It’s about this time of year – the darkest days of winter – when we traditionally get those newspaper articles lamenting the amount we consume over Christmas and how it’s all grossly commercial, which is bad because some kids go hungry; followed by the Thought for the Day piece about how we should all embrace poverty, which is what the Christian message is really about, rather than stuffing our fat faces and spending loads of money we don’t have.
But to me what’s special about Christmas is that my children really enjoy being given presents, including the ones from Fr Christmas, now a sort of grandfather-god of consumerism. They’re still at the age where they think Santa is real, but then I tell them lots of white lies – the cat has gone to heaven, the Conservatives are going to win the 2015 election, daddy’s really rich and successful and all his arguments have been proved right.
Presents and consumerism are exactly what Christmas should be about – one great big John Lewis advert where you show your kids how much you love them by buying them lots of stuff, except it’s all slightly out of focus because you’re drunk.
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