farmdoc's blog post number 613

As I wrote here 365 days ago, I’m Jewish and so I don’t do Christmas. I still am and I still don’t. But that doesn’t stop me keenly observing the phenomenon of Christmas in the second-world liberal democracy that is my country, Australia.

Since I was a nipper, I’ve found the poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas evocative of the Christmas ethos. Ditto Good King Wenceslas, Silent Night and some other carols. Among the songs, Bing Crosby singing White Christmas never fails to stir my emotions. And, latterly also, Steve Earle’s Christmas in Washington even though it’s not about Christmas at all.

Now I’m older if not elderly, there’s no magic left in Christmas for me. These days I see Christmas as an orgy of gratuitous materialism, and an excuse for irreligious gluttony. Also I see people in mellow mood wishing each other well, when for the rest of the year they couldn’t give a damn about each other.

If you want a concrete example of Christmas discordance, the insurance company AAMI provides one in this recent national media release – about the carpark rage of people doing Christmas shopping. The research data confirm just how phony so-called Christmas spirit is.

So let’s see Christmas for what it is. For to pretend otherwise is unbecoming at best, and hypocritical at worst.