The silly season is upon us as they say. Though I don’t know who “they” are. The Christmas discourse is hegemonic. It is designed above all to position us and hail us as ‘consumers’ who will shop till they drop.
And so like the bride who wants a “perfect” wedding, many expect a perfect Christmas. How far that is from the reality of the majority of people for whom Christmas is a painful reminder of Christmases past and of loved ones no longer around. For some it is a time of unendurable loneliness. For others, it is a season of physical and emotional abuse.
Christmas is the training ground where people teach their children to become consumers. It is designed too ensure that that great god of the modern age – that god with impossible demands – is worshipped. That god of course is economic growth. The carpenter from Nazareth referred to it as mammon.
Indeed it can be said that the invention of the modern Christmas dates back to the mid nineteenth century and the birth of the market economy with its emphasis on economic growth.
Of course some keen folk will try to remind us of the “reason for the season”. It is astonishing just how far the modern Christmas is from the ideals of that man from Nazareth.
How then can we redeem Christmas? I think only by trying to remember that the external baubles, bangles and bright shiny beads can never be enough.
And so like the bride who wants a “perfect” wedding, many expect a perfect Christmas. How far that is from the reality of the majority of people for whom Christmas is a painful reminder of Christmases past and of loved ones no longer around. For some it is a time of unendurable loneliness. For others, it is a season of physical and emotional abuse.
Christmas is the training ground where people teach their children to become consumers. It is designed too ensure that that great god of the modern age – that god with impossible demands – is worshipped. That god of course is economic growth. The carpenter from Nazareth referred to it as mammon.
Indeed it can be said that the invention of the modern Christmas dates back to the mid nineteenth century and the birth of the market economy with its emphasis on economic growth.
Of course some keen folk will try to remind us of the “reason for the season”. It is astonishing just how far the modern Christmas is from the ideals of that man from Nazareth.
How then can we redeem Christmas? I think only by trying to remember that the external baubles, bangles and bright shiny beads can never be enough.
