WHATEVER HAPPENED TO CHRISTMAS ?

I read that the Pope, Benedict XVI, has made a number of comemnts regarding the commercialisation of Christmas and has urged his followers to think more of the original meaning of the festival than of the modern-day interpretation.

Leaving aside the fact that the current date of Christmas is actually that of the old Roman festival of the Winter Solstice and has nothing to do with the date of the birth of Jesus Christ, I have to say that I agree with the Pope. If I was a Roman Catholic this would, perhaps, be unsurprising, but I'm actually an atheist. However, I'm also fed up to the back teeth with the way in which Christmas has become nothing more than an opportunity for commercial exploitation, increasingly ridiculous extravagance and gluttony. The vast majority of people in Britain seem to give no thought whatsoever to the religious aspects of Christmas, but they do decorate their homes, inside and out, in gaudy styles, spend incredible amounts of money on entertainment and presents, especially for their children, and eat and drink to gross excess.

I am no killjoy and no Scrooge. I have no objection to a bit of partying and enjoyment, but the way in which Christmas has been subverted in recent years is horrendous. Parents spend money they don't have on presents that their children demand; no longer are children happy to accept whatever can really be afforded, but they must have the assorted trappings of modern pre-adult life. Christmas begins in our shops at an earlier date almost every year; towns are decorated in early November and Christmas stock appears in the shops no later and often earlier. In the days immediately before the Christmas holiday, our towns and cities are almost impossible to move in freely, as insane hordes rush around buying last minute gifts and enough food to feed the 5,000 100 times over. If anyone can give me a sensible answer to all this nonsense, I'm willing to listen.

Christmas has become, in the developed countries, a time of straightforward extravagance on an idiotic scale. It is nothing more than an opportunity for retailers, and others with something to sell, to foist enormous amounts of tat on a gullible and pliant public, who are equally wrapped up in their own self-indulgence.

The Pope is right, in essence, although I have no sympathy with his religious viewpoint. Whether or not his call to the masses will be heard is another matter.