No gift giving this Christmas...
Bill
food, etc. And they typically will go out and buy all sorts of Christmas
gifts....
Why?
For me it is the thought which counts. I am perfectly happy with a hand made
card which says Merry Christmas!
Or perhaps a card which says "Merry Christmas - We are broke this year and
can't afford to buy you any gifts, but wishing you and your family the best.
I know you need to save money too, so please don't buy us anything!"
What a good present to give a friend!
Actually now that I think about it, my brother is having money troubles. I
have pretty much everything I need and every year my brother and his family
gives me things I don't want and don't need. He would appreciate it if I let
him off the hook and offered him a frugal Christmas!
As for small children too young to understand anything but "me", I can't
think of any way around not buying them something. They are quite happy with
simple inexpensive toys like a slinky or little $1 toy cars. There are
inexpensive dolls and the like for girls. Many times I have seen children
place the expensive toys aside and play with the cheap simple things!
Rod Speed
> I see people who can't pay their rent/mortgage, electric bill, buy enough food, etc. And they typically will go out
> and buy all sorts of Christmas gifts....
> Why?
Because they are stupid, stupid.
> For me it is the thought which counts. I am perfectly happy with a hand made card which says Merry Christmas!
Why bother with that ? Get a clue and do an electronic one.
> Or perhaps a card which says "Merry Christmas - We are broke this year and can't afford to buy you any gifts, but
> wishing you and your family the best. I know you need to save money too, so please don't buy us anything!"
I havent bothered with presents in 40+ years.
> What a good present to give a friend!
> Actually now that I think about it, my brother is having money
> troubles. I have pretty much everything I need and every year my
> brother and his family gives me things I don't want and don't need.
Thats why I gave up on them more than half a century ago.
> He would appreciate it if I let him off the hook and offered him a frugal Christmas!
Presumably stupidity must be hereditary if he hasnt worked it out for himself already.
> As for small children too young to understand anything but "me", I can't think of any way around not buying them
> something.
Retrospective abortions are very effective.
> They are quite happy with simple inexpensive toys like a slinky or little $1 toy cars. There are inexpensive dolls and
> the like for girls.
You sexist animal.
Michael Black
I think this is a misinterpretation. First, their "expectations" are
based on how adults act towards them, so if you've given in the past,
they can't be blamed for expecting something in the future. Maybe
more important, mall children are eager to know about the world, and
that's an almost consuming need to see new things. It's not an issue of
greed, it's a reflection of a period when everything is still new, and
the world is still a big place, so they want that constant stimulation of
new things. Maybe it is similar to what happens with people as they get
older, in that the desire to learn about the world may be the basis for
people wanting to accumulate things for the sake of accumulating things,
but it definitely starts off differently.
The thing about Christmas presents is that it is too often treated as
an obligation, rather than a real gifting. So people go out and buy
things because they are expected to, or because they will be given
something they feel a need to return, or just because they can't break out
of the construct.
But gift giving is indeed about other things, and that routine giving
ruins it.
I started last year watching at garage sales for Disney animated movies on
VHS for the four year old son of friends. Actually, when he was one I
started looking for Dr. Seuss books and have found very few. It's easy to
find toys and books and movies for small children, it's a near endless
supply at garage sales and rummage sales. But it's not about getting a
present, it's about finding things that the receiver will enjoy, or at the
very least the giver will find joy in giving. So when I found that mini
Etch-A-Sketch for him last year at a garage sale, I thought I'd done well,
because I remember playing with them when small. Anyway, I had seen
endless Disney cartoons at garage sales, but had assumed they'd be the
more recent films, that don't do a thing for me because I'm past the age
of interest. Then I stumbled on "The Jungle Book" which I well remember
when it came out, and that was the first one I bought. Having found that,
I started actually looking over those boxes of children's movies I'd come
across, and now have bought most of the Disney cartoons that I remember
from when I was a kid. Thus, I've not been trying to think of something
he'd like, shotgunning at gifts trying to find such things, I'm giving him
something I loved with the hope that it affects him the same way.
Gift giving only really works if you know the person well, or can put
yourself in their shoes. Then, you truly are giving them something that
will give them joy or excite them, rather than being routine. If it's
routine, it's not really frugal, because the point of the gesture is lost.
Michael
Artys
Yes, I am making some napkins by hand to give to a few people. I do
have a few other people that would not appreciate them, so I give them
money. That is what some people really want, anyway.
Marsha
> I see people who can't pay their rent/mortgage, electric bill, buy enough
> food, etc. And they typically will go out and buy all sorts of Christmas
> gifts....
