It seemed like such a good idea at the time
but alas I was in a minority of people who thought so. Christmas Day used to be
a day for staying at home with the family and only venturing out for a
lunchtime pub visit, and only until two o’clock. Nowadays the volume of traffic
on the roads differs very little from a regular day of the week as people
travel to visit friends and family, and an unheard of concept when I was a kid,
going to a restaurant for lunch. These days Christmas has lost some of its
strength and as a result there is more happening outside our houses than
before; pubs open on Christmas Night now, nightclubs even, shops, pizza
takeaways, certain museums and zoos too and I say good for them. My reduced in size
family gathering no longer play charades nor do we sing carols round the tree
on Christmas Eve as we did in childhood, we unwrap presents before eating and
then watching television. Chuck in a newspaper and take away the presents and
you have Sunday, another day that has seen massive changes during my lifetime.
Christmas is and should be exactly what you
want it to be; there are no rules and regulations on how to enjoy the holiday.
I plan to spend at least an hour on the park with Jack in the morning to set me
up for the day and after that as long as I can listen to Junior
Choice on Radio 2 then I’ll go along with whatever happens. The idea
is that it is a relaxing time and a time for a little (or large) overindulgence
to reward yourself for getting through another year. My childhood Christmas was
a strictly ‘indoor’ affair, both my parents made a great effort where the
festivities were concerned and it didn’t occur to us that there might be
something going on. When we lived in Skegness I was shocked when one of the
amusement arcades opened on Christmas Day as it somehow didn’t seem right. As I
grew older I remember spending periods of time away from the family hustle and
bustle; I have clear memories of a Christmas mid-morning sitting in the dining
room watching a documentary about the Marx Brothers, which demonstrates the
sort of rebellious youth I was. My first Christmas as an adult was spent with a
then girlfriend when I was eighteen; we had Christmas dinner and spent most of
the time in bed. This was the year I first saw a shop open and couldn’t believe
what I was seeing, although as I needed cigarettes I was relieved too. We went
to the local pub across the road on the evening for what was then possibly an
illegal lock-in and I have never felt so weird about breaking the convention of
Christmas Day.
My reason for writing about the differing ways
people choose to spend their free time is an idea I had and followed with a hypothetical
question on Facebook and Twitter aimed at the musicians I know; would you play
at/attend a gig on Christmas Day? To be honest I can’t believe that a city such
as Nottingham with music promoters on every corner hasn’t already explored this
as a possibility. Maybe they have, because I only received two positive
responses and a maybe along with a fair amount of what I will refer to as
polite declining. At first I asked about an all day event on the big day, and
later modified the question to offer an alternate choice, a gig on Christmas
night. The response was equally deafening in its silence which is a shame
because it is exactly what I would do given the chance, although I might only
do the night. People used to go to the Music Hall on December 25th
and in other countries they have cinemas open, so why not a gig?
Now we’ll never know, unless someone steals my
idea in which case we will know.
===
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