I Really Don't Want Anything for Christmas

Filed in archive Happiness on November 26, 2007

I love Christmas, maybe even more so than when I was a kid, because I get such a kick out of seeing my kids open their presents. But for the past few years I have been trying unsuccessfully to get people to stop buying me christmas gifts.

Don't get me wrong. I want stuff just like anyone else. But I don't want much. And I don't generally want things that anyone would buy me for a Christmas gift. I usually want either big things that are too expensive for anyone to buy as a gift, or very small things that most people would think are insubstantial to give as a gift. No one's going to spring for a trip to Europe for me, and probably no one's going to think that Post-It Notes are a sufficient gift (despite my love of them).

What I don't want are things that clutter my life, like random electronic gadgets, or clothes that I like just enough to keep even though I wouldn't have bought them myself (and also would have some guilt getting rid of). I don't mean to be Scroogey about it; I appreciate the sentiment. I just don't want the stuff.

I've worked hard over the last year or so especially to try to rid myself of physical/mental junk, and I try to keep a running tickler in my head that pulls me back when I am tempted to buy something that will get limited use or that I know will cause me regrets later. Then Christmas comes, and the stuff shows up.

I have asked anyone buying for me (which is thankfully fewer people than it used to be thanks to my bad personality) to please either make a donation in my name somewhere, or buy me things like tickets to events-something that I'll appreciate but that will not occupy an eternal space in my physical surroundings. Sometimes these wishes are granted; other times they are completely ignored.

Is it somehow wrong to NOT want Christmas gifts? Is our society so attached to the gift-giving aspect of Christmas that to not want gifts is to somehow be ungrateful? I sometimes sense that reaction, and I can't tell if I'm a jerk or just an anomaly.

(The photo on this post is from krisdecurtis.)