Christmas in October!?!

How early is too early for Christmas trees? I was bemused to see these three at my local shopping centre - and a nativity scene just out-of-shot.

Christmas trees in October? What's really going on here?

It was Monday 29 October, but I'm guessing they went up a few days earlier - before the weekend rush. Does your local shopping centre have decorations up yet? Let me know in the comments.

Reli-gious?

I'd like to believe that the centre CEO or managing staff are just so full of the joy of Christmas, that they just couldn't wait to put out the Christmas decorations. But does anyone even have their home tree up yet?

Or Really-just for money?

I can't help but think this is just a sneaky sales tactic. Decorations prompt shoppers to put something extra in their trolley "for Christmas". The longer decorations are up, the more action they get at the cash register.

While the nativity scene depicts people worshipping baby Jesus, the intent is more about worship of sales figures. Later in the year, look out for news interviews with retail executives declaring this to be a "good Christmas" - but only if sales are more than last year. and significantly more.

What's wrong with this?

The problem is that it doesn't make us any happier. Buying extra stuff we don't need just leaves us with more clutter, more waste, more waist (if the stuff is food), more debt and more stress. Hardly a Merry Christmas!

Write down a list of the things that you enjoy about the Christmas season. Chances are it includes the Christmas movies, the Christmas music, spending time with loved ones and being on holidays. If you're Christian it might be more about Jesus. If you're in the Northern hemisphere it might also be making snowmen. Here in Australia it might be going to the beach or having a dip in the pool.

Do those things more. Do shopping less.

As far as possible, have less stress and insanity. Have more of the joy of Christmas.

Comments

Ethical Investing for Australians

I write about investing, because it's a key part of life. Spending less and investing means an automatic income. An automatic income means we can work less (if we choose) and definitely stress less. But where to invest? What to invest in? Many people expect their money to be invested responsibly and ethically - rather than making money through things like cigarettes, weapons, casinos, adult entertainment, environmental destruction, and pollution from fossil fuels. Those are all things we could probably do with less of. So how do we invest to get good returns - and to have a positive effect on the world? Here are some sources I've seen: Ethical Investing in Australia At Frugality and Freedom , Michelle has done a fair bit of research into Ethical Investing in Australia . For herself, she's chosen Bank Australia for banking, Australian Ethical for superannuation, and two exchange-traded funds ( FAIR and ETHI ) for her share investing outside of super. She also gives detail...

How to waste a year's wages

A friend recently asked me why it is that so many people (on good incomes) are struggling to save. Often the big three money areas are housing, transport and food. In one sense these are necessary items. But what we spend on them is often way more than necessary. I crunched some numbers on how much extra my wife and I could spend on these things - if for some reason we wanted to burn our money. 1. Housing Our apartment is fairly nice, but also cost-effective. I've mentioned how choosing it saves us $1,800 per year , compared to a similar one we saw. The high end of 2-bedroom apartments in our suburb is $305 per week more than our apartment. Not $305 per week. $305 per week more than ours is. I cannot get over that. Sure it's new and modern-looking, but that's a lot of money. It's an extra $15,860 per year above what we pay. 2. Transport The Australian Automobile Association lists the costs of owning and running a car. It includes many often-overlooked c...

Don't dump on charities

Netflix causes mass dumping. Here's an alternative. January is usually a big month for physical donations to charity. In 2019 it's been over-the-top (literally) as charity donation bins have been overflowing with items. The Netflix series "Tidying Up" by famous declutterer Marie Kondo (see her book ) has inspired many to declutter their homes. But in the process they've cluttered the streets. What's so bad about donating? When the bins overflow the extra items are thrown away. Having been in the weather, the rain and on the ground, they are classified as contaminated and cannot be sold. To make it worse, much of what fills the bins is not good enough to sell, and is also dumped. Bad donations hurt charities 13 million dollars. That's how much it costs charities to deal with all the junk we dump on them - 60,000 tonnes a year. Lifeline says half its stores have stopped accepting donations. We might think we're helping, but that's a lot ...

But wait... there's less!

Search This Blog