The Case Against Giving Holiday Gifts
Cutting down on gifting — or eliminating it altogether — can relieve stress, reduce clutter, and make time with family feel more meaningful
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On Black Friday, as thousands of shoppers lined up outside big-box retailers, preparing to get a jump-start on their holiday shopping, I sat in my pajamas and browsed my favorite shopping sites, taking advantage of the holiday sales only to buy a few things for myself.
I wasn’t being selfish; I just don’t have any holiday gifts to buy. I won’t be receiving any gifts, either — several years ago, my family adopted a no-gift policy. We realized that we were lucky enough to not need anything, didn’t want to accumulate any more stuff, and, frankly, just didn’t want to deal with holiday shopping or exchanging presents anymore.
And we haven’t looked back. Going gift-free has been a money saver, clutter reducer, and stress reliever. We still get together in some form to enjoy the season, but without the ritual of presents. (Last Christmas Eve, for instance, my dad and I went to the movies.) We usually donate some of the money that would have gone toward gifts to charity and put aside some of it for things like travel.
In a 2017 SunTrust Banks survey on holiday spending, nearly 70 percent of respondents said they would stop exchanging holiday gifts if their family and friends were agreeable to it, and 60 percent said they would spend more time with family and friends if they didn’t have to worry about gifts. In SunTrust’s survey from this year, just under half said they’re feeling the pressure to spend more than they can afford.
“This [data] leads to a very simple conclusion, which is that we need to do something different,” says Brian Nelson Ford, financial well-being executive at SunTrust. “If we’re all thinking it, and the data shows this, why not have conversations with our family to see if it makes sense to make a change?”
Ford’s own extended family decided to make that change four years ago. Now, instead of typical gift-giving, each person buys a $5 ornament for one other family member, rotating every year who gives to whom. He says the change has alleviated the financial burden and stress of what to get…
