Christmas is coming!

Cultural festivals, such as Christmas, are undoubtedly enjoyable and an important time for families and friends to relax together. Many have important religious significance. On the other hand, such events are often defined by excess and waste...lights, fireworks, over-packaging, excessive spending, over-eating and embarrassing self indulgence.

What do you think? Is Christmas sustainable? How would it all work in a changed world?

Or should all the 'do-gooders' leave our festivals alone!!!!

Nowadays the importance of religion within the ‘computer generation’ is very much absent. The appeal of going to church and listening to the vicar say his bit, which can be quite a timely experience, is far outweighed by the presence of the PS3/Xbox, television and the internet. I believe the lack of youngsters adopting the church practice in this day and age is very much due to the cultural transformation that has occurred in the past 30 years. Parents are allowing their children to do whatever with very little discipline and in many cases have ultimately ‘lost control’ of their own children. Forcing a child to go to church when they don’t want to be there can be damaging to the families reputation, which is deemed despicable to the ‘image’ culture that has been adopted in the past 30 years. However the Christmas experience is a different matter entirely. Every family seems to partake in this event even if they are not religious in any shape of form. I believe this is be due to the giving and receiving of presents that is all so appealing to many, particularly the younger ones. Christmas is typically a time where the family is all together, you eat and drink excessively and spend obscene amounts of money on presents that are very much in demand. Therefore many would argue that the importance of Christmas has been lost along the way and that the actual moral meaning has been misled.
At Christmas, I recall a relative selling an item on ebay for quadruple the RRP which beggars belief. The greatest importance of many families’ nowadays is to ensure that their children have their wanted toys on the day and in fact the real importance, the birth of Jesus is an aspect that is not at the forefront of many people’s minds. I am not saying that these people are wrong, as I am very much the same coming from a relatively non-religious family, but the behaviour of some is quite ridiculous when it comes to pleasing the family. This coincides with our present day culture of being spoilt, getting what we want when we want and the general association of the behaviour that comes when things don’t happen as they should have. Therefore I can sympathise with the church-goers in many respects in terms of the true meaning of Christmas being ‘lost’.
The idea of Christmas is very much a positive ideology to many but the implications on the environment are huge. There are many winners, the shops being the main ones, but as well there are many losers in terms of the impact on the environment. As mentioned before, parents spend millions each year on presents for young ones often paying weigh above the RRP. The packaging on many gifts such as toys and consoles is border line on the ridiculous sometimes. Also much of it is non-recyclable and will simply go and congest the landfill sites along with everyone else’s packaging. Christmas is often a time of meeting up with relatives that you don’t see too often. Therefore a large amount of travelling is often needed in the form of cars, airplanes and trains all of which are emitting emissions increasing global warming. Finally, the vast amount of food supplies required at Christmas time is much greater than at any other time of the year. This produces problems with farmers as they have to intensify their production. To supermarkets, the Christmas period is the busiest and often brings along with it exploitation of farmers in terms of their prices for their produce. As well the demand for the ‘perfect looking produce’ is always high. This can lead to large amounts of produce being wasted as it’s not aesthetically pleasing.
On the whole I think the idea of Christmas is great, but I can sympathise with the ‘do-gooders’ in terms of the ‘true meaning’ of Christmas being lost. The modern culture is producing a new age of new ways and experiences which may not meet the approval of many people who have still not adopted this new way.