>
> Why?
>
One of my relatives, who is going through bankruptcy, asked for money so
she could get her favorite digital camera fixed. It's not going to come
from me....
Marsha
phil scott
>
> - Show quoted text -
I dont spend a dime... when kids were arround Id part with a few
hundred dollars and get them something
worthwhile......now, no kids.
I often buy
myself a gift though, a real nice box of chocolates last year...
already gift wrapped..very nice..10 dollars..at the dollar store.
I kept the box for a few months.
Phil scott
Mark Anderson
> I see people who can't pay their rent/mortgage, electric bill, buy
> enough food, etc. And they typically will go out and buy all sorts of
> Christmas gifts....
This is why I like Thanksgiving far better than Christmas. Christmas is
all about the stuff. Thanksgiving is all about eating and family. My
family long ago agreed to a mutual understanding that there be no gifts.
There is the occasional grab bag which can be nice but no individual
giving (for the adults, kids are different). I really don't want
anything and if I did, I'm perfectly capable of going to a store and
buying it. I don't need someone to give it to me and I hated going the
store trying to figure out what someone else needs. Christmas is a lot
nicer now watching everyone else in the frantic buying mode, waiting in
line at the store and fighting traffic. I just sit back and watch
football without a care in the world. When Christmas comes, it's like
Thanksgiving, no pressure, no worrying if you got such and such the
"right" thing, just eat, drink, and be merry for the days are getting
longer.
Gregory
<m...@nospambrandylion.com> wrote:
>On Sun, 22 Nov 2009 09:18:21 -0800, Bill wrote:
>This is why I like Thanksgiving far better than Christmas. Christmas is
>all about the stuff.
Christmas is not "all about the stuff" unless you make it that way. It
is all about being with others and giving thanks for the greatest gift
that mankind has ever been given.
Gregory
h
"Gregory" <gre...@greg.invalid> wrote in message
news:ehqkg5pame28ip47a...@4ax.com...
Rod Speed
> Mark Anderson <m...@nospambrandylion.com> wrote
>> Bill wrote
>> This is why I like Thanksgiving far better than Christmas.
>> Christmas is all about the stuff.
> Christmas is not "all about the stuff" unless you make it that way.
> It is all about being with others and giving thanks for the greatest
> gift that mankind has ever been given.
Why would your arsehole of a 'god' need fools like you to 'give thanks' at all ?
Some 'god'
Do you thank it for the Holocaust too ?
Rod Speed
> Gregory <gre...@greg.invalid> wrote
>> Mark Anderson <m...@nospambrandylion.com> wrote
>>> Bill wrote
>>> This is why I like Thanksgiving far better than Christmas. Christmas is all about the stuff.
>> Christmas is not "all about the stuff" unless you make it that way.
>> It is all about being with others and giving thanks for the greatest
>> gift that mankind has ever been given.
> ???And exactly what gift is that?
Some smelly corpse nailed to some cross or other.
Did turn out to be a rather long lasting 'gift'.
Pity about the immense piles of corpses it produced tho.
Mark Anderson
> Christmas is not "all about the stuff" unless you make it that way. It
> is all about being with others and giving thanks for the greatest gift
> that mankind has ever been given.
Maybe for you. Watch the Black Friday mobs this Friday and you'll see
that in general, society doesn't agree with you. They just want stuff.
Gregory
You still have a choice for how you celebrate Christmas. Among the
greatest weaknesses in our society is the false belief that you HAVE
to be a lemming.
Greg
Mark Anderson
> You still have a choice for how you celebrate Christmas. Among the
> greatest weaknesses in our society is the false belief that you HAVE to
> be a lemming.
I merely made an observation on society in general. This has nothing to
do with me. Jesus would be appalled at what is going on in his name.
George
But, but my neighbor has a 165" TV and I really need one too...
The Real Bev
So would Santa Claus.
--
Cheers, Bev
=====================================================================
If violence isn't solving the problem, you're not using enough of it.
frater mus
> Pseudo-religious indoctrination; societal conditioning; peer
> pressure; guilt; pussy.
...
> It is a religious holiday, the sentiments of which
> I do not share, that deliberately has been turned into a merchandising
> event, the sentiments of which I do not share.
Harshly (but accurately) put. Christmas is a mass delusion, an annual
madness of crowds.
--
brother mouse
composed offline and synced later.
http://www.mousetrap.net/mouse/offline.html
h
"frater mus" <frat...@nowhere.invalid> wrote in message
news:hehk4s$j1d$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
> Balvenieman wrote:
>
>> Pseudo-religious indoctrination; societal conditioning; peer
>> pressure; guilt; pussy.
