Changing Christmas: a thoughtful article by GF Willmetts.
For the few who really know me, they are aware that I’m not very keen on Yuletide. As a type one diabetic, rich sugary foods are actually dangerous because they raise the blood sugar too much and put my health at risk. Normals are uncomfortable digging into the chocolate box and me saying no. I learnt that a very, very long time ago. It’s easier to stay away from such celebrations. Don’t even ask about alcohol. I’ve heard one too many stories about type ones who get drunk, get careless, and either pass out, miss their insulin, or go into a coma and die. Anyone drinking around them just thinks they’ll wake up and don’t. Of course, that also precludes socialising.
I’m taking a neutral stance because I can approach this aspect of the winter season with a degree of dispassion while maintaining fairness. A lot of the things, like Easter and Yuletide holidays, vary when they are happy. With Easter, it’s 40 days after Lent. Christmas is always on the 25th of December, so it perpetually works itself across the week each year, jumping an extra day on a leap year. It doesn’t allow anyone to get used to what day of the week it happens and is certainly complicated for those who have to work. It lacks consistency.
So, what I propose is making it the penultimate or even the third weekend of December. This proposal would provide everyone with an extra few days to prepare for their shopping and a longer time to welcome the new year. It might even have some consistency across the globe, allowing for the hours to change because it would be based on an area of consistency. People are also used to weekends, and workers are aware of the hours. If they can’t have Christmas Day off, then they know they’ll have Boxing Day off.
Yuletide, based on the Christmas Day definition of Jesus Christ’s birthday, actually occurred between June and October, not in December. It was actually arbitrary, latched on to an existing longer pagan holiday like the Roman celebration of the Unbroken Sun, Mithra’s Birthday, and pushing theirs out of the way or absorbing it. Even Yuletide refers to a festival of fire and light for the druids. I’ve always felt it a bit odd because in 3 or 4 months, we have the crucifixion, which isn’t that far off from when it did happen, and so Christ has a short life in the calendar. If you wanted to do his life properly, then maybe Christmas should be once every 33 years, although I suspect that would upset a lot of children. The Santa Claus mythology originated in Turkey, if you check on Google, so things are really a mishmash of a shared holiday by many religions.
Of course, we could get rid of it completely and focus only on the New Year celebration, but I’m not that cruel to children. When it comes down to it, public holidays have more to do with children these days than their source or why we have an Easter Rabbit. Be grateful; I could easily have said, Let’s move the new year celebrations to the same date or even the proposed weekend.
GF Willmetts
December 2024
