Christmas – what’s the alternative?
By Carl Munson
Christmas – what’s the alternative?
This week, I thought I’d turn the name of my newspaper column ("What’s the alternative?") on the festive period to which – like it or not - we are well and truly committed. Face it, there is no escape. Christmas is coming, and like a flu you know you are just going to have to cope with for a few days, it’s going to get you.
Sound pretty grumpy don’t I? But when my very astute 18-year old daughter observes “It’s a lot about pretending”, I feel obliged to explore the options.
Perhaps there is no alternative. No alternative to the knuckling down, putting on your best festive face, managing stress and anxiety, spending more than you can or want to afford, plus seriously indulging in all the things you later regret and being grateful it’s all over in a couple of weeks’ time.
Is that it? Is that Christmas as we now know it?
Well, if that is all there is, then all I want for Christmas this year is a more inspiring possibility for mankind. I’m not sure I know anyone who is truly looking forward to Christmas this year – the stakes are so high and the pressure so great. Yes, they are glad of the break and some are looking forward to spending more time with friends and family (although others definitely aren’t), but that’s true of any holiday.
And interestingly, I haven’t heard anyone say: “It gets more commercial every year.” Maybe that’s because it can’t get anymore commercial.
So, with the marketers having had their wicked way with us, fuelling all-time highs of inadequacy and binge-spending, what can we reclaim as special about this time of year?
Now I’m sure the divine intelligence behind this wonderful life (I’m talking nature, love and beauty here, not High Street horror and man-made materialism) didn’t intend things to turn out like this. I’m no expert, but it’s my guess that a Christian God would not want people stressing out in memory of his only son’s birth. That just doesn’t add up.
If you’ll permit me to take issue with the yuletide madness, I do have an alternative and I’d like to suggest three gifts that can be given regardless of creed, status and finance at this overwhelmingly lost and confused time of year.
The gifts we can all bear are our love, our presence and our honesty. The very suggestion may have many readers rushing back to the shops for a token gift that’s a lot more convenient and acceptable. But our love, presence and honesty are likely to linger longer in the heart of a recipient than a hastily purchased material gift made and marketed by a complete stranger that usually gets left to one side as soon as the anticipation and gratification has been enjoyed.
To act from the heart without seeking a reward (love) and give our time without haste and preoccupation (presence) and say what is really true and kind (honesty), whilst not boosting the economy, strikes me as a worthy alternative that would surely change the world beyond measure, for the better.
We all have the power to give these gifts and isn’t that what Christ (you know, the man whose name is given to this time of year) intended?
Imagine it.
This article was posted by Carl Munson
