Gerald, 25, social welfare worker
We've never been big spenders, mainly because we both went straight from high school to uni. I went on to work in social welfare advocacy and Cathy went into the public service as a youth counselor. As we've spent most of our time gaining degrees we have happily skipped the whole buy this, buy that mentality.
Most of our friends are into the environment and human rights movements, so we mix with a lot of other like-minded souls.
We tend to give our time rather than our money, as we have more time than money. We do receive small gifts from the family members which is nice as they know we won't be doing anything for them.
We usually don't even make it to mum's for Christmas lunch, because we're usually away on a protest site. It's just not a big deal to us.
My parents are used to it and never give me a hard time but Cathy's folks are different. They're really religious and so family focused. They get cranky and sulk about us ruining Christmas for everyone if we don't go for the lunch and buy everyone a decent present.
We just hope they'll get over it. We aren't going to change the way we live just to join them in their excesses each Christmas. We're here to make a difference to those who need help, not to add to the pockets of multinationals.