Bah, Humbug!
24 12 2003I believe I get the award for most predictable entry title of the year.
Well. In many ways I think I should have something more inspiring to say on Christmas Eve, but then I’m not a christian and the date is pretty arbitrary, so maybe it’s good that I don’t. In a religious sense, I’m much more interested in the way Christmas and easter and all those kind of religious festivals simply hi-jacked existing pagan holidays, leading to a mish-mash of Christian and pagan traditions that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. Christmas trees with an angel on top. Mistletoe next to the nativity. One day I’ll get around to researching it more.
I guess Christmas has long since ceased to be of any specific religious importance, anyway. It’s more about the forced giving of gifts and spreading of goodwill. Arguably, I could do without it. Something I have noticed is that around Christmas, I suddenly become a lot poorer, like all my budgetting for the year would be more or less fine provided that I wasn’t expected to buy everyone a present to celebrate the birth of a deity I don’ believe ever existed. Maybe the financial situation will change when I get a job, but it’s just as likely to get worse as I meet more people. I successfully abandoned the giving of Christmas cards a few years back, and I’m kind of trying to start a tradition whereby no-one buys me things I haven’t asked for, because more often than not they’re things I don’t need or want, and I just have to kind of chuck them in a corner somewhere. That sounds ungrateful I’m sure, but over the past few years I’ve been doing my best to keep the amount of superfluous junk I own to a minimum and for that reason, next year I’ll be distributing a list that says “Something off here, money, or nothing please.” Rob and I have a good thing going where we tell each other what to get and we get it, and it saves a lot of stress and bother.
And with that, it’s only a short leap towards everyone just buying their own christmas presents, meaning everyone gets what they want, and no-one buys more than they can afford. I do profit from christmas in the long run, usually, so I’m actually being relatively selfless here. I’d sacrifice the amount of decent presents I get over what I would normally buy myself in order to dispense with the hassle and hypocrisy of the season. Commercialism this forced actually makes even I, a staunch capitalist, feel quite ill. I remember 2 years ago being in the Oxford Disney store shortly before Christmas and feeling most nauseous.
Finally, I’d like to forgo the myths of Santa, and other related stuff. I know I use the word “joyless” to describe myself a lot and this isn’t exactly doing anything to dispell that, but really, what purpose do they serve? To bring magic and happiness into the hearts of young children everywhere? Oh, please. I don’t even remember as far back as when I believed in Santa, and I’m sure all it did was damage me in the long run. A nice disappointment built up for a few years before the truth comes out. Better not to bother in the first place and instill a sense of superiority in the child as they realise that they are old and smart enough to handle a truth kept from so many others.
Well, I guess that’s everything dispelled. Except the food of course, I like that. For reference, the Reformist James Hunt Christmas would do without most presents, without cards, without Santa or Rudolf, and with plenty of Turkey. It would involve a day of sitting around with your friends/family talking, watching crap TV and playing crap board games, after which everyone would go home and we’d never speak of it again. Decorations are optional.
Now that I think about it, this model fits entirely with the christmas meal we had a few weeks ago in Oxford, which I enjoyed it a lot, so there’s obviously some basis for this working. I don’t think the celebrations should be fixed to any specific date, so much as “at some point in December”. Not that Decembers specifically important, it just seems like if you’re going to choose an arbitrary point on the calendar it might as well be when everyone’s cold and miserable and, it’s close to the end of the year.
Somehow, I think I’m relatively alone in my views.
I sometimes agree.
I think you are.
Bah! Christmas is my main source of income. I like it for that. All the idiots acting in a more idiotic fashion than usual - fine by me.
Sure, Christmas is full of continuity errors, gaping holes in tradition and has experienced a severe deviation from its original existance, but it’s possible to analyse and dissect the minutiae of everything in life this way and ultimately, I feel, there isn’t much to be gained from it. By all means, take an interest in how Christmas has got to its current state of affairs and maybe muse how funny the state of its current existance is, but also try to remember that a this time of the year, in whatever perspective you look at it, is all about showing appreciation, respect and love to those closest to you. Cliche? Maybe. Cheesy? Definitely. But ultimately, it’s our relationships with other people in life that make it worth living. Take pleasure in thinking what would make others happy and even more pleasure in that others are doing the same for you. Capitalist, atheist, religious nut, whatever. Christmas is a time of mutual appreciation between people and, in my opinion, is more than just the sum of its parts.
Sam: I kind of agree with your statements, except for one detail - why limit that kind of thing until christmas? If you’re not doing it all year round as it is, then why should one day change anything? Why choose one day to be the focus when all that does is force arbitrary celebration and hypocrisy?
A good point. Personally, I don’t feel that this should take place on one day and I do try and make an effort to show my appreciation to those close to me regularily and buy gifts for such individuals whenever budget allows. Looking more generally though, I can see that the usurpation of the Christmas holiday as a time for this kind of activity acts as focal point for those who are either lacking in the thoughtfulness department or who are just too plain busy to think about others under normal circumstances. This brings up a point, which I’d be the first to mention, in that people should put appreciation of others forefront in their thoughts, but that is a whole different argument and neither here nor there for this topic. I could see your logic if I honestly believed that people were just partaking in the Christmas spirit in a ‘going-through-the-motions’ kind of way, but looking around, I have to say I think that the vast majority of people are genuinely taking pleasure in the reciprocation of consideration that takes place during Christmas time.