'Tis the season to be...... Homicidal?
So, here comes December, and the beginning of the festering season. As is probably fairly evident, (or will be very shortly) I'm not exactly a Christmas person. In fact, I pretty much despise the season.
Contrary to what some people have thought, it's not the fact that "goodwill to all men" failed years ago that gets to me about it. It's not even that the religious aspect of the festival has been subjugated over the years. Well OK, that is part of it, but it's not a major part. To put it solely down to that would be total hypocrisy on my part, as I'm about as religious as the next atheist.
What it mainly comes down to is actually far simpler, I think - yet possibly more complex too. Part of it is that the entire "festival" is simply materialism gone insane, everything and everyone driven to buy as much as possible, to drive oneself into ridiculous levels of debt and achieve self-esteem and self-worth through retail purchasing. You're not a valid person if you haven't spent at least hundreds, and ideally thousands, on stuff to give away to others. You're not liked if you don't receive at least a shelf-full of cards containing season's greetings, bonhomie, festive cheer, and illustrations of holly/mistletoe/pissheads. It's even better if the majority of those cards are from people you hear from exactly once per year - you're on the Christmas Card list, and god forbid you should ever be deleted from that particular book of souls.
Christmas is the time of year when it's perfectly permissible to drive yourself into debt, and spend half the year trying to pay it off. It's socially acceptable bankruptcy. Spending that at any other time of year would be regarded as excessive is nodded at, allowable simply because "it's for Christmas".
Even moral bankruptcy is acceptable. You're not entering into the spirit of the season if you haven't got completely fucked up, and snogged the face off a complete stranger in the office stationery cupboard. Christmas is about office parties, pissed idiots, groping the secretary, pissing up against walls on the street, photocopying your arse on the office copier and faxing them to colleagues, it's all been done, it's part of the festive blueprint.
So yes, I suppose part of my dislike comes down to religion, to the great majority who simply see this season as one where excess is good, where materialism is even more allowable than usual, and where debt is the done thing. At the end of the day, that's not what it's supposed to be about. I don't want the entire country to go to church, or turned into some dour remembrance serivce full of self-flagellation and "died for your sins" bollocks. Christianity hijacked a far earlier festival anyway, and bastardised it to it's own ends - ends I don't have a problem with per se because I do believe that the aims of Christmas were inherently pretty spot on.
What this season is supposed to be about though is thinking of other people. Materialism has taken that concept and run with it - thinking about other people is now signified by buying them things. Of course, that's not much more than bribery, a bestowing of possessions instead of a visit, sending money or vouchers when the purchaser/giver can't think of anything else to do. But Christmas isn't suppoesed to be about that - it's supposed to be thinking about those less well off than ourselves.
This wonderful caring season of ours is invariably also the occasion of the hightest numbers for suicides. The only other occasion that comes close is Valentines Day. (another day for which I reserve a special loathing - I bet you can't wait for the February rants...) and for exactly the same reasons. It's a time of year where people are made to feel alone, unwanted, if they don't fulfil the festering requirements. There are people who don't receive many - or indeed any - cards, who don't go to the office parties, who feel so devestatingly alone and unwanted that death is simply better than continuing to feel like that. For thousands of people every year, Christmas is nothing more or less than prolonged emotional torture and pain.
I've seen and heard all this, not just as anecdote and rumour, but right from the sharp end. In the last decade I've volunteered to work on the Samaritans phone line - by no coincidence, Christmas Day is one of their busiest days of the year (no prizes for guessing which event comes a close second) and I've helped with the soup kitchens, making sure homeless and poverty-stricken get fed. It's devastating, leaves you drained (emotionally and physically) but there's still some kind of feeling of doing the right thing. Knowing that even in some small and socially insignificant way, you've helped - you've made someone else feel better, not feel unwanted and inadequate, just to feel that they've been afforded some respect and time, that's enough.
I'm no saint - about as far from it as possible, in fact - but for me, that's really what Christmas is about.
Contrary to what some people have thought, it's not the fact that "goodwill to all men" failed years ago that gets to me about it. It's not even that the religious aspect of the festival has been subjugated over the years. Well OK, that is part of it, but it's not a major part. To put it solely down to that would be total hypocrisy on my part, as I'm about as religious as the next atheist.
What it mainly comes down to is actually far simpler, I think - yet possibly more complex too. Part of it is that the entire "festival" is simply materialism gone insane, everything and everyone driven to buy as much as possible, to drive oneself into ridiculous levels of debt and achieve self-esteem and self-worth through retail purchasing. You're not a valid person if you haven't spent at least hundreds, and ideally thousands, on stuff to give away to others. You're not liked if you don't receive at least a shelf-full of cards containing season's greetings, bonhomie, festive cheer, and illustrations of holly/mistletoe/pissheads. It's even better if the majority of those cards are from people you hear from exactly once per year - you're on the Christmas Card list, and god forbid you should ever be deleted from that particular book of souls.
Christmas is the time of year when it's perfectly permissible to drive yourself into debt, and spend half the year trying to pay it off. It's socially acceptable bankruptcy. Spending that at any other time of year would be regarded as excessive is nodded at, allowable simply because "it's for Christmas".
Even moral bankruptcy is acceptable. You're not entering into the spirit of the season if you haven't got completely fucked up, and snogged the face off a complete stranger in the office stationery cupboard. Christmas is about office parties, pissed idiots, groping the secretary, pissing up against walls on the street, photocopying your arse on the office copier and faxing them to colleagues, it's all been done, it's part of the festive blueprint.
So yes, I suppose part of my dislike comes down to religion, to the great majority who simply see this season as one where excess is good, where materialism is even more allowable than usual, and where debt is the done thing. At the end of the day, that's not what it's supposed to be about. I don't want the entire country to go to church, or turned into some dour remembrance serivce full of self-flagellation and "died for your sins" bollocks. Christianity hijacked a far earlier festival anyway, and bastardised it to it's own ends - ends I don't have a problem with per se because I do believe that the aims of Christmas were inherently pretty spot on.
What this season is supposed to be about though is thinking of other people. Materialism has taken that concept and run with it - thinking about other people is now signified by buying them things. Of course, that's not much more than bribery, a bestowing of possessions instead of a visit, sending money or vouchers when the purchaser/giver can't think of anything else to do. But Christmas isn't suppoesed to be about that - it's supposed to be thinking about those less well off than ourselves.
This wonderful caring season of ours is invariably also the occasion of the hightest numbers for suicides. The only other occasion that comes close is Valentines Day. (another day for which I reserve a special loathing - I bet you can't wait for the February rants...) and for exactly the same reasons. It's a time of year where people are made to feel alone, unwanted, if they don't fulfil the festering requirements. There are people who don't receive many - or indeed any - cards, who don't go to the office parties, who feel so devestatingly alone and unwanted that death is simply better than continuing to feel like that. For thousands of people every year, Christmas is nothing more or less than prolonged emotional torture and pain.
I've seen and heard all this, not just as anecdote and rumour, but right from the sharp end. In the last decade I've volunteered to work on the Samaritans phone line - by no coincidence, Christmas Day is one of their busiest days of the year (no prizes for guessing which event comes a close second) and I've helped with the soup kitchens, making sure homeless and poverty-stricken get fed. It's devastating, leaves you drained (emotionally and physically) but there's still some kind of feeling of doing the right thing. Knowing that even in some small and socially insignificant way, you've helped - you've made someone else feel better, not feel unwanted and inadequate, just to feel that they've been afforded some respect and time, that's enough.
I'm no saint - about as far from it as possible, in fact - but for me, that's really what Christmas is about.
