Bluesphinx

  “All we had in our stockings was an orange and a piece of coal ‘for luck’!”

  So proclaims anyone of a certain age who suck on boiled sweets and are always going on about “The war.”

  Well although I would feel a little hard done by if faced by such niggardly frugality, I cannot for the life of me get my head around the incessant marketing hype and expensive present buying, one-upmanship that pervades today’s ‘Festive Season’.

  Nowadays, the combined forces of pester power and the advertising hucksters and cheap-jacks start weaving their web around early September, when the first Christmas  adverts start drilling their message of “Buy, buy, buy! Spend! Spend! Spend!…Do it NOW! Can’t afford it? No problem! You can have everything now and pay for it all later. When?…Don’t worry about that now, just buy and enjoy a bit of retail therapy-go on…you know you want to!” It permeates deep into your brain, and gradually cranks up the pressure by degrees until Christmas Eve, when the Easter marketing machine clicks into gear!

   Not for me and my good wife, the sight of us running round like headless chickens right up until the last minute, while we search desperately for some little piece of expensive and unwanted tat to impress a friend or loved one, the more costly the better-the balm to soothe our consciences for not having called, not having written, or not having visited often enough during the year just petering out.  Due mainly to our sheer exasperation at the rampant commercialism that ‘Xmas’ has become, and partly due to our severe shortage of funds we have adopted a different, more sedate attitude to the yuletide festivities.

   We’re going to leave doing the expected annual battle at the check out spend-fest to the shopping-obsessed, blinkered masses as they  elbow each other out of the way in their desperate scramble to get their grasping, avaricious hands around the neck of the last turkey in the shop! We’ll leave them to it as they do their ‘Supermarket Sweep’-”They’re under starter’s orders…and they’re off!!”  Selfishly shoving and jostling down the aisles in a clamourous hue and cry, piling high at least two shopping trolleys with ‘party’ food, too much of which will anyway find its way into the bin before it’s consumed.

  This year the local pound shop has had a good hammering from us! Far better, we thought, to leave the big spectacular gifts for the more personal celebration of birthdays, when they can be bought after considered thought, and without the dubious encouragement of the advertising machine. We decided this Christmas to each spend no more than a tenner on each other, and with that we will purchase up to ten small token presents-nothing glamourous granted, but each one something that is efficacious and needed. Something small, practical, or, best of all, something home made to convey a more personal message of love and best wishes. Our Christmas tree will look very healthy with at least twenty little brightly wrapped parcels nestling beneath its branches.

  Last year’s Christmas cards have been dusted off and recycled-the sentiments remain constant, and after all, they are very beautiful in design. They’ve certainly got more than one year’s life in them, and it does seem a shame for them to lay forever discarded and forgotten up in the loft.  

  So we are looking forward to a happy, unpressured Christmas this year. we’ll rise at our leisure, and after the customary tea and a fag, we’ll open a couple of pressies, and let the cats enjoy the wrappings while we ‘get the meat in’. Then, egged on with egg-nog, beer, and traditional carols on the music box, (Slade, Wizzard, and X-Factor-thanks, but no thanks!) we’ll prepare for the welcome arrival of our guests. We will strive for a greatness, but the roast dinner will be what it will be, shit or bust! And if it isn’t perfect? Well, there will be no getting neurotic and dying a thousand deaths over the little Armageddon that is having overlooked the cranberry sauce. All we ask of our visitors is their company, maybe a packet of nibbles, and perhaps a bottle of liquid cheer. That and their willingness to not take themselves too preciously and to have a good laugh during the post-dinner game of charades. Oh yes, and all hands to the pump when the thorny issue of washing-up is raised!

  In the hands of capitalists, it seems that the message, (whether you are of a religious persuasion or not) of peace on Earth, and goodwill to all mankind is lost. Well, I appeal to all who are not members of the quick to spend and slow to think brigade. Don’t let them get away with it! Don’t let them completely take over and destroy the sheer enjoyment of Christmas, it should be a time of happiness, and good cheer, not a time to fret about impressing everyone else, nor should it be fraught with the debts just so that you can pay for the whole charade!

  Instead, have a truly lovely laid-back time, at your own pace, and calm down! Raise a glass or two, watch some Christmas TV, and love the company of your friends and family. Encourage them to adopt the same Yuletide stand, and you will find a much truer spirit of Christmas than what’s on offer from the marketeers, you’ll feel better for it, believe me! Ho! Ho! Ho!