Bah Humbug…………..I hate Christmas. Why??.........no not because I’m a miserable sod who wants to ruin other peoples happiness;
But because of the constant news bulletins telling us how high street sales are either up or down compared to the same period last year, what the predictions for high street sales are over the Christmas period and what the economic implications are.
There are no words to describe my despair and loathing at the saturation level advertising for an endless stream of hideous, useless, florescent, plastic crap aimed at our children from every shop, street corner and TV channel. This seeps into our childrens minds and when the message is firmly embedded, the children plague their parents into buying things that gobble up energy and resources to produce and distribute; yet serve no useful purpose. These are things no one needs and no one can afford, they are bought by harassed parents terrified of the guilt, using the readily available Christmas credit thrust at them from all directions. Thus ensuring they are slaves to the system for another 12 months at least.
And it doesn’t stop with children; millions of young women will take out store cards they can’t afford to buy clothes that glitter and sparkle and will be worn only once. We will all buy food we don’t want and will never eat. This doesn't stop with children wanting 'toys' and young women wanting 'fashion', we are all part of this madness. Every one is stressed because they feel obligated to spend, spend, spend ……….regardless of what they actually want or need or can afford.
As if the insanity of that wasn’t enough, most of the trashy goods we buy for Christmas are made over seas in sweat shop conditions, for a wage that doesn’t even cover basic necessities, and with little regard for health and safety of the employees. This is a double whammy of the corrupt system we live in, it exploits the sweat shop employees, it deprives our own workers of jobs and it drives the consumer deeper and deeper into debt.
On Boxing Day we put out the packaging; packaging that cost us energy and resources to produce, energy and transport to collect and then gets dumped in land full sites that add to the pollution of our planet.
By the end of the week we will throw away more food that we usually buy in a week.
And why do we do all of this at Christmas…………..there is only one reason, so that the 99% stay poor and the 1% get richer. I have no idea why we are all so stupid.
I believe we are a truly decadent society, and the myth is that decadent societies fail.
Well said!!
ReplyDeleteWhy not have a "craft" christmas? Make your own presents, you could take cuttings of your plants and put them in pretty pots or a bulb for people to grow? :o)
ReplyDeleteSociety IS decadent. But your home doesn't have to be :o)
thank you................kinda thought you would agree.................
ReplyDeletemy home isn't ( I hope).............I don't speak personally but as a member of a corrupt society
ReplyDeleteLOL sorry reading that again it does come across wrong doesn't it?!
ReplyDeleteI would never suggest your home is decadent LOL - sorry! :o)
My objections to Christmas as it is now practiced is that, as you say, it has turned into an economic holiday. Beyond that, there is an expectation that all families will get together, letting bygones be bygones, and be happy together. That is wonderful for families that are functional, but, as I can attest as a former clincal therapist, it is a major challenge for families with alcoholism or abuse and the survivors of those families.
ReplyDeleteThe answer, I think, is to create a family of people, related by blood or not, nd create new traditions of love and healing. And to give gifts from the heart; hand-made, home-made, and wrapped with love and things that can be recycled.
I think you are right.............and I'm sure that's what many of us do, but it is impossible to ignore what goes on around us, I know we live in a decadent corrupt society, its just more apparent at Christmas, it brings out the worse in us.
ReplyDeletetry not to worry over or own what anyone else does with their holiday, ma'am. as Ebenezer Scrooge said 'you keep Christmas in your way and i shall keep it in mine!'
ReplyDeleteor something like that.
♥
I do believe you are right..................BTW.............how do you make those little hearts, I owe a few and can't remember how to make them :-)
ReplyDeleteyou need to have a big computer, not a laptop. to make the heart, you hit the "alt" key and the 3 key, the one on the waaaay right little number pad/'adding machine' thingy. ; ) XO
ReplyDelete♥
ReplyDeleteGood blog. I hate the way christmas is such an economic event. And the stress caused by all the expectations. We are quite low key about the whole thing but I am fortunate to be part of a large family and we do get on so being together at christmas is good but so are all the other times that we meet up as a crowd! ♥ (Sorry I just had to try that out!) ;) And it works on a laptop if you have the number pad. Just don't have the number lock on.
