A Western Christmas

“Once a year, they gathered with gifts for one another in celebration of the Christian story where the divine and sacred enters the mortal realm in the form of a baby; pure, innocent, human. But this tradition was to take on a vastly different setting from its Judean origin – one that adopted a Sami romance and told the story of Elves making presents and an Elder who would deliver those gifts to children, travelling from house to house with his flying Reindeer. This was a bright and colourful scene with deeply rooted undertones of darkness, tragedy, the oppression and exploitation under a great empire.”

Perhaps a narrative like this could be delivered by an elder to his or her kinfolk around a fire on a winter’s night in a future society far-removed from our own. Let us imagine that in this future society, they do not have such days of the year dedicated to gifting tangible goods, but rather value the pursuit of giving and receiving equally with the small and mundane: cooking food, singing a song, being intimate, being present, spreading positivity, cleaning the house. Let us imagine that in this society, there is no word for ‘please’ and ‘thankyou’, no word for ‘mine’. But rather it is expected among these people that they share everything that is before them, and the notion of having to say ‘please’ and ‘thankyou’ as an expectation would isolate a person from the true meaning behind giving and receiving.

The colourful and happy little elf in this story could well represent the millions of factory workers, most of whom live in ‘third-world’ countries, working full time for peanuts in apathetic conditions. But we don’t talk about this because it would dampen the mood of festive cheer and diminish the innocence of buying presents from giant warehouses belonging to corporations that remain unresponsive to the global crises of environmental collapse and societal turmoil.

The elder in the story, for whom the elves work, Santa Claus, well … he could represent a great deal. One popular insight is the life of Saint Nicholas of Myra, a Roman-Greek who lived in the 3rd and 4th century, renowned for his generosity and his inclusive nature, welcoming the most neglected members of society; living a life strongly reflecting that of his God who lived as man on Earth only 300 years earlier.

A more cynical perspective could be that Santa Claus embodies the commercial capitalism that aggressively fuels the material consumerism embedded in modern society. There is little doubt that Christmas comes with a great deal of stress concerning what gifts should be bought and for who. And it doesn’t feel healthy, nor does it serve any sustainable purpose.

A very particular narrative is fed to us, that is - we are all entitled to be happy at Christmas.

But why? And what does this have to do with buying things for your loved ones?

Gifting is a wonderful thing and should not be limited to what one can find on a Black Friday sale, or even in a humble charity shop. Gifting should be boundless and free of ego.

Once you invite the ego into the act of giving, you are creating a space for judgement to fester. An example of judgement in this context could be as follows:

I feel anxious about giving you an expensive t-shirt decorated with an iconic brand logo. I would judge myself and fear what you would think if it were an unbranded, second-hand t-shirt from a charity shop that cost the same amount as a bar of chocolate which I buy for myself every time I walk past the corner shop, because it is cheap, and I’d be considered a cheapskate. However, I’m also hesitant about spending 5-hours work pay on this new branded t-shirt because, although it’s a well-known brand and you wear it often, it almost costs the amount I’d earn in a day. And this is one very simple t-shirt.

What are the themes in this all-too-familiar scenario? Money, time, branding, numbers, fear … it all seems rather ugly and absolutely nothing to do with selfless giving.

While millions (if not billions) of us consume the online warehouse markets for Christmas presents, are we not entertaining a superficiality that is designed to serve the very industries that oppress and exploit peoples and lands that have a scarce presence in the popular Western conscience? While we indulge in sales and mass-produced ‘goods’, satisfying our need to conform to an obscure expectation, the people who we have fancifully rendered into a race of elves are paying the price.

Let us be reunited with the sacred essence of giving and receiving, setting it apart from ego, finance, materialism, and expectations. Once we remove the toxic superficiality from this tradition, we might find ourselves rediscovering what it really means to give and receive, being mindful that for a great many people around the world, Christmas is not full of unobstructed joy.