Charlie O'Brien Blog: Why I'm not buying any Christmas presents

I’m writing this from my four-month-old daughter’s beautiful nursery.

A bit of an odd place to be typing I know. But it’s currently not serving as a nursery (she sleeps in our room) but is masquerading as an Amazon warehouse.

I can’t move for the brown boxes which are ALWAYS too big for their contents. I’ve got a mountain of wrapping paper and labels sitting in the corner for when I get a second to actually wrap. Toys for children are glaring at me from every corner of the room.

For nieces and nephews. For children of friends, for my cousin’s children. For my children. And I can’t help but think what a waste of money it all is every single year.

Are their parents secretly thinking what I’m thinking – “please, please no more plastic crap! My house can’t take it!”

Probably.

And yet we persist – year in, year out. With the great Christmas tradition that is exchanging plastic crap for our kids.

I promise I’m not being ungrateful. I’m the most grateful person you’ll ever meet.

It just niggles at me. There’s got to be more to this?

I do try really hard to not just buy plastic stuff. I get personalised gifts like pencil cases and beautiful rag dolls and crafting kits that will hopefully be used. But in honesty – I don’t know if they are? Children get so many presents for Christmas it’s utterly overwhelming for them.

I’d love to be able to afford to gift everyone experiences – trips to wildlife parks and attractions. But unfortunately my budget of £15 a head would only stretch to a small popcorn.

For adults this year I’m giving homemade boozy chutney - which took me three long nights to make and caused me to moan on social media A LOT. But I hope the effort will be appreciated.

Will I really not buy presents next year? Of course not – I couldn’t do it. I’d be racked with guilt, and unless I win the lottery my 'gift experience' preference will still be a dream rather than a reality.

What do you do in your house? Is it more plastic toys all round?

Charlie X