Reader comment: Christmas is overcommercialised, and its true spirit is gone but here's how we can get it back

Tired of over commercialised Christmas and feel it has lost its true spirit?

So did we so a couple of years back we decided not to send Christmas cards. The cost with stamps was getting ridiculous.

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Instead, we spend that money on food to take to local food bank plus cat food to our local charities. In fact, I try to keep everything local, keeping my money local and using small independents wherever possible.

I tire of the gimme gimme of the large charities and then try to see what difference they have actually made, and it is often little to nothing.

Look at all that money from Live Aid, it has solved nothing. Children in Need pot grows bigger every year and I'd have thought we've never had a bigger need for that money spending than now.

If you have a little spare, then give a donation to local charities where you know it'll actually make a difference and not be gobbled up by overheads for CEOs etc. Invite a lonely neighbour in for dinner.

Don’t get yourself in debt over the expectations of Christmas, all you are doing is increasing a business’s profit mostly. Do something that will make someone smile and it'll do the same to you.

Do you have ideas on how to recapture the Christmas spirit and steer away from commercialism? Or are the cost-of-living crisis and rising prices making you change your usual traditions this year? Let us know in the Facebook comments or email [email protected]