Christmas..."


Click reply below to discuss. If you haven’t already, join the forum to reply. If you aren’t sure how it all works, read our New to Forum? Intro Guide.

geri1965_2

Only people I get presents for are my mum & stepdad, and nieces. Nieces get cash, mum is getting cash, so the only actual present I'm buying is some underwear for my stepdad.

May as well just be a walking cash machine.

mary

Like LauraLou above, this is the first year we are doing a Secret Santa. With 6 grown up children & 3 partners, plus us, my daughter in law suggested doing this. I was charged with collecting people's wishes by Dec 1st (penalties if not, like the present you receive will be half the value you wanted and the amount you have to spend on the other person is doubled!).

Everyone could put 3 items on the list up to the value of £35-£40, so there would be an element of surprise when they are given the present, as opposed to you ask for a bottle of perfume and you can see what it is before you open it because it's so small.

Everyone's name was put in a hat and we each drew out one. So max spend this Xmas on presents £40, compared to £40 x 11 people = £440. Just the only grandson is exempt.

Sorry Amazon and all you other retailers!

DigForVictory

I'm going to suggest this to my extended family. Who really, really, want "something wrapped under the tree" whereas our household has mastered Money Saving to the tune of "Mum, can you get this cheaper?"...

MrsE_2

I'm buying no presents this year except for the 3 children in my family. My grandson, my niece & my great nephew.
I got each of my team a tin of roses & gave each of them a jar of home made preserves, I gave my collegues & my boss home made preserves too.