Christmas Consumption Conundrum

We're trying to have a leaner Christmas this year.

This basically translates as 'less presents'.

Which basically translates further into 'less stuff'.

It helps that our kids are now of an age where they need want less plastic toys - you know the ones that fill TV adverts and every magazine and catalogue every year.

You know:

This year's "must-have" toy.

It was always slightly painful to see the amount of plastic and wires that held the toys in place (as packaging) once the wrapping paper had been ripped off. And then some months (hopefully years!) later, to have to send the well-loved and worn toys off to landfill....Yikes.

It becomes increasingly hard to justify these levels of consumption and waste as we attempt to become more carbon neutral.

Yet this is what Christmas has largely become a symbol of: one massive consumption binge.

And this is unsustainable - which causes a conundrum as so many businesses (and the families that these businesses support) depend upon this level of consumption...

One benefit of digitisation and the web, is that virtual gifts like Roblox cash and X-box games downloads etc are on the wish-list more and more for our tech-savvy kids. Although, for some (older) people, it feels strange to buy these ethereal tokens (less strange for us crypto folk 😉), it is way better for the environment and feeds into the direction that the world is going. Our kids are streets ahead of the rest of society...Good job too.

So maybe the way to solve our Christmas consumption conundrum is a mixture of the above:

1. Less stuff
2. And for the stuff we do receive, make it digital wherever poss.

Easy for me:

More Hive and more Splinterlands cards please, Santa!