Tuesday 30 December 2014

Ho, Ho, Ho has got up and gone!

Is it me?
Or is Christmas really down to just one day now?

When I was a child, Christmas was a time when families got together to spend time, not just for a few hours or a night, but for a week or so.

It was time to really catch up with distant relatives and friends, and really let your hair down, because the car was parked, and you weren't going anywhere.  

Christmas cards, were filled with real sentiment, almost poetry, not just the few words today which don't express anything heartfelt.  Cards were important, they said I am thinking of you at this time, and were not just for people you hadn't seen all year.

Everything, pretty much shut down, except the emergency services and essential workers.  Christmas was a proper holiday for everyone else, shops closed early, pubs were only open for a few hours, so if you forgot anything, then tough you did without it!  There was no 24 convenience store or petrol station open, which by the way, used to only sell fuel and a few car accessories.  And then, the streets would be all but silent, because everyone would be indoors, enjoying themselves.

But now, people have multi-sites to visit within a set time, eating in one place, then eventually settling somewhere else.  Trying to please too many other people, rather than actually just pleasing themselves for once.

Is it all about doing the right thing or being seen to be doing the right thing?

All the hype that is built up, in September glittery signs and wrapping paper makes an entry mixed in with Halloween costumes, thats now also part of Guy Fawkes night!  These last two being an opportunity to turn your kids into beggars, and allow them to worship the dead!  I can never get my head round that! I know all around the world Halloween means some thing different, but that doesn't apply here.

Anyway, sorry I digress.  I am absolutely horrified at the small fortune that some parents spend on an individual child, just for Christmas.  Worse still, if it is the child specifying something expensive, as no longer are they satisfied with simple gifts that have fun, practical or educational value, everything is fast, hi-tech, and becomes obsolete so quickly.

People have finally wised up the all the chain stores, with inflated prices that get slashed a few days later.  Now, the first sales begin weeks before christmas, and by 9:00 am Boxing Day there are in full swing.  Having been spurred on by the amazing "Black Friday" frenzy, madness ensues, where everyone just has to have that "must have" item, or they are buying the Christmas presents they didn't get before.  People are filling up shopping trolleys at the supermarkets, as though they are planning for some horrific event; how much more can they eat?  And how much of that is wasted?

All festivities have long gone, Christmas is 'so' yesterday!  The ho, ho, ho has got up and gone, until next year.

For me, this period of time between Christmas and New Year, is 'quiet time', nothing much really happens, except maybe catching up on a few people.  But otherwise for me, it's a time to take it easy, get my house upstairs in order, seriously recharge the batteries, and everything is on a go slow, until New Years Day.  I'll drink to that!  Sx


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