Here we go again. As we begin the countdown to a new year, Christmas is upon us, complete with reminders from Christian elders as to its true meaning.
I was taught from an early age to take such reminders seriously. Every Sunday, us kids would be dressed up and carted off to church to pray and sing and hear the rector’s latest take on sin and redemption. I don’t remember how this happened, but for a few years I was in the church choir, and Christmas was our star performing gig.
I took on board the foundational Christian story – a baby born of a virgin, grown into a miracle-worker, crucified as a trouble-maker and resurrected as the Son of God. I tried to believe it but as I left childhood it fell away, like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. Let’s face it: the story of Jesus is so crazy it makes more ancient myths seem remarkably sensible.
And yet the annual event we call Christmas survives and thrives. That may partly be because messages from Jesus of humility, openness, kindness and humanity have universal appeal. But the main reason isn’t Christian at all. It’s because we’re social animals who enjoy getting together, and the end of each year is as good a time as any for a rip-roaring party.
Around 1500 years ago, not having a clue when Jesus was actually born, the Roman church sensibly decided his birthday party should coincide with the pagan winter solstice, celebrating the shortest day and returning light with hot winter food. Ever since, Christmas and Midwinter have been one and the same.
Except here in the Southern Hemisphere, where Christmas is a feast of cold food on sunny days, often outdoors and extending late into balmy evenings. Unlike my much-loved daughter-in-law, English by birth and now Australian by choice, I have never found that disconcerting.
The Christmas of my childhood with numerous siblings and cousins was unalloyed delight. Less so after it became my lot, not being a natural gift-giver, to buy for all these people – especially on one occasion when mice found their way into my secret pile of chocolaty gifts. But on the whole I recall it with pleasure.
Over the years that pleasure has worn thin. Christmas today is crowded streets, crowded shops and crowded schedules. The grandchildren are no longer children, so unwrapping gifts has lost its buzz. We spend up largely because commerce encourages us to, but – a big “but” that we don’t like to talk about – economic growth is smothering our planet’s life systems. We’re choking on excess and waste.
The biggest contributor to waste is consumption, by me, you and everyone in the developed world. We remember the discarded wrapping paper but what about the gift that was in it, needed or (more likely) not? Not to mention excess food and travel. In the run-up to this Christmas we’ve spent massively – $70 billion according to The Australian Business Review.
Most responsibility for this rests with the rich among us. A 2019 Oxfam study found that the wealthiest 10 per cent of the world’s people are responsible for half of carbon emissions from consumption globally, and the richer half of the global population is responsible for over 90 per cent of those emissions.
In this age of mass travel we’re now more scattered than ever, but we don’t have to fly to the other end of the country or the planet just to be with someone on that particular day. We can do that any time. We don’t have to buy stuff people clearly don’t need, or to over-indulge in food that could have gone to those who do need it – good reasons for getting family agreement on a vastly more modest Christmas.
If Christmas means looking after ourselves, our families, our social circle and others, we should absolutely make that phone call, write that message, give to charity, and give time to people who matter – and let them know they matter. Kindness is good for the soul, and it’s infectious, and Christmas is said to be about peace and goodwill. But don’t we need that all the time?
I wouldn’t want the Christmas celebrating to stop altogether. There’s an aspect of it that I really, really like. When, as happens, others are diverted and busy with stuff, I can switch off and take a walk, mentally or physically, on a path less travelled. The point is, we can choose to engage or disengage as necessary. Christmas can be whatever we want it to be.