A Christmas Bungle

At a recent team meeting, we were discussing topics that we could write about, I piped up that I had recently read a short story Skipping Christmas by John Grisham. This was about a couple whose daughter was taking a year out with the Peace Corps in Peru which meant that they would be alone for Christmas. Once they had crunched the numbers on how much money Christmas had consumed last year, they decide to avoid it altogether and fly out to the tropics for a much needed holiday, costing roughly half what they would have normally spent.

As I regaled the tale, I noticed that my team was listening with cocked heads; but clearly thinking something … I went on to describe how I was irritated with the couple who capitulate on their promise to each other as their daughter suddenly calls them from an airport, unexpectedly returning home from Peru with her new fiancé.  A daft and rather nauseating comedic mad dash ensues to provide a decorated house, a party, food, drink and presents with a few hours’ notice.

“That’s Christmas with the Kranks” laughed one of the team… “you’ve just told us the plot of the movie – Christmas with the Kranks… with Tim Allen and Jamie Lee Curtis!”

I hadn’t seen the film (and still haven’t – it’s got Tim Allen in it after all). We all laughed at my unusual lack of film knowledge!

So why did the story annoy me?  Well, primarily because of the ridiculous amount of social pressure we are under to conform to ‘norms’ at Christmas; when most of these norms are actually contrived works of capitalism and have very little to do with Christmas.  So when someone decides to do something different, one might even say ‘sensible’; it was a bit of a pity to see the opportunity wasted, and instead to simply capitulate into the consumerist event that it has become (particularly in America).  I am not deliberately trying to be Scrooge, I am just as prone to overdo the decorations (you should see the tree I’ve got for the office!), food and presents as anyone else – it’s simply that this was offering the opportunity to explore the daft side of the expense.

In the end, the local community rally round to support, but prior to that had been deliberately conceited in their attitudes and downright intimidating. If they were my neighbours, I’d not think them an understanding, considerate bunch. I was left with that saccharine taste of an American Hollywood Christmas, that is playing the right notes to elicit a particularly superficial and romanticised nostalgia.

The points raised by Mr Krank are shuffled to the sidelines, written off as cronyism or “lacking fun”.  Yet that was not how the story originated; it was yet another opportunity wasted to explore a more thoughtful approach to the festive season, which for many millions causes significant financial pain with many people left feeling even more in touch with their sense of loneliness or disconnection. It’s difficult to stand against a rampant culture.  I even saw one charity flyer recently proclaiming that “nobody should be hungry at Christmas”.  I immediately thought to myself – nobody should be hungry at any time of the year, unless they want to be. Christmas becomes this one day when we are told to suddenly regard each other with heightened empathy – for the day.  It’s almost as fruitless as Remembrance Day, when we collectively vow that we will learn the lessons of heroes and not to go to war but then do so, repeatedly.

Compare this to Mr Scrooge, who is forced to reflect on his life choices, but who is changed, permanently for the better, to live generously.  Dickens doesn’t pretend that change is easy nor that poverty will suddenly end, but he is all too aware that it starts with us.

Bah humbug!