© Fuzzy Door Productions
There’s a Family Guy
episode called Road to the North Pole in which
Stewie and Brian travel to kill Santa. When they arrive they find that Santa’s
workshop isn’t the wonderland they were expecting; the elves are inbred, the
reindeer are eating each other and the man himself is exhausted and suicidal
due to the increasing demands on him at this time of year. Although Family Guy is a comedy, this one episode stands out (for my
money at least) as one of the most powerful messages regarding the continued ruination
of Christmas. On Christmas morning nobody has received a gift and Brian and
Stewie appear on the news to convince people to curb their greed and ask for
just one present each. Everyone watching the television agrees, and the show
ends with Santa back to his jolly self and the workshop is once again the
magical place we all imagine.
This is why I have gone off
Christmas, it isn’t the holiday itself I have a problem with, it is the
commercial bullshit that goes with it. I’m not religious so the ‘true’ meaning
of Christmas has never been on my radar, but maybe the churchgoers have a
point. This isn’t a new complaint; moans about Christmas being overblown and commercialised
are probably as old as Christmas itself.
The sad fact is that retail
begins its Christmas hype machine in the summer and although people tut and
moan about it there must be a reason. Do people really buy their Christmas
cards during a July sunny spell? If people voted with their hard earned cash
and didn’t spend a festive coin until December 1st then the shops
would soon get the message. Shops should also be banned from taking their
decorations down until January 6th rather than on Christmas Eve, it’s
time for the January sales to make a comeback and allow Boxing Day to return to
being a chilled day at home. I know the staff get double time for Boxing Day
(it might actually be more than double), but they still have to sacrifice what
should be a family day. With everything focused on Christmas Day itself, there
is no need to start hyping it up months in advance. In my lifetime I predict
that shops will one day be open on Christmas Day and December 25th
will become one of those Bank Holidays (like the two in May) that doesn’t
really register in the lives of most people.
Two days ago this country had
the first massive hype regarding Black Friday, something that has been drip-fed
for a few years prior to now. Traditionally this is the day after Thanksgiving,
when Christmas shopping begins in earnest IN AMERICA – this is the day when
people go mental to buy loads of material stuff the day after giving thanks for
what they have, who said Americans don’t do irony?
People only went batshit crazy
for Black Friday because it was in the papers that they were expected to, and
the footage of shoppers fighting over cheap goods is a sign that Christmas is
about nothing more than a competition to spend as much money as possible to
show you care. The introduction of Black Friday (with connotations referring to
the slave trade) was a hammer in Santa’s coffin as far as the true meaning of
Christmas is concerned. These days the prices have been slashed before the
Christmas break, a sign that we live in a far cheaper society than we used to.
Pound shops, cheap chains, and supermarkets have played their part in the
decline of Christmas with offers as we can no longer find quality items a lot
of the time. When we went decoration shopping in London we bought single
baubles for the same price that the majority would pay for a tree full of
decorations. I don’t mean to sound like a show off, I just like nice things and
as I work bloody hard I deserve nice things. Nice things was something people
used to save up for to enjoy at Christmas but now people want to do it on the
cheap.
Christmas might have religious
significance but that is entirely up to the individual. I don’t have a problem
with people having a faith, it just isn’t for me. However, as I said earlier,
maybe they have a point. Shouldn’t this time of year be about taking a break
from the stresses of day-to-day life to relax and spend time with the people we
love? It certainly shouldn’t be about be about how quickly we can be served in
the department stores. Children like to have a lot of presents to open and one ‘big’
present, but could we educate in that area? Maybe if children were taught to be
thankful for what they had they might grow up to be better people, so could
they be encouraged to ask Santa for one present rather than bombarding the poor
bastard with an endless and expensive list of the year’s must haves? Also, as I
wrote last year, shopping centres should keep the Christmas grottos open until
the end of the school holidays so that children can go and thank Santa.
Should there be a cut off
point for receiving presents? Surely being with someone is enough? This isn’t
me trying to avoid buying presents; I’m just saying that Christmas shouldn’t be
this way. Take my nana, (please, only joking), she is ninety years old and
doesn’t really need anything material. On the other hand she has something that
not every ninety year old can claim to have, a family around her that see her
on a regular basis. Some pensioners don’t see their relatives from one year to
the next; out of sight in the safety of the home they were put in, out of mind.
Mandi keeps asking if there’s anything I want but to be honest the only thing I
want is for Christmas to start being Christmas again. I am having the year off
next Christmas.
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