The Meaning of Giving and Receiving Presents

This past Christmas my family made a new rule. We were only allowed to give each other things we had made. Not all of us are creative types, and the idea was not connected to what the Guardian rightly calls ‘the fashion for thrift’.

The point was to have a bit of a laugh and put some thought into presents, rather than just buying things because it’s expected. It was really a return to how our families had celebrated only a generation before - and it gave us an excuse to avoid the hell of shopping...