Christmas

Well, it's that time of the year again, and normally sane and rational people are running around like headless chickens, buying presents for people who they secretly (or even openly) dislike, and working themselves into a frenzy over arrangements for "the big day".

For the second Christmas running, I am able to take a more detached view of the festive season, because of my personal circumstances. It is often asserted that Christmas is "for the children", and it is true that the older I get, and having little in the way of paternal instinct, the less sense the Yuletide period makes. It is not the commercialisation which makes me recoil, but the looming realisation that it may be one mass exercise in masochism.

As a friend of mine recently observed, much of the jollity is forced and insincere.  People indulge in excess because they are told that this is expected, as if some "invisible hand" is directing events. We are all swept along by peer pressure and social pressure, and few individuals have the nerve or the courage to "opt out".

We are told that Christmas is a time for family and friends to get together and enjoy themselves. My response would be that we can arrange that in the middle of June if we wish, minus the aggravation and stress. Increasingly, Christmas Day is just like any other day for me, except that everything is closed!

So, the festive period brings out the worst in many people, causes incalculable stress and misery, and also distorts our economic and social activity. Apart from all that, it is wonderful....

Roll on 2 January 2012......