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Eric decides to spend with instead of on this Christmas

Sucking on some bah humbug!

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Friday, 21 November 2008

It’s here already. I was mugged by Christmas the other day and it’s weeks away still, every shop full of gift ideas and tinselly crap, the streets festooned with lights, the muzak carols streaming from every speaker whilst the holiday ads on TV all scream ‘indulge, buy, shop!’ And all I see on the streets are hassled folk already looking worn out by it all.

A great profit comes into the land, isn’t that what’s Christmas is all about? Haven’t the shopkeepers realised that we are all spiralling out of control into the greatest recession we have ever seen in our lifetimes? They seem like lemmings, not knowing how to change their behaviour, too addicted to the ‘shop till you drop’ mentality. The shoppers seem to have grasped the change though, busying less, haggling and examining, passing the crap by but still looking harried, worried and drawn.

Perhaps every Christmas is like this but I have withdrawn from it this year, refused to get drawn into the orgy of commercialisation, stopped shopping in fact. I have decided to take myself away this year, and go somewhere where they don’t’ have Christmas (and no I don’t mean Ebbw Vale.) It’s a lovely liberation, feeling not have to do it. I may send a few cards to aunties and such like, but then I would anyway, Christmas or not, I’m good like that and understand the value of the postal network all year round.

I’d like you to join me this year, in just saying NO to Christmas! That’s not saying no to joy or sharing, but saying no to getting manipulated into buying tonnes of trash for folk who don’t want it anyway and will only give you useless trinkets in return. Gift giving is a wonderful social lubricant but when we forget the reasons why we give gifts, they become an empty ritual. The greatest gift is time, and sharing that with friend, lovers, strangers or, even God forbid, family, is one of the most generous things we can do to another human being.

So this year, don’t hit the streets, open your diary instead and book some time in for your mates and the loved ones in your life. Spending yourself by investing your time with others will only reap huge rewards whilst sharing yourself and experiencing others will pay huge dividends in feeling alive, loved and part of something other than a queue at M&S. Just say NO to it, the pointless shopping and endless pressure, just say no to Xmas, and say YES to spending time with folk you value, and even a little time alone. Who knows, you might get exactly what you deserve this year.