What follows is a brief analysis of some of the reasons I find the whole thing more than a little daft.
1. I’m not a pagan
My awareness that what we know as xmas is a handy transplantation of a dominant religion grafted onto a traditional festival stretching back millennia to ensure the return of spring, has failed to convince me to go with it. I’m as unlikely to wander in the woods druid-like as I am to join the local Baptists who have sent round their xmas agenda which includes carol singing from their roof next Sunday.
2. I’m not a capitalist
That’s just a barefaced lie of course. I have begun buying pressies and I have bought myself a gratifying amount of smart new clothes in the John Lewis sale. This is what always happens when I attempt xmas shopping. My entirely plausible excuse is that I know what I like, but I haven’t a clue what anyone else likes, so it is easier just to achieve shopping results by buying stuff for myself.
But there is more to the anti-consumer aspect. It offends my sense of prudence to spend money buying things that are not actually needed and receiving things I don’t need. And, most importantly there is a limit (linked to my credit card) to how often I can go shopping and end up buying things for me.
3. I hate decorating the house
What is the point? All these things gather dust, and take up space. I’m not artistic, so efforts to decorate a tree in years gone by were frustrating as I knew it just all looked incredibly tacky and a month of fiddling with tinsel to get it ‘just right’ never produced satisfactory results, so again, what is the point?
I listen with amusement to earnest discussions about whether it is greener to buy a real tree or to buy one small plastic one and keep it forever. If you are that bothered, go (druid-like or otherwise) into the woods and pick up a fallen branch, bring it home and stick it in a pot of sand and dangle some home baked gingerbread decorations from it and polish your green halo.
4. Who has time for this?
I can fully understand that mediaeval peasants really enjoyed their religious feast day. They had time to prepare for it as midwinter was a slow time in the agricultural year, so it gave them something to look forward to.
Who in C21st has time to fit this in if done ‘properly’? And why does it all fall on women? There are parallels with foot-binding here. It is damaging to stress levels and to the pocket, but if not done eyebrows are raised and the policing of female behaviour by other females ratchets up many gears. This is highlighted by all these TV programmes showing how to do it all without getting stressed and each and every one is addressed to women. This can easily be stopped by simply disengaging from it, especially if you are someone who gets stressed and caught up in it all and feels responsible for the whole day.
Consider swapping the gender in all these adverts and advice programmes to show the boys rushing around doing it all while women sit back playing with the kids and having a wonderful time. Nice, isn't it? But is it ever going to happen?
5. Family aspects
Add in the ‘family’ pressures and the toxic ingredients are all there.
However, I will agree that the whole thing is magical for baby’s first xmas. But the law of diminishing returns sets in after the first few, and I have clear memories of harassed trips between competing sets of grandparents alert for discrepancies in who got to see only grandchild first or longest on each 25th Dec. This followed with the sacrifice of idiotically large oven-bursting fowl and accompanying obscene indulgence.
In recent years, daughter (who is not a veggie) has almost always chosen The Turkey over her mother. This means I do not feel guilty about lack of dead protein and can plan the only part of the day I do enjoy, which is creating something entirely different to eat from any other day in the year.
Remember! It could all have been avoided if the Christians had kept control of their festival as a holy day and not allowed all the commercialism to take over.
Having said all that, strange as it may seem, I sometimes even enjoy Christmas, but it is inspite of myself.
Stuff I do like:
Crackers and reading out the lame jokes
The food, especially xmas pud
Mistletoe – on condition there are kissable blokes positioned under it
Nights out with friends/colleagues
Presents that are carefully thought out and actually what I want
Lots of the events that go on in Edinburgh’s xmas/Hogmanay
"Hallelujah! Noel!, be it Heaven or Hell,
The Christmas we get, we deserve."
Greg Lake
Coincidentally, the 'B' Side is called Humbug!
Here's the youtube video:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=FqOfXumI18A&feature=related
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