Do you exchange gifts over the holidays? I don't need much and I'm very particular about what I use so I buy during the year whenever I need stuff. I may gift others when I'm sure they can benefit from it and I do it whenever, regardless of a holiday. So when holiday gifting comes around, I never get what I would actually use and it all seems wasteful. I find myself not returning stuff just to prevent relatives from feeling bad. Grew up poor so not used to gifting at all. How are you guys with holiday gifts?
If you do not want to participate then do not. Gifts are not strictly utilitarian though. My favorite gift ever was a $10 custom shirt from a 6 year old member of the family that said, in rather basic lettering, “___ IS #1” (the blank being my name). I wore that shirt until it was on the brink and then stashed it in my memento box. Doesn’t seem wasteful. I get people i like small tokens topical to their interests. If you don’t know a person well enough to have a good idea of how to delight them with less than $20, you probably shouldn’t be exchanging gifts with them in the first place. If your relatives are guessing at random shit you don’t want, you owe it to them to set the expectation. If they still want to give you gifts, pick a charity you like and say a donation to that charity would be the best possible gift, then it won’t be wasteful and you won’t feel awkward and guilty.
My whole family only gives gifts for children (like < 15 year old). Also came from poorer background. I am dumbfounded when I realize how much wasteful spending there is buying gifts for grown ass adults. The worst is kids using their parents money to buy their parents gifts! My parents would've been legit pissed if I spent their money on gifts for them lol.