ReplyDeleteIf you are on Safari, you can go to "edit" get the drop-down menu, at the bottom it says "special characters" hit that and you will get a palette of characters from ♥ to ☃ to ❃. This may be just for Macs though.
ReplyDeleteYour first Christmas present is the ability to make a ♥!!
ReplyDeleteYAY!
ReplyDelete♥
ReplyDeleteor just copy and paste
:)
I love many aspects of Christmas. And I have my own way of celebrating it. It doesn't involve getting sucked into sales but it does involve my showing others that I care about them. I make or buy a gift that I want to give them and delight when it delights them. I stay within my abilities to pay for purchases. I enjoy Holiday music too. I love how magic permeates society with the music and festivities. We need some special days once in awhile...variety is the spice (nutmeg, cinnamon or clove) of life!
ReplyDeleteYour ♥ is wonderful!!!
ReplyDeleteI dislike Christmas for much the same reasons as you. The closer it gets the more depressing the whole thing feels.
ReplyDelete... if we do not buy into it-----they can not sell it to us.
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ReplyDeletePerhaps it will be better this year. We have to invent new ways ourselves !
I like the subtle shades of Orange of your current Site dear Loretta.
Thanks for the clue, dear Nemo. ((( ♥ )))
We are indeed a decadent society, we could possibly redeem ourselves, but will we. For is it a myth that decadent societies fail, or is it a truth.
ReplyDeleteEach of us can make Christmas in his/her own way, but the surrounding din and chaos of commercialism is a distraction. If not for us, then for our children.
Do you remember Lucy of the Peanuts gang? 'Christmas is around the corner, t'is the season to be greedy' It still applies nowadays.
ReplyDeleteI think the holiday is what each of us make it. I agree it becomes about something way less then it should be for sure for many people. Maybe with the economy how it is more people will be more aware of what really matters, not just material shopping goods. This year I've been making a lot of gifts & trying to shop local vendors at craft shows or on etsy to keep thing out of corporate hands as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm going to try to be frugal at Chrisrmas. My gifts to my friends will be baked and homemade goods I make myself. I sure hate wasting food - that's something I was taught by my parents not to do. We only got one present eaxh at Christmas too or maybe just a stocking with fruit and sweets.There are lots of things I'd like to have, but can't afford. Lord knows I don't need more junk. We have sweat shops right here too and yes they're Chinese and some of them are making clothes for the big shops. That and all the waste are enough to make anyone a scrooge!
ReplyDeleteI really wish I'd never stopped sacrificing virgins to celebrate the solstice, you can never get that magic back can you?
ReplyDeleteIts all so commercialised nowadays, those drones they've got sacrifice virgins by the hundreds now, they incinerate whole classrooms full of them, its not like it was when I was a lad...but I suppose sacrifice is for young people really isn't it?
I don't believe its myth...........I believe we are truly decadent and decadence precedes the fall of great civilisations, part of the problem in recognising decadence is that it hasn't always presented itself in the same way. But not every one agrees with this, which is why I called it a myth.
ReplyDeleteLots of people here are saying how we can 'do' christmas in our own way without subscribing the the consumer madness, and on a personal level I think most of us do. But regardless of how we personally think of this sick society, we can't pretend we're not part of it, we are all part of it, and its not enough just to opt out on a personal level, the bottom line is ..... ''if you're not part of the solution..............
Yes, I agree. We can opt out for ourselves (of the commercialism) but we need to find ways to move society away from the worship of the Golden Calf - consumerism, waste, greed. In some ways this is what the Occupy movement is all about (partly), because people are coming to see that to a greater or lesser extent, no matter who is in office, plastic bags still polute our oceans, empty calories seduce our children and shallow TV programs spread a gospel urging us to buy buy buy....
