In the past week, I have successfully managed to avoid the hell hole of retail stores during Christmas. For all of you who live for the Christmas eve spirit in cities, or love the sales, you might be wondering why?

Well, firstly, because I had no need to buy anything.

Any small Christmas gifts for my family, I had bought in advance. This year, our family decided the financial burden wasn’t worth buying lots of shit we don’t need. As I’m a broke 23 year old moving to Vietnam in January, and because my Mum just moved into a new house, we decided time spent together and having an amazing Christmas dinner in our new home is what we’d look forward to.

Instead of getting a bunch of overly expensive shit surprises wrapped in pretty paper, we told each other the things that we would really like or make use out of. For me, this was a backpack for travelling, or books, because I can never have enough of them. My brother insisted on NOT buying him any clothes, rather, if he was getting presents- let it be a concert or event.

Secondly, people go insane during Christmas

There’s nothing that stresses me out more than being in an extremely crowded shop, suffocating from the heat and panic, especially during Christmas. We have all been there. And over the past few days, I’ve seen people post Instagrams of their overly expensive gifts or the many presents wrapped under their tree. In some ways, this felt so wrong.

Although it’s lovely to treat the people we love to nice presents, is this really sending the right message across? That the bigger and better the gift, the more we are loved?

What saddens me most about all of this, is the false illusion that this puts people under. While we are all momentarily happy over our materialistic goods, it’s important to remember the people who don’t have a roof over their head, or the depression people might be facing after spending so much for the hope that their loved one will be happy.

I’m not intending to sound judgmental,

I have been that teenager who loved surprises, but hated disappointments.

Who would wake up early in the morning excited to see all of my presents, then send pictures to all of my friends. Who cried when I didn’t get what I hoped for. It’s the society we’ve grown up in. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve become aware of the stress this puts people under. Why do we need to spend so much money on materialistic goods for the sake of one day?

Lastly, I avoided town because shops try to encourage us to buy things we don’t need

In the past month, I’ve dug through my wardrobes and found loads of clothes I was holding onto in case I might wear them again. Including a debs dress from when I was eighteen. Alongside this, I found clothes I got but never wore because I didn’t really like them, or need them. So, I pulled out a few bin bags and made a trip to the charities in town.

With there being a homeless crisis, and many problems with our climate, I thought about how much I’m always buying and getting, and how little of it I actually need. How money is often being thrown in the wrong hands. A lot of shops try to encourage people to go mental during sales like Black Friday, and even decorate pretty displays to convince the consumer that the product was made for them.

But how much of it do we really need? And are we constantly just filling our homes with more and more shit? I recently heard myself complaining about not having enough space for all of my stuff. And it hit me how privileged I am. Because at the end of the day, we are encouraging the craziness of consumerism and what should really matter is being happy, healthy and living a comfortable life, helping others in little ways if possible.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t buy things, but just be mindful and practical where possible.

Over and out

-Saoirse