I 100% agree with this. Unfortunately it's also one of those things that a lot of people say but don't really mean. Like when they say it's OK for men to cry.
Same thought. I just said to people close to me that I don't want gifts neither for christmas nor for my birthday and I'll never want them.
As a kid it makes sense, getting something you really want from someone else because you don't really have a serious job or money at all so it's one of the few chances to get something.
Now if I want something I just buy it, otherwise I just don't want it. And if I can't buy it because it's expensive why would I want someone else to spend that kind of money?
Plus all that thinking about what would be a good gift.
And if it's about "showing you care about me" then really, just say merry christmas or happy birthday.
Personally I like giving other people gifts. It's part of the fun. Last year I got my brother a drone and he got me a thrifted, pit-stained t-shirt for a band I don't listen to that much. I don't care, I just like to give other people cool gifts!
People that celebrate Christmas and have not bought gifts yet do not celebrate Christmas with gifts, or at the very least are not important for the celebration.
I know a guy who grew up occasionally homeless. He has ended up as a well paid tech manager and his approach is that his family can usually just afford the things they want, so instead of buying stress gifts the last month of each year, his family picks a charitable cause to donate time and money to instead.
They've bought goats for third world families; paid for education, transportation and home construction; fed hungry and clothed the naked.
A few years ago, I had ordered a bunch of gifts for my family to be delivered to my mother's house shortly before Christmas. The morning my flight was supposed to leave, I got an email from Amazon saying my packages were delayed until like mid-January. Given that I needed to be on a plane in a couple of hours, and it was like 3 days before Christmas Day, I ended up just printing off pictures of the stuff I bought and giving everybody a card with them in it. We had a pretty good laugh about it.
I haven't had money for holiday presents in over a decade, I don't plan to waste money on it now.
Majority of "presents" end up in the landfill or as returns, to be sent to the landfill anyway, so mindless consumerism wins again.
If I give someone something it'll be cash toward whatever they intended to buy anyway.
Yesterday we had my wife's parents over for diner, they areived at noon and left 4h later so the pets could be fed. Was fun to chat and have the rest of the day off. My sisters come tomorrow with kids. Haven't had them around to visit for over a decade. We usually go to them, as some have pet allergies and we have loads of pets. Alas, I'm unable to leave town for a few months, so we haven't seen them for a few months now, so they decided to drop by. No decoration apart from an paper 'table cloth' and some chrismas cookies for the kids to decorate.
When you normally see each other almost every month, why go trough all stress for the holiday season just because everybody celebrates a nice story. (is tricked into spending loads due to 'tradition') We had a not so simple meal with my inlaws (my wife liked to cook something special) and tomorrow it's soup with sandwitches and pizza (the kids would want notuing fancy anyway and it's easy for a big group).
No gifts, apart from each others company this year, although normaly we just dig inmfor the weeks and hide (with december being the only month in the year without birthdays). We already get to stressed about all the stress in/around the grocery that's almost in our back yard.
No gifts, just a card. And that still caught her off-guard, because she knows I'm opposed to materialism (for the sake of materialism; I still buy nice things for the things I need).