ReplyDeleteAnd unmanned aircraft kill children in far off lands in our names.
ReplyDeletehave you SEEN the adverts on the disney TV channels??..............they actually make me feel nauseous. They are full of the bright clean bouncy and precocious little girls playing with the most ridiculous bits of brightly coloured nothing........most of these 'toys' are so revolting they actually LOOK toxic. Our children are being brain washed in the 'safety' of our own living rooms. And what about those adverts for the 'quick and easy loans', been refused a loan in the past?.........these sick, sick companies are targeting poor harassed parents at Christmas when they are most vulnerable and pushing these loans that have an astronomical APR. This is just one example
ReplyDeletehttp://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/payday-loans-now-cover-a-whole-year--at-278-interest-6261300.html
Companies are sold phone lists and target unsuspecting people in their own homes, bombarding them phone calls, once they have you on the phone they lie and entice you into allowing a salesperson into your home. These sales people are actually trained not to leave with out a sale and a signed contract.............and ALL of this is legal. the list is endless.............
And yes.................you are right, thats without going into the horror of war we inflict on other countries.
That pleasure has not been mine. But I can just imagine. When I worked in schools, many parents would come in distraught that their children wanted expensive Barbie dolls/Nike sneakers/designer blue jeans. And the parents couldn't afford them. NOT to mention iPods, electronic gadgets, and so forth. Someone is bound to come in and say it is the parents' responsibility to just say No, and it is, but the commercials pit parent against child and that is revolting.
ReplyDeleteAnd just today, in the USA, they want to make pizza a vegetable on school lunch menus (because it has tomato sauce).
Pizza a veggie ?? if that wasn't so sad it would be funny, although I have to say we have made home made pizza with a home made bread base covered in tomato concentrate, cheese and a variety of fresh veg ( mushrooms, onions, peppers chili etc. I don't suppose this is the sort of pizza we are talking about.
ReplyDeleteI have the 'pleasure' of Disney TV because my grandchildren watch it courtesy of Sky (in their homes not mine)..........in fact I'm pretty nauseated at the whole 'disney' thing. It seems full of programmes about American middle class two parent families, but hey that's ok because they have middle class two parent black families too, living the 'American Dream' in nice houses in nice streets, (guess its the one place the dream is alive and well). The children in these 'nice' homes and families have all the latest 'stuff' and make a virtue out of being obnoxious, precocious and irritatingly superior to the adults. Think I'll add Disney TV to my list of 'orrible stuff.
You've listed a number of my pet peeves but this is the biggest. Many American shows are scripted so that the children are rude and this is presented as funny. Not amusingly naughty like Jane and Michael Banks in Mary Poppins, but obnoxious to the point of using words like "crap". This is hilarious to kids, but does them and their families no favor. Not to mention their teachers.
ReplyDeleteI don't need to have the children on kiddie TV to be perfect little saints, but the behavior modeling going on is making for some awfully rude and obnoxious kids.
Yes, the pizza is proposed to be a vegetable due to the tomato sauce, not like the one we had tonight, which was brimming with green pepper, onions, mushrooms and dried tomatoes.
I saw that headline about pizza being a vegetable. Sad isn't it? I know my big weakness in sticking to my diet is pizza and it is terribly high in calories. A high percentage of US children are obese. Just saying.
ReplyDeleteI have scaled my Christmases way down. But I still do too much. One thing that I changed for the last couple of years is that in place of any extended family gifts I make a charitable donation. I used to make home made extended family gifts and I really don't think they appreciated my efforts. (I am not overly talented) I found sugar to be expensive too if I baked for gifts or made candy. So the donation works for me. For my grandson I started a savings account and put money in each Christmas and birthday. I do give him a small gift in addition so he has something to open from me but I try to keep the gift under $25. Just a couple ideas. Everyone has to do what is comfortable for them.
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