Why I'm saying no to more stuff...

The world is on fire. And it's making me want more time, not more tat...

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Was it Black Friday fatigue? Cyber Monday malaise?

Maybe it's something deeper than that – the impact of witnessing more horrors in Gaza every day at work, or of simultaneously being immersed non-stop in the climate crisis as Cop28 gets underway here in Dubai.

Perhaps it’s actually something more personal too – the fact that this Christmas Day will be the first in my decade as a mum that I won’t actually see Arthur, the reality of divorce finally seeing me on the losing side of the Christmas morning rota.

Most likely, it’s all of the above. But as I sit here, writing this in a café blasting Christmas tunes, I’m sincerely struggling to muster up any excitement for ta business-as-usual big day. Or, more accurately, for the season of spending that precedes it.

Call me scrooge. But I just don’t want to buy more stuff.