> ...
>> It is a religious holiday, the sentiments of which
>> I do not share, that deliberately has been turned into a merchandising
>> event, the sentiments of which I do not share.
>
> Harshly (but accurately) put. Christmas is a mass delusion, an annual
> madness of crowds.
>
Close, but it's bigger than that. Religion is the mass delusion, not just
some random "holiday". Dump it all, improve the IQ of the planet!
Gregory
wrote:
>Close, but it's bigger than that. Religion is the mass delusion, not just
>some random "holiday". Dump it all, improve the IQ of the planet!
Right... and the people who believe that swirling gasses came from
nowhere and exploded to form the universe represent the intelligent
people? "Science" is just a different religion that also requires
believing in something that you cannot see.
Gregory
Rod Speed
> h <tmc...@searchmachine.com> wrote
>> frater mus wrote
>>> Balvenieman wrote
>>>> Pseudo-religious indoctrination; societal conditioning; peer pressure; guilt; pussy.
>>>> It is a religious holiday, the sentiments of which I do not share,
>>>> that deliberately has been turned into a merchandising event,
>>>> the sentiments of which I do not share.
>>> Harshly (but accurately) put. Christmas is a mass delusion, an annual madness of crowds.
>> Close, but it's bigger than that. Religion is the mass delusion, not just
>> some random "holiday". Dump it all, improve the IQ of the planet!
> Right... and the people who believe that swirling gasses came from nowhere
No one that matters believes that.
> and exploded to form the universe represent the intelligent people?
Yep.
> "Science" is just a different religion that also requires believing in something that you cannot see.
Nope, just enough of a clue to work out what the evidence shows.
frater mus
> people? "Science" is just a different religion that also requires
> believing in something that you cannot see.
Or, to put it a different and reality-based way, believing in something
you can test, predict, and replicate.
Rod Speed
> Gregory wrote
>> people? "Science" is just a different religion that also requires believing in something that you cannot see.
> Or, to put it a different and reality-based way, believing in something you can test, predict, and replicate.
And realising that some things like radioactive decay arent that predictable too.
h
"frater mus" <frat...@nowhere.invalid> wrote in message
> Gregory wrote:
>
>> people? "Science" is just a different religion that also requires
>> believing in something that you cannot see.
>
> Or, to put it a different and reality-based way, believing in something
> you can test, predict, and replicate.
>
Yup. Reality rules.
Rick Merrill
Did you ever read Castaneda's "A Separate Reality"?
h
"Rick Merrill" <Rick0....@gmail.spamless.com> wrote in message
news:hepdlq$1ti$1...@news.eternal-september.org...
No...not a big fan of psychotropics or their users. However, Carlos did
leave a lot of interesting Confucius-esque quotes behind.
Les Cargill
phil scott
>
> - Show quoted text -
ah! a book review! Must be totally accurate, prescient and
advanced.....no way in hell is it from dull headed
dolts with no vision..
Oh well... as anyone would know these critics have the backing of
thousands, even a huge majority...and that of course
tells us the the most advanced thinking comes from that quarter.
impressive. I wonder if any can articulate just who the black
magicians are... of course not. Its all hokus pokus
h
"Gregory" <gre...@greg.invalid> wrote in message
phil scott
> "Gregory" <greg...@greg.invalid> wrote in message
>
> news:g13pg5l0unadbahnc...@4ax.com...> On Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:59:45 -0500, "h" <tmcl...@searchmachine.com>
> > wrote:
>
> >>Close, but it's bigger than that. Religion is the mass delusion, not just
> >>some random "holiday". Dump it all, improve the IQ of the planet!
>
> > Right... and the people who believe that swirling gasses came from
> > nowhere and exploded to form the universe represent the intelligent
> > people? "Science" is just a different religion that also requires
> > believing in something that you cannot see.
>
> Huh? Science is ONLY what you can see. PLONK!
good choice on the plonk... speed is a well known troll idiot
on the visibility issue...science involves some thngs you cant see,
but only
their vapor trails in a cloud chamber etc.. quarks,, muons and the
like...also
such as some algorithns can be scientifically investigated
Phil scott
Ohioguy
Nick's Day. More than 2 weeks later, Christmas will thus be reserved
for Christ.
sr
"Ohioguy" <no...@none.net> wrote in message
news:WkwTm.67105$rE5....@newsfe08.iad...
> We already did gift giving on the traditional date - December 6 - St.
> Nick's Day. More than 2 weeks later, Christmas will thus be reserved for
> Christ.
Like your style, never heard of this