Typical Polish Christmas and New Year’s Eve usually mean a lot of eating and drinking. The first thing we say after the winter break is “gosh, I’ve eaten so much” or something similar. This year, I’m doing my best to change it.
For a few years, I’ve been trying to convince my family to prepare fewer dishes, because quite often there’s so much food prepared for those 3 days that we end up eating it over the next week. We also used to buy one another presents but I don’t think anybody was really enjoying them. The fun was in giving, not receiving. And what’s the point of giving if the one receiving doesn’t enjoy it?
So this year, I’ve asked them to donate to Public Benefit Organizations instead of buying me any presents. This way, those who really need money will get it, while I can live up to my ideals of minimalism and antimaterialism.
This work by Piotr Mieszkowski is licensed under CC-BY-SA 4.0