'Tis the season to stop buying pointless crap

I had a look around the shops today and I am increasingly sickened by the amount of genuine crap on offer in the guise of 'the ideal Christmas present'. A lot of these items are apparently increasingly sourced by ripping the environmental guts out of China. Apart from that, Christmas and end of year festivities often involve people over-reaching themselves financially, often ludicrously so - and often to buy stuff people just don't want.

Now is the time then, to take a look at buynothingchristmas.org. The point is simply to think more fundamentally about your 'giving' at this time of year. Is it really necessary to buy stuff or could you achieve something even better by being more creative?

Perhaps you could offer somebody some personalised coupons for a free massage or for an evening's baby-sitting, for example. Perhaps you could agree with friends that you will exchange something home-made like a cake or something to drink, instead of going out and buying something especially.

There are lots of ideas on the site. It really isn't a matter of telling people, 'Sorry, we aren't doing presents' - it can be a whole lot more fun than that. And by thinking in terms of what you can do rather than what you can buy, you may just find your effort is appreciated that little bit more.