Sunday 4th December

At this busy time of year it may be wise to stop for a moment and consider the real reason for Christmas.  Firstly, why is this festival, this cornucopia of consumption, this fanfare of frivolity held in one of the coldest months of the year; indeed just before the big freeze sets in.  The Early Christians weren’t stupid, and nor were the Pagans before them.  Winter was a miserable time of year, especially if there had been a bad harvest, and poor peasants would be in for a desperate few months before Spring returned.  What better idea than to have a party.  If you are going to run out of food sometime in February then why not stuff yourself stupid at the end of December.  And besides if you let the peasants get drunk they were less likely to storm the Lord of the Manor’s house.

And then along came the Victorians who made Christmas what it is today, they brought us the tree and the turkey and plum pudding and copious helpings of alcohol.  Most Victorians hadn’t heard of any of this before Dickens wrote ‘A Christmas Carol’ but hey, you had to cry for little Tiny Tim, didn’t you.

And then along came America and Hollywood and Bing Crosby and all that schmaltzy weepy-eye stuff.  As a child Christmas was never complete without watching “White Christmas” on the telly.

And then along came Amazon and Black Friday, which stretches for at least three weeks these days. “Spend spend spend”.  That is the real message of Christmas.  I know from working in the Restaurant Industry how important the real message of Christmas is…”Loosen Those Purse-Strings, folks”.  And if you haven’t got the money, there are always Credit Cards.

And actually cutting through all of that we now discover that John Lewis and M. & S. have discovered the real message of Christmas.  Their adverts are now anticipated with bated breath as we seek another dollop of sentimentality, taking us away from the nasty awkward facts on the telly like ever-growing queues at food banks, ambulances backing up at overrun A. & E. Departments, children being bombed in Allepo and Mosul, even starvation looming again in parts of Africa (quick Mum, pass me those mince pies, and change the channel quickly before we become depressed).