My ex husband of 16 years never purchased a single gift the entire time we were together.

I am NOT implying I am materialistic, rather I wish to point out and stress his being thoughtless. It just plain never occured to him that birthdays and the holidays were any different than other days. Never once did he even say happy birthday. Never once did he bother with a Merry Christmas. I doubt he even knew when our birthdays occured.