I wrote this in response to someone’s comment about Christmas, and how it’s become such a long season and so commercialised, which is a fair observation but there’s more to it I believe. Having pondered a little more about this, I think part of the frustration I experience is perhaps because the “buffers” and anticipations which I knew as a child no longer exist, and that there was so much more to Christmas than the commercialism which exists today.
Growing up in the UK, we did not have “Hallow’een” in the same was as it is today celebrated. Our big fun celebration at that time of the year was November 5th – “Guy Fawkes Night” – something for which we planned for weeks in advance, building a bonfire, creating an effigy to place upon it, buying fireworks, and just generally talking about it and looking forward to it. Pocket money would be hoarded for weeks in advance to buy that “special” rocket that would be better than any other ever seen! The night would come around, and we’d have the fireworks, often of varying qualities, eliciting “Ahhhs” or “Ohs” as appropriate. Baked potatoes would pulled out of the embers of the bonfire, and fingers and lips burned as the blackened skins were consumed (no thoughts of wrapping them in foil in those days!).
A few days after the excitement of Bonfire Night had died down, we universally developed a more sombre mood in preparation for Remembrance Day – the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month – when we paid our respects to those who had fallen for us, giving us the freedoms we so cherished. As smaller children we were taught this and grew up respecting the history, and as slightly older children, we participated in the marches to to the War Memorials as uniformed Boy Scouts. I remember the honour one year of being the standard-bearer, and the care and reverence with which I dipped the Standard as the “Last Post” was being played.
These then, were the buffers which prevented too early an onset of Christmas. They were always present and time-honoured. Christmas lights did not go up in towns until the beginning of the first week in December – something in itself an excitement. As a part of Christmas, we had an “Advent Calendar” which emphasised that there were 24 windows to be opened – one a day starting on the first day of December – until Christmas Day itself. Not several months, but 24 days. Decorating the house typically occurred in the week or so prior to Christmas Day. My father and I would head to the local wood to retrieve holly and yew boughs, which were hung over the fireplace and the many paintings which were in our house. Some years there would be more red berries than others – we were at the whims of nature, not a store which was selling plastic or cultivated holly months in advance.
Our “12 days of Christmas” extended from the 25th until midnight on the 5th of January – and on that last day, all decorations were taken down and stored for another year if reusable, or discarded outside if of natural origin. Woe betide any person who left holly berries inside after that date, as it was well known that the berries changed into little red goblins which would wreak havoc within the house for the following year!
So we had a “season”, starting in the last weeks of October, but that season involved not only Christmas, but several other activities which were a standard – and respected – part of our “year”. These other activities also took up the commercialism – selling fireworks for bonfire night; and although not done by stores, the sale of the poppy by the British Legion was a respected part of the year (and still is to some extent). These were the “buffers” for Christmas.
Sadly, even in the UK, the buffers are reduced. “Health and Safety” have demanded a reduction in the manner and number of bonfires held – the family bonfire is a thing not so often seen today, but has been replaced by the “community bonfire”, which lacks the same drive for the children; and although Remembrance Day is still very much in evidence, there is an increasing – and scary – number of young people who fail to respect the cause, or who have a desire to twist it for their own political gain (this recently evidenced by the President of the Southampton Students Union, but I digress…). The reduction or removal of buffers allows the commercialism to increase, and this is seen now world-wide.
So perhaps as I write this, I realise that not only is it the rise of commercialism which I resent, but also the loss of some of the other aspects of that time of the year – now eclipsed by the commercialism of Christmas. That Christmas itself is now stretched out over a 3 month period has also reduced the magic. It’s a little like strawberry season – that time of year was about 3 weeks long in July as a child. The time of year when the strawberries were so sweet, ripe and freshly picked, and we excitedly awaited the first to appear in the greengrocer’s (remember that shop?). Oh, the anticipation!! We had strawberries and cream several times over the three-week strawberry period, and then they were gone again for another year! Missed when not there, and eagerly looked for at the end of June the following year. Now we have strawberries year-round. Always available in their plastic boxes. Never quite as sweet or ripe. No longer special or anticipated with excitement. Just always there. So to look at it another way perhaps, Christmas has become just another strawberry. Pleasant in some ways, but lacking the magic or anticipation of days of yore.