News Tristan on 23 Dec 2008 11:51 am
Christmas Consumerism
With Christmas just around the corner and having not quite finished my Christmas shopping, I went out yesterday to get the final few gifts that I needed. Granted, I’m having a cheap xmas this year thanks to the credit crunch, so I wasn’t going to be going on spending binge myself, but it seemed to me that plenty of others were!
Given that every day we hear about job losses and a very bleak financial future for this country (and in fact the world), there seemed to be no shortage of shoppers indulging in some last minute Christmas shopping. The shop I was in was so busy that I had to queue find a parking space, queue to use the toilet and queue to checkout, in fact it took over an hour to buy four items!
So why was this shop so busy, when so say nobody has any money this Christmas? I can only guess that there are a lot of people who are simply in denial of the fact that their jobs are unsafe and the economy is in poor health, and thus spending without any thought for the consequences. Probably putting the Christmas shopping on credit, thinking they’ll worry about it in the New Year, deceiving themselves that January is always a cheap month, so they can pay off the xmas excesses then (but in fact will have forgotten this promise to themselves as soon as they see the bargains available in the “January Sales”).
I’ve always thought the best way to get through Christmas is to start saving a bit of money each month so you have a nice fund with which to pay for Christmas presents and parties over December, I’ve only ever managed it once, and it did make a difference – January came round and I didn’t feel worried about how much I’d spent, because I’d budgeted for xmas it in the previous few months.
No doubt there will be a surge in bankruptcies and such in the new year as people’s Christmas spending, on top of already record levels of debt, catches up with them. Perhaps there’s a lesson for us all in this – don’t get sucked in by all the festive advertising, stick to your budget and remember, Christmas is supposed to be a religious festival, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, not just an excuse to go on a spending spree!
