When I thought about writing this blog post I was quite reluctant to follow through my idea of questioning the very foundations that Christmas day tradition is built around but after careful consideration I decided that I would kick myself unless this was posted.
So as I am sure those of you that read post number 1 are aware I am a section 20 child under the local authorities care as agreed mutually between them and my parents. It so happens that this decision was made a couple of days after Christmas day 2014 (which I spent at home with my family) and thus the time of year is a difficult one for myself and those within family circle. Even though this memory places to some extent a strain on our relationships we have managed (so far) to spend Christmas with each other at some point across the holiday period therefore not detracting from the so seeming eleventh commandment that tells us that Christmas is a family time and nothing should come before this time of giving and love. Of course I haven’t really ever given a second thought to those who don’t have this luxury, not even after I moved into 52 week care, but before those of you reading click away from this page due to my ‘selfish nature’ I want you to ask yourselves if you really paid much attention to the fact that many children and adults spend Christmas day alone when you were sitting down to carve the turkey on the 25th.
The chance are in my opinion that you didn’t. There is obviously going to be a proportion of you who did, who maybe were one of the unlucky group that spend the day in isolation but let me tell you that unfortunately you are the minority. The truth is that the majority again came first this festive period as they all had at least one person standing by them to hold their hand and sing carols whilst chomping on roasted potatoes with the silver fork that grandma gave them as a housewarming gift. I was fortunate enough in some respect to be graced with having family at Christmas but for the first time this year I reacted differently due to something my mother sent me by text following a series of conversations we had regarding the antics related to the Christmas festivities. In this text my mother informed me that she was going to work in a homeless shelter next year for Christmas day, perhaps serving food to someone with nothing or giving them some new clothes and somewhere warm to sleep. I was quite taken aback by this gesture, I was proud to be the son of such a selfless woman who was prepared to break the expectations of the majority to help the few that have it hard at Christmas. But then I started to look back yesterday at my post regarding the educational opportunities for those in care and the massive proportion of those that are homeless that were once part of the care system and I had an epiphany.
What would it be like if Christmas didn’t exist?
Well we might not get any presents but that is pretty much the worst thing that could happen. There would be no more playground bullying towards the sad ten year old girl who still believes in Father Christmas, there would be seldom an occasion where a loss of a family member to the hand of the reaper would be magnified by the sentimental period that it fell within as this would no longer exist. There would be no more mad rushes to the shops to create the perfect day and there would be no more homeless individuals sitting on the street envious and angry at those that walk past them holding an extortionate amount of shopping (with still more to buy), angry at the money that these people must possess to buy so much stuff. Of course this isn’t the case for everyone, I am simply comparing the worst and best cases but the people in between still hold on to one thing at this time of year and that is how important family is during Christmas.
Well I want to challenge this. Christmas shouldn’t just be what we have made it, a time for keeping those closest to us closer than we do all year round, it should be a time for everyone, regardless of their relationship to each other unites to fix some of the problems that we create on a daily basis for ourselves. Problems such as drug addicted homeless people or suicidal individuals who just find this time too depressing. Problems such as the alarmingly high number of Samaritan calls during Christmas or the unfortunate number of those children in care who cannot spend Christmas with family which is apparently the way it should be spent. Christmas has been made too bigger thing and it is time we took a step back and thought about what is reasonable as a celebration and what is now becoming an escalating problem.
Thank you and remember to repost so that this message can be spread.
Barnaby.
Sect20 