Shopping on Christmas Day shows addiction to spending
What age did you start getting nostalgic? I know as a kid I spent all my time looking forward to being an adult, and aged 20 I didn’t think, ‘‘man when I was 12 things were rosy’’.
There comes a time when you start looking back with a wistful sigh. Where you wonder if you’re viewing the past through rose-tinted spectacles or if maybe we’ve taken a wrong path on a few things.
Christmas Day’s got me nostalgic. I’m not some old coot talking about the good old days when we were lucky if we got an orange and a lump of coal in our stocking.
I’m talking about the way we seem to be heading toward Christmas Day being a fully running day for the economy.
It wasn’t that long ago that the whole of the Christmas day workforce was a couple of service station attendants, shadow hotel staff, and a couple of kindly taxi drivers.
That’s a simplification – I know – but you get the point.
Remember that? When one service station was open each year everybody would know which one it was. When even service station workers could have a day off to spend however the hell they wanted to spend it.
Now more and more shops are opening on Christmas Day. For what? More shopping right after the peak shopping season? Sweet Jesus weeping on the cross.
We live in a rampant consumer society based on an assumption that our economies are limitless in their growth. We’re addicted to spending and growth and we’re careering toward a nonstop world.
Can’t we just have one day off? I’m sure you can buy something on the internet if you really need that dopamine hit. I wonder if the economy is like a hard-working computer and needs to be turned off at the wall and restarted occasionally?
What really appeals is a day for humans to coexist in a different way. To stop, take stock, pass time with people who make up your life and pause for breath before heading out into another year.
Christians seem to be happy enough for everyone to celebrate their holiday and let’s not pretend that Christian traditions aren’t a big part of Kiwi traditions. And don’t mistake me for a Catholic – even though they keep trying to claim me – this is coming from a real Dawkins/Hitchens card-carrying atheist.
I think if you’re getting hung up on Merry Christmas v Happy Holidays you’re missing the key point, which is that humans like to get together and celebrate the passage of time.
We had pagan traditions, appropriated by Christians, spiced up by adopting a Dutch story to which Coca Cola added colour. And here we are: the product of history celebrating a perfectly weird amalgam holiday. It doesn’t belong to anyone besides humanity if you ask me.
So even with my position on the existence of god I still get to enjoy the carols – Christian or not – the story of the vulnerable travellers being offered refuge and I might even take a bit of time to think about old Jesus’ message which had a couple of choice points if you ask me.
But even if you don’t want the traditions I’m sure you can buy into the notion of a day to stop. Go for a walk or something.
There’s nothing at all wrong with a day’s rest for the whole of society so that we can all hopefully take a break and break some bread with the people that make up our families/whanau/ communities.
It’s a special day shared by everyone. Let’s keep it that way. Let’s have a day to stop for a moment and smell the Christmas lilies.