How to not hate Christmas

If you know me, you would have heard that I don’t much care for Christmas. It’s not that I don’t want people to have a good time when the cold and the rain is making every bit of our lives a little more miserable. No, that’s not the reason. It’s not a mysterious argument, but it definitely is a little more complicated than that.

Imagine being me: I like a quiet life and have learned that I can escape; perhaps that’s something you’ve never thought about. But if I can’t stand bonfire night on the fifth of November this year, I’ll fly to Spain; and if I’m fed up with the Spanish Semana Santa celebrations, I can always stay put in the UK.

But Christmas is different, my friend. You cannot escape from it. Most of the Western world celebrates this abstract period called ‘Christmas’. It has become so embedded in our society, that all corporations take advantage of it by selling us season-related gifts and subjecting us to songs and carols.

Imagine, just for this second, that while children are being bombed in Yemen, prisoners are forced to make Christmas cards in China, and homeless veterans are fighting PTSD and alcoholism in the UK; you and I are going through Tesco’s, spending money we haven’t got on presents we don’t like while listening to Mariah Carey’s song telling us that abhorrent lie, that all your relatives want for Christmas… isn’t available at…