Each year I write about how for me Christmas is a time reflect on all the things I am thankful for. I then set upon writing down new resolutions for the New Year, filled with hope and prosperity for the year to come. This year, however, I just can’t seem to get into the holiday spirit and just want the year to end as quickly as possible. It has been a terrible year for illnesses, and my four-year-old daughter has been going through what I can only call the ‘terrible twos’: tantrums, hair pulling, the works. She had pulled the Christmas tree down so many times that a week ago I packed it away and brought out a little 4ft tree that I literally tied to the table, threatening all the while that all she was getting for Christmas was a lump of coal. Thwarted from pulling the tree over she has now discovered she can pull the little light bulbs out of the Christmas tree lights. I’ve now been threatening to take that tree down as well.
And at the moment I can’t even escape the family meltdowns by grabbing a nice quiet coffee at my favourite café at the local shopping centre. After taking twenty minutes to find a park I line up for another twenty to order a coffee only to find all the tables already taken by, in the words of Tom Hodgkinson, other grim-faced toilers, all the while listening to Christmas carols blaring out of the speakers.
With Christmas decorations already cluttering the aisles of department stores in September (and lets not forget the Christmas Toy Sales in July) I feel like I’m beginning to suffer from holiday fatigue. In the wise words of Ebenezer Scrooge: bah humbug. I’ve even suggested to Mum about cancelling Christmas this year. This of course, did not go down so well despite the fact that she has been dragged to every toy store in Brisbane over the last month by my father looking for the perfect present for my daughter. All my suggestions of course have been meet with deep scepticism.
I long for the days when a simple garland of popcorn and scavenged pinecones where acceptable decorations for the tree and not those garish, overpriced pink and purple creations that seem to be so popular today. When stockings were the size, of well, stockings and not those licenced sacks that just beg to be filled with soulless bits of plastic. When family gatherings were a time to count our blessings with the ones with love and not a simply a time to show off our latest acquisitions. To put it simply, I want out of this consumer lifestyle.
