Home Truth

Yes, it is, it really is!

On the same day that I heard of a student returning home from university for a summer break of FOUR MONTHS (!), I received my first mail order Christmas catalogue of the year through the post. I haven’t even got our summer wardrobe out of the loft and we are being encouraged to plan for Christmas. Unbelievable.

We are still three weeks away from the day that marks six months until Christmas. The perfect day to have a birthday. I should know. It’s my husband’s!

Actually, I can remember the day on our summer holiday last August when we sat and seriously discussed our plans for Christmas. Because Christmas is a real trial for me. I so much want it to be a celebration of the birth of Christ, but my tightrope walking has not improved over the years.

I’m referring to the tightrope of trying to find the perfect balance between waste, debt, greed, extravagance and indulgence and failing to make Christmas a fantastic experience for my friends and family. I know I am not alone. This was the subject of another late night conversation at Pontins.

And it’s not new, either. I can clearly remember my teenage brother fasting on Boxing Day many years ago in protest against what Christmas had become. As an eight year old, I thought he was just a miserable spoilsport. Now I’m tempted to do the same (and inflict it on the whole family!).

We’ve tried fair trade gifts and considered donkeys and toilets in Africa. We’ve experimented with giving the kids a trip to DisneyLand Paris instead of a heap of presents. I came across a family where instead of receiving presents, every family member could choose an activity to do over the Christmas period with the rest of the family: I am not brave enough to give that a go.

What I would love to do is to rent a massive house in the country and have an alternative community Christmas with people of like mind - all the fun and games and laughter and excitement with none of the materialism and over-consumption.

So maybe it is right to think about Christmas now. Not to be writing my shopping list but to be pursuing my dream, before I’ve left it too late yet again!

Filed under: Uncategorized on June 6th, 2007