"We're Cultured!" Thursdays: The Effect of Christmas

I hop online today to discover that my youngest sister has spammed our iTunes playlist with all the Christmas songs she can download. Christmas. That slightly odd scary season where rationality goes out the window and people think with their hearts and feelings. Why are so many films set at Christmas? Why do so many artists do covers of Christmas Carols and then release them as special edition, limited, super-extended versions? Why is it that most often, confessions of love are made at Christmas? The adage, "If not at Christmas, then when?" is used to great effect in films like The Holiday and Love Actually. Every major city has a Christmas budget where they go all out to decorate their city- storerooms of Christmas decorations. Everyone gears up for the end of the year- fresh produce, postal services, television adverts, carols, gift shops, department stores- it can all get a little frazzling. Especially if you're like me and haven't started your Christmas shopping. Oh dear.

The effect of Christmas on your average person is already quite strong so what's it like if you're female/Asian/slightly cynical of all the hoopla/all of the above like I am?

Female: As per usual, our tendency to think far too in between the lines is a bit cumbersome. You're either lumped with doing the cooking or the decorating and the clean-up because if you try to leave it to men who don't really want to do it, it all goes to pot. Do you get that person a Christmas present or would a card suffice? Is the fact that you're weighing up their friendship in terms of gift/card worthiness a sign that you're turning into a Scrooge? What happens if you get that particular guy a present- is he going to think more of it? Do you want him to think more of it than a mere Christmas present? Why is it so damn hard to shop for guys? "If that pushy sales assistant tells me that "this is the perfect gift for ____" one more time, I'm going to shove that shiny Christmas bauble where the sun don't shine."Why do girls feel the need to dress up like slutty Christmas elves at Christmas-time? Same reason why they have to be slutty Easter Bunnies at Easter and slutty French maids at costume parties.

Asian: WHY IS CHRISTMAS SO EXPENSIVE (lah)?? Look at all these cars- there's not going to be any parking spaces left unless I start to break out the prayer warrior right now. Being Asian is a bit of an odd thing because in my experience, a lot of people assume that you don't celebrate it which is bit of a contradiction because their version of celebrating Christmas has nothing to do with the little Baby Jesus. There's also the extended family who may or may not celebrate the festive season and who are just thankful for the time off (or grumbling that they're not allowed to open for trading over the break). We regard turkey and ham at Christmas as bit of a novelty rather than tradition and you'd be far more likely to find laksa and curry at our Christmas luncheon.

Cynical: Look at all the lemmings going off to celebrate something that very few of them have any understanding of. Stupid Jess, don't be so ungrateful- that's your job as a Christian- to share the real meaning of Christmas to these consumers spending away to strains of Mariah Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You. And who on earth redid O Holy Night to a hip-hop beat?!? I have to battle with these thoughts every year- I get a little disheartened at my own behaviour as well- in all actuality, I should be out there serving food to the homeless or contributing/organising something for the people that have nothing this season but I don't. I usually end up selling out and join the lemmings at screaming at people in car parks. I just want one Christmas where I'm not thinking of myself but in turn- that means not thinking of my family because we always spend all of Christmas together- is it abandoning family for strangers, even if it is for a good cause?