The Conversation Guide
This is the background information and questions I used to facilitate our conversation.
## Notes from our conversation
Can you relate to having mixed feelings when participating in or witnessing the run-up to Christmas?
- Absolutely!
- My feelings aren’t mixed. I hate it (though I understand that others like it).
- Social.
- I think about bereaved people.
- I think about people who have financial difficulties and are under pressure to spend. I don’t like seeing ads that pressure people to spend more.
- I don’t like the Santa Claus tradition.
- I have mixed emotions.
- Positive childhood memories
- The cost of living crisis.
- Pressure to get into debt.
- End of year reflection – looking forward I don’t have much hope for next year.
- Any kind of shopping place is horrible. I go early in the morning to avoid it.
- It’s annoying that the cosy feeling of being with family and friends gets coopted by the machine.
- I swing from loving it to hating it.
- You can’t avoid it in the UK. It’s different in other countries and sometimes I’ve been away for Christmas.
- I stress about it.
- I’m pleased I avoid overconsuming. I don’t buy presents for example.
- It puts extra pressure on relationships.
- I wish it was just one day.
- I get conflicted about presents. We’ve started making lists of suggestions, which is good because people get something they want, but it takes away the thoughtfulness and surprise.
- When we do Secret Santa it’s hard to stay under £5 but I don’t want to feel like Scrooge.
- The Christmas markets:
- Consumerism in overdrive!
- Depressing.
- Take over what little green space there is in the city.
- They’ve changed over time. Not artisan, overpriced.
Consultancy
We experimented with a version of Wise Crowds, to help a member who had a dilemma around Christmas. They explained their problem to us, then pulled their chair back from the circle, and eavesdropped while the rest of us proposed solutions and ideas. We made a list of possibilities that was well received. It was an unusual way to address someone’s problem, and I wasn’t convinced it was going to work, but it seemed to work well.
What do you think or feel at the end of today’s conversation?
- It’s been really, really helpful. I’m feeling a lot more positive.
- It’s good to laugh about it.
- I want to focus on spending more time with people. To go with the flow.
- Venting and relieving frustration has been good.
- I hate it’s so hard not to eat.
- I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Next topic: Consumerism
We wanted to explore the topic of consumerism further. Our thoughts included:
- How everything is used to further consumption:
- The emotional impact.
- How does it become a norm?
- How do we reverse this?
- The shift from buying stuff to experiences.
Attempting to answer all of these questions would take more than an hour, so we’ll start with a general question and then explore the area that interests the group the most.
Learn more
Here are a couple of articles I enjoyed while preparing for this topic:
- How the world embraced consumerism
- This article tells the story of how we all became ‘consumers’. It explains how consuming things became more than a question of meeting our needs and the notion of consumerism was born.
- It will be a useful read if, like me, you’ve been wondering how we got into the situation where we’re under constant pressure to use and buy more.
- It’s Not Santa Claus Who Makes the Holiday Magic Happen
- This newsletter arrived in my inbox with perfect timing. Kate Jglin describes the pressure to produce a perfect Christmas, and how much of the work falls to women.
- The Guardian helpfully calculated the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the Christmas Day consumption of the average person in Britain.
- How to set up a ‘consultancy’ by Liberating Structures
- They call their version ‘wise crowds’.