On my mind

SO it’s the first Covid Christmas and, as we slide into Brexitmas, the first vaccines have tunnelled their way from Belgium in erm… Europe.

Members of the Covid Whingers club are still talking about the threat to families not being able to get together in large numbers and mates not being able to sink a few pints together with a couple of scotch eggs at the Barking Dog.

But there is always a silver lining.

The more restrictions the more chance of fending off those annoying relatives who only turn up at Christmas with a big slobbering dog, boast about their numerous foreign holidays and finish off your favourite Chardonnay. As Dylan Thomas had observed in his Child’s Christmas in Wales: ‘There are always uncles at Christmas’.

Yet Christmas is a relatively unimportant festival for Christians. The simple commemoration of the birth of Jesus has been hijacked by commerce, exploited by big business and peddled in the streetmarkets.

This is in stark contrast with the birthday of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism and the first Sikh Guru. Celebrated worldwide last week, it is a significant festival of the Sikh community and remains a religious celebration. To say that Christmas has been stolen from the church when it wasn’t looking is not a Trumpist conspiracy theory. It’s true.

To say it’s been stolen from children is even more worrying.

When most of the news has been about pubs with no beer not much has been flagged up about almost 120,000 children in the UK plunged into poverty as a result of the pandemic and many families facing their very first Christmas on benefits.

Perhaps we need to rescue Christmas and return it to children, as in Dylan’s enchanting and simple celebration of childhood.

■ Follow Graham on Twitter@geetdee