Boycott Christmas Now

Now is the time to start discussions about Christmas boundaries. No one cares about Christmas in July. If I remember this factoid correctly, most Americans just finished paying for last Christmas around March. That was only a few months ago.

Time for the family vacation. Then school clothes. Then, Holy Crap, Christmas! In fact, I’ve recently had two conversation with people who are already dreading the mass extended family gifting.

We use no credit cards. Period. Since our income doesn’t increase around Christmas we must be strategic about our giving.

I’m not taking a second job to pay for Christmas and though it was our goal, we don’t have it together enough to save all year for a Christmas budget. Much easier to boycott the psychotic gift giving and set some boundaries that everyone can agree to.

Every family is different. Coming from a large extended Mormon family, my family was quick to snap up alternatives and accept my bowing out. The previous generation of my large Mormon tribe had already worked out a system.

I adapted theirs asked my siblings to agree.

I did contact my father’s extended family and ask to be removed from the individual drawing, as the expense was simply too much for us to absorb. They were very gracious about it.My husband’s family took our boycott of Christmas pretty hard.

It really took 3 years to accomplish. They were emotional about breaking the connection of giving at Christmas. Upon further examination my mother-in-law felt that my mass email boycotting Christmas gift giving was like a commando attack on her. She felt these things should be handled with herself as middle person or negotiator.

Truly, I had tried to do that the year before and she caved to whining about the blasted “Christmas Spirit.” I thought a mass email stating simply “we’re not giving gifts and don’t expect to get any,” was more effective. I was. We’ve settled on a fun game of White Elephant.

The reality was that all of them were overstressed and anxious about the amount they were spending to meet basic gift-giving obligations. With a little persuasion and logic they too were relieved. It’s the passionate discussion part that motivates me to write about boycotting Christmas NOW. If you wait until November, when you realize your bank account hasn’t been magically endowed with a bunch of extra money, people are already emotionally invested in Christmas.

In June, July and August no one cares about Christmas and can see your proposed alternatives with more objectivity. In the end, I’m sure there are those who will put you in the “bitch who stole Christmas” category. But, many will thank you for saving them from $300 – $1,000 of credit card debt.

It is glorious to start January without playing “financial catch-up.”

While it’s already November and Christmas is just around the corner something tells me our current financial crisis will encourage people to take your suggestion to tone it down very well.