"On the 12th day of Christmas ... your gift will just be junk"

"Every year we splurge on pointless, planet-trashing products, most of which are not wanted. Why not just bake them a cake?"

Link to The Guardian

"...Many of the products we buy, especially for Christmas, cannot become obsolescent. The term implies a loss of utility, but they had no utility in the first place. An electronic drum-machine T-shirt; a Darth Vader talking piggy bank; an ear-shaped iPhone case; an individual beer can chiller; an electronic wine breather; a sonic screwdriver remote control;  bacon toothpaste; a dancing dog. 

"No one is expected to use them, or even look at them, after Christmas day. They are designed to elicit thanks, perhaps a snigger or two, and then be thrown away.

"The fatuity of the products is matched by the profundity of the impacts. Rare materials, complex electronics, the energy needed for manufacture and transport are extracted, and refined, and combined into compounds of utter pointlessness."