Christmas: Why Bother?

Christmas is a ridiculous concept. It was a Pagan holiday that was seized upon and changed beyond recognition by Christians, which became a Christian holiday that was seized upon and changed beyond recognition by businessmen and advertisers. It’s a time of year where we talk even more about helping the less fortunate as we walk right past them and into the next high street clothing store. It’s easy to be cynical at this time of year because it would seem that we devote so much time, energy, effort and money on something that, ostensibly, doesn’t matter at all. But even though the central premise of this blog if for me to be mean-spirited and cynical, you’ll never see my complaining about this holiday. Christmas exists, and there is a reason.

Ritual is an important thing to humans. No matter how civilised we become, that doesn’t seem to change. There’s a tiny part of our brain, buried somewhere deep down, and it’s the part that makes us want to lump a pile of stones together in the middle of a field and dance naked around them or indeed, to lump a tree inside our homes and decorate it with trinkets and lights (naked dancing optional.) Huge numbers of non-Christians (both people of other faiths and people with no religion whatsoever) celebrate Christmas worldwide, and that’s because the real reason we have Christmas, or Hannukah or Yalda or Baldhi Day or whatever runs much deeper than babies in a manger or any other religious trappings. In a world without religion we would still be doing some goofy thing or another when the winter came around. Because if we’re celebrating a holiday at this time it means that we’re still here. We managed to survive for another twelve months and now it’s cold and dark and we need each other. It’s been wired into our lizard brains to get together with our friends and family, the people we love and even the people who irritate us beyond all belief and mark that time together in ritual form, because even if we don’t want to acknowledge it, they or we may not be there next year.

Twenty children and six adults were murdered needlessly yesterday in Newtown Connecticut. I tried to write something today that better fits the pattern of my output so far, but it feels incredibly petty to write a few hundred words complaining about little things when I have everything I actually need, and the people of Newtown have lost something that is actually important. The children who survived the violence should be thinking about the holidays and what presents they will be receiving, instead they have had their innocence emphatically taken away from them. They have been dragged into the adult world, where things don’t always make sense, where terrible things happen that can’t be easily fixed. I have no doubt that there are many people who believe that this tragedy puts the silliness of Christmas into perspective, because who could care that much about getting the gifts you wanted when the reality of how much legitimate suffering exists in the world is made so clear before us?

That is an easy view to understand, but I don’t see it that way. I believe that it underlines how fragile our lives are, how they can be taken away from us without warning because of something completely out of our control. There is nothing wrong with enjoying life with the people you care about and when you strip away the window dressing of carols, turkeys and fairy lights, that’s what Christmas really is. You and yours are still here. Enjoy that. For those who are gone, remember them. And if you have any time to spare someone else from that most horrible condition of loneliness, please do. End the year on a high. Normal, curmudgeonly status on the blog should resume early next year.