In the comments to this piece, Cuffleyburgers says something pretty close to the predicted majority opinion when I dare to suggest that I don’t like this time of the year and he is not the first to say it by any means. It’s a common response to someone who dares to stray from the majority line.
Before I go on, I should point out that the cynic comment I made was largely a facetious dig at Simon Jenkins for saying something similar – that people who don’t like Christmas must be hardened cynics, rather than a serious commentary on my dislike.
That said, no, I really don’t like this time of the year. Quite apart from the incessant dark and cold, I do not find that the festival brightens things up for me one little bit. Indeed, I find the whole thing tacky and shallow.
Cuffleyburgers suggests that I come across as churlish. Yeah, heard that one a few times before. It isn’t true though. It is merely evidence that not everyone likes the same things. And from early October we have the gaudy jollity thrust upon us as retailers gear up for a time of excess. Shoppers go manic as if there is a siege going on. None of which is necessary as shops these days are closed for no more than about twenty-four hours anyway.
And, for a month now, we have been bombarded with Christmas songs wherever we go – on the radio, in stores and not to mention the truly awful carol bus that blasts this dreadful stuff out while expecting us to give them money for the privilege… Bejeesus! One thing I detest is mawkish sentimentality and this dross encapsulates it perfectly. Tacky, facile and moralising along with gaudy decorations and lights sum up all that is wrong with this festival. Somewhere the original meaning got lost – and, no, I don’t mean the Christian myth. The winter solstice originally celebrated by the early pagans some four days previously is the real message; the nights will start to draw out and we will have more daylight. Spring is waiting in the wings. Now, that I can celebrate. And by celebrate, I mean raise a glass and wish my loved ones well for the coming year.
The Christian message has also been corrupted by the overt commercialisation and mawkish moralising. If people really did believe in goodwill to all men, then let them live by that message for the rest of the year. Being nice to others for a couple of days because we want to feel good about ourselves while wearing funny hats and putting foliage in our homes is the height of double standards.
Simon Jenkins used the term cynic and I went along with that usage. However, I am what I am, and remain the same throughout the year. I value those times when I get together with others on an impromptu basis, not because it is a special time as decreed by society. These are the moments that I cherish and store forever in my memory. I make no special pretences just because it is Christmas. I am, at least, honest. What you see is what you get throughout the year. I think, upon reflection, it is not I who is the cynic here.
Guess I’d better join you on the other side of the line…
Even if I did enjoy a glass or two, I’m always the one doing the driving, so that little “pleasure” has gone out the window. Then there’s the stupid after lunch quiz or games, or the TV goes on supposedly to watch a Christmas special, and then everybody starts talking about completely different things, which makes it impossible to either enjoy the programme or take part in the discussion.
I actually dread this time of year, the sooner it’s over the better.
Oh, yes, the TV programmes… The same moralising mawkish crap as the songs. Eugh!
I concur entirely. Christmas has become a mass consumer event, where greed, excess and waste are pushed to the fore even more than usual. I have no problem with Christmas as a feast – by all means stuff your faces and be merry with friends and family. Humankind has done just that for millenia. But this ludicrous pressure to buy pointless tat for people you hardly know or see from year to year (family) or probably can’t stand (work colleagues) is overwhelming apparently. Children are indulged to excess, giving them a terrible entitlement complex. Its no wonder this country is in such a mess when anyone under the age of 25 has been given everything they could want on a plate from an early age.
Society has become too wealthy for the giving of gifts to mean much any more. In days gone by the giving of a gift entailed some cost to oneself – a forgoing of something you wanted in order to save the money to buy for another. We all have so much nowadays that the giving of a gift adds little to the recipient and takes nothing from the donor. It is just meaningless exchanges of tokens, to no material or emotional gain.
Look on the bright side it’s Chanukah! Nothing mawkish just a few candles and small gifts for children. Oh and latkes (potato pancakes) or a few doughnuts and some cheesecake.
This has always been my get out at Christmas, wasn’t brought up with it, don’t get it sorry. These days my wife, non Jewish, joins in with it.
Totally with you, Longrider. I really object to being told by anyone when I’m supposed to have a good time with either friends or family. This is a filthy time of year to have to travel anywhere, and prices are inflated too.
Maybe the season’s got a lot to do with it. Christmas has grown on me since I first got to celebrate it in the middle of summer, though I still find it pretty ridiculous how much snow and reindeer feature in the decorations and I feel sorry for the store Santas dressed up for weather that’s thousands of miles away. That said the incessant music and the ads which start months in advance get on my tits too.
The problem I think is that Christmas as a festival has become too infantile. It’s all about the glitter, with a paucity of substance. Good will to all has become devalued and tawdry, where a cheap gift takes the place of real celebration.
Regardless; have a good one, whatever your God(s). In old Saxon; “Waes hail!”
Don’t even talk to me about the damn glitter. 👿 It’s a pet hate of mine. Another couple of glittery cards arrived today, much to our annoyance having only just hoovered up all the glitter from the previous lot. Fucking stuff! If I wanted glitter all over my house I’d turn it into a Thai kindergarten and leave the door unlocked.
“Shoppers go manic as if there is a siege going on. “
This year, the supermarkets will all be open on Boxing Day, and won’t even be shut on New Year’s Day!
I bet, when I’m getting the turkey and fresh veg on Friday, there will STILL be people shopping for the Zombie Apocalypse, with 40 loaves in the trolley. 🙄
Longrider, your attitude to the fetid season is quite benign compared to mine. It fills me with rage and despair in about equal measure. If people were content to do it in private behind closed doors, then fair enough, but there is almost no means of escaping it, short of never leaving the house and turning off all broadcast media. Whatever meaning it may once have had, Christian or pagan, it has become a hypocritical charade of enormous expense, enforced participation and illusory expectations, in the wake of which there will be more suicides, murders and broken families than any other week of the year. And in every street in the land, lonely old people, forgotten by everyone, will look on as the rest of the world apparently plays happy families with a surfeit of everything.
It’s the people wishing me some kind of Happy New Year or All the Best that piss me off. I actually don’t give a shit if you have a happy anything and you are making me rather uncomfortable by obliging me to offer you some kind of empty platitude I don’t mean.
My problem with Christmas is that there is so much of it.
I intend to spend it in warmer climes after my retirement, where people are poorer and tend to appreciate the gift giving much more – they really do have to make sacrifices to afford to give gifts.
Blimey am I the only one who actually quite likes the thing ? I’ll grant you the tedium of Christmas music, the repellent sentimentality and the horror of shopping ( I could tell you a story about the fight I and my 26 year old niece had this week with a stroppy supermarket employee who demanded proof of her age when we had the temerity to attempt to buy a few bottles of wine ) but the day itself and the family get together I really enjoy. I must be the only bloke on the planet who likes his relatives and gets on well with his workmates ( my halo’s in the post ). I’m actually very glad of the company really as I’m single and childless and my immediate family are very good about including me in things, I appreciate it and although I’m not a gregarious person I think I would feel lonely if I was on my own at this particular time.
Have a good one, and best wishes for 2012.