Quote Originally Posted by Pinot's Mom View Post
When I was younger, we did more gift exchanging, and I considered Black Friday kind of fun. It was NOT the mob scene it is now. That was then...

We no longer exchange many gifts, by our own choice, as neither of us really like to encourage the blind materialistic waste of a lot of the gift giving. We have actually tried, with varying success, to have our family members stop gift exchanging. The exception being something hand made or edible. What Black Friday has become is insane and really just a disgusting example of human behaviour.

Small Business Saturday is a good idea. It supports strolling down the main street in your own town and supporting those local businesses - that's a good thing.

I realize we are kind of a minority in the lack of gift giving - that's OK. It's just important to us that people don't blindly spend money on things that we don't need or necessarily even want, just for the sake of the occasion. Spend money where it needs to be spent - on those who need it.

Happy Holidays.


What I did for a few years was to give my family members an envelope with cash money in it and told them that they HAD to go out for a family meal, on me.

When my parents were alive we would get a group together and pick a random Friday to go out and eat. I seem to remember THOSE days more than spending a morning of comparing who go what and how much was spent on each other every Christmas....