Christmas Jumpers

I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

When I first scheduled this Blogmas entry, I was intending to make it a very light and silly piece, but the more I thought about it, the more I realised that it would be quite insubstantial compared to my other entries, and largely unsatisfying to write. To be honest, the approach I decided to take only came to me this morning.

I want to state at the beginning that I am writing this article through curiosity, academic and personal, and I am not decrying other points of view, which I know are as genuinely held as my own. All shades of opinion should find themselves reflected here, or at least that is the intention.

When I say I love Christmas Jumpers, which I do, the reaction to this statement ranges from ‘So Do I’ to ‘I hate them’! It is a reflection of the widely divergent attitudes you find to all aspects of Christmas. No one that I know has ever said ‘I hate Shrove Tuesday’, although to be fair, I don’t like pancakes myself (!), or ‘I hate Easter Sunday’, so why is Christmas ‘hatred’ so widespread? I have put the word ‘hatred’ in inverted commas, because I genuinely think it is as much about hyperbole as ‘I really don’t enjoy Christmas’ doesn’t have the same impact. You hear it used about music, films, TV, presents, parties etc.

What fascinates me from a Popular Culture standpoint is the way that those who dislike Christmas appear to portray themselves as somehow reflecting a viewpoint that is superior to those who enjoy the festival. In that sense, dislike of Christmas seems to be placed on the same level as a love for fine arts, opera and ballet as the preserve of the more discerning elite. Elite culture has been placed in opposition to mass culture for centuries, and Christmas is merely the seasonal battleground that we seem to have decided upon.

Now, I fully accept that people can actively dislike the whole Christmas season, as indeed my own Dad did. He disliked the commercialism of a time of the year which had a message that he profoundly believed in. He felt that it cheapened the whole festival, although he would eventually get into the Christmas spirit around Christmas Eve, but I think he did that more for me than for himself. He took the Scrooge accusations in good part and as something of a badge of honour! (This perhaps goes back to the elite culture v mass culture element I referred to in the previous paragraph.) What he objected to was quite clear, as it is for many others. For many, Christmas is a sad time of year for many reasons. For others, the expectation that everyone will enjoy the season understandably gets backs up. Some people find that loneliness at Christmas is worse than at other times of year. We must always respect and acknowledge this.

Those of us who love Christmas can often be at fault by being overly demonstrative and making comments such as ‘Don’t be such a Scrooge’ unthinkingly, and without trying to understand the opposite point of view. Here, the binary approach that is taken to many things in life has become more obvious. We need to let people join in if they want to, and leave them alone if they don’t. ‘Encouragement’ sometimes becomes expectation and social pressure, so it is no surprise that people can react to this negatively. We need to avoid being like the title character in Elf (a film I really, really dislike by the way!) and being over-enthusiastic about all things Christmassy. We need to accept that there are bad Christmas films and bad Christmas music, just as those on the other side should acknowledge that there are good Christmas films and good Christmas music. Too often we can take an uncritical approach to every aspect of our favourite time of year. It is flawed in both principle and practice because we as human beings are flawed. Hearing Christmas songs in the shops in November may fill many of us with joy, but it also fills other people with annoyance. Yesterday, I wrote about the lower key and more concentrated build up to Christmas in the 1970s. Perhaps it would be best to return to that, although with modern technology that horse (or reindeer) has definitely bolted!

My Christmas ‘resolution’ is to find like-minded people who I can share my enthusiasm with and to live and let live when talking to people who find that enthusiasm baffling or even irritating. To all who read this, Christmas lovers or not, may I wish you all that you wish yourself at this or any other time of the year. I do love Christmas jumpers though!