It certainly has
been a crazy year and with it drawing to a close, I was going to open with some sort of Dickensian opener like: “it was the most interesting of times, it was the most
frightening of times”; however my better judgement managed to overcome my poor
sense of humour.
I will start with
saying that I am not the biggest fan of Christmas (and the Boxing Day/ New Year
sales for that matter) as it currently is. It seems that everywhere you go you
are encouraged to spend ridiculous amounts of money on objects, which are meant
to make us happy. Yet this promise of gaining happiness by spending money on
physical objects is as empty as the promise of someone telling you that there
will be snow across the whole of the UK every Christmas. Yet each year the same
message is broadcasted and everyone is expected to have the same type of
Christmas celebration. This is another flaw with the way the Christmas season
is presented to us, in that we should be expected to celebrate Christmas in the
same way; when we all know that as humans we are incredibly complex and
diverse. So why be forced to do things in exactly the same way?
It is important for
me to state that I do not think the meaning of Christmas is a bad thing or that
the idea of caring for your fellow man is something that we shouldn’t aspire
to. It’s just that I can’t help thinking that these noble sentiments have been
corrupted by companies wanting to make as much money from consumers’
generosity. This has led to people placing way too much emphasis on how much
they spend over the Christmas period, rather than the things that truly matter
to them. Of course I am making a sweeping generalisation, in that I know not
all people have the urge to just spend loads of money over Christmas; it is
more to illustrate how Christmas is presented to us on TV, in magazines,
newspapers, social media, etc. Furthermore,
I am not immune from wanting to indulge myself and others with Christmas
presents; I have a special weakness for Ashmei running gear,
so realise that I am criticising the very thing that I am partaking in. I also
realise that using social media, whether it be posting pictures on Instagram or
Facebook is another aspect of the constant consumerism that surrounds us on a
daily basis, so again I am part of the system that I feel uneasy about.
So if you have managed
to read this far, you may be thinking why is this person having a go at the
Christmas season? I suppose what I am trying to put forward is that I believe
that Christmas is not about looking at your credit/ debit card bill and seeing
how much you have spent or how many objects you have bought. It can be about
connecting with your fellow man, looking back on the year you have had,
catching up with those closest to you and hopefully getting a moment in the
day-to-day hustle and bustle of our lives to think of those who have been less
fortunate than us.
I have tried to put
this into practice by volunteering for Crisis during the Christmas period. I don’t want to go into too much detail
about what the volunteering entails, for fear of sounding sanctimonious and
self-righteous. That aside, it is truly an amazing experience; and it is quite
surprising how much satisfaction you get from doing certain tasks at the Crisis
centres. There are also some truly unique moments that you get to experience (a
notable one being Chris Martin visiting one of the centres). What I found
truly humbling, was speaking with the guests at the centre I was at about their
lives and being thanked for what we were doing. In a city such as London, where
public transport consists of an endless round of people bashing into you or
being rude to you; it is very moving to find someone who doesn’t have a roof
over their head and very few possessions , to thank you for what you have done
for them and wishing you a happy new year. I hope I can take this humility with
me into 2017 and not care so much about what possessions I do or don’t have.
