The Politics of Christmas

Here it is, the silly season - once again time just went too quickly and before I even knew it, it is time to run around stressing about what to get various friends and family members for Christmas. This year I have been in denial, simply too many things going on for me to even get in the mood for it. It's more like an awkward interruption to a lot of work that needs to get done and with Christmas in between one is left with that certain sense of floating insecurity as to whether things will happen still. On the other hand I'm in desperate need of holiday, so any excuse to take two weeks off is welcome - and between these two extreme ways of looking at it, I still haven't consolidated myself.

Christmas is an odd phenomenon if you think about it - in ancient times religion and celebration was more or less inseparable and holidays invariably meant a lot of dancing and partying where the whole community would be involved. You'd paint your face, don a costume, have a feast and generally share the fun with the whole town or tribe. And we still do on occasion - whether it is for a carnival or a sports event, supporting our own teams, but not so for Christmas.

So when did it all go boring - where we feel obliged to camp out in Wal-Mart to get hold of the limited release of the TMX Elmo or attempt to kill each other over Playstation 3, drag home our bounty and then spend Christmas with close family by eating large quantities of food, drink too much and generally retreat to our own little homes and shut out the rest of the world?

Maybe it all started with the dawn of the industrial revolution when 'work ethic' replaced so much of our culture - making it the norm to work all hours of the day, six days a week and on the seventh one was supposed to remain sedentary and praise the Lord. Is that when the separation from our communities began and it slowly became acceptable to put your worries at work ahead of the needs of your neighbours? Eventually not even bother to get to know them - certainly the industrial revolution sped up urbanisation and the two are inextricably linked in terms of an exponential increase in productivity equalling a similar increase in alienation. So did Christmas become a holiday indirectly celebrating the increase in productivity, by making it the norm that everyone should signal their increase in material wealth by acquiring more presents and ever more lavish gifts to those in one's direct circle of family and friends? Certainly seems that way these days. Anyone who celebrates Christmas in a different way from the 'norm', by doing away with presents or a big meal or any other of the set Christmas traditions is looked upon with curiosity or as a skinflint or potentially both - the herd mentality has got us hooked.

Then we get to the politics of the entire affair of Christmas. Countless people, including myself further worry about the logistics or 'fairness' of where to spend Christmas - for me, like for so many others there is a delicate peace to be maintained by balancing expectations of my family in Finland who invariably think every Christmas should be spent with them otherwise it will not be Christmas, and my partner's family who are a lot more flexible and relaxed about the matter and forgive us for darting off to Finland on occasion, but to whom we still feel indebted and certainly me: I feel guilty about not seeing them for Christmas. So in fact Christmas, although supposedly a season of happiness and goodwill is more of a season to balance expectations, maintain peace, be where you are supposed to be, not let anyone down, God forbid forgetting to buy a present for someone who has bought you one, trying to get hold of people's addresses to send them Christmas cards when normally we only text, phone or email each other, and so on and so forth.

It is really sad that this is what Christmas has become for many of us - a closed set of rituals involving only our close relatives and loved ones. For those who are single or on their own, Christmas is often the most lonely time of the year as very little happens these days to bring together communities and celebrate on a grand scale, everyone together. We huddle together in our homes, happy that we have people to huddle up with, but surely that is not what the spirit of Christmas is all about?

For fear of sounding downbeat about Christmas to all those of you who think this is the best time of the year by far - I have a little treat for you: Why not Elf Yourself and spread some laughter and happiness to your friends and colleagues? (and get out of writing Christmas cards... this is far funnier!)