THE CO$T OF CHRI$TMA$ - A RANT

Ah Christmas “The most wonderful time of the year”… yeah, not really.

For those of you unaware, Christmas is the annual Christian festival celebrating Christ’s birth; it is celebrated to remember the birth of of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe is the Son of God. It is essentially a religious celebration that is about spending time with your loved ones and is meant to bring families together.

The opinion that has been put forward by many older generations in particular, has been that the ‘true meaning of Christmas’ has perished and that owing to the materialistic aspect of it, the religious connotations have also been lost. This is typically followed by all the ‘when I was your age’ comments that thus lead to the younger addressee suddenly losing all sense of hearing. In this case, however, I seem to understand the point of view.

Generations are growing up with the belief that Christmas equates to a day of receiving presents and that the holiday is associated with pretty decorations, which have the sole purpose of being, well, pretty. There appears to be a blur between secular and religious symbols- as a larger number of people seem to be more focused on keeping the customs and traditions, rather than acquiring an understanding of them. Moreover, the holiday season has now become an event in which even non-Christian people seem to be upholding some traditions. The biggest of these seems to be the buying of gifts.

Just to quickly clarify, my rant isn’t about how and why people choose to celebrate, or whether Christmas is more of a tradition now, rather than a religious celebration. I’m frankly quite unbothered by that.

I’m here to pose one question and one question only: Why on earth is it so extraordinarily and excessively over-priced?

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a hardcore believer in commercialisation being an awful thing. In fact, it’s actually very good to the overall economy of a country. However, why is it that every single year, the price of absolutely everything seems to escalate through the roof? When I say everything, I truly mean it. Once again, I completely understand the way this benefits countries’ financial systems, but why is it necessary for a tree to get increasingly more costly? A tree. They are literally everywhere- and not to mention that most people buy plastic ones. Yeah, plastic, which in the shape of a tree is suddenly extravagant and lavish.

I fully recognize how the selling of unnecessary items is profitable for businesses. But honestly, who is even buying some of these? And where are they putting them? I mean if you can afford that €3.2 million diamond Christmas wreath, you’re doing great in life, but why are you buying it?

Furthermore, with it being harder than ever to find well-paid jobs, the belief of the requirement of a pricey present still remains. Not to mention the joy that encircles one’s body by merely catching a glimpse of that red “SALE” sign, and before you know it you’ve bought so many useless items that one begins to question if that sign was the worst thing to ever happen to you. With the holiday season behind us, just take a moment to reflect back on those big purchases you made and how necessary they truly were.

To make things worse, not only do children generally expect the grandest of gifts, they want about 5 billion of them. I don’t mean to betray any of my fellow ‘addressees’ which I’ve mentioned previously, but some of those “in my time” talks could really benefit our wallets. Yes, Christmas might help governments and corporations but for the every-day people of the world, it does nothing but drain credit cards. Literally nothing- apart from perhaps bringing you very temporary, short-lived satisfaction.

Moreover, those governments that it’s bringing money to, are actually doing little to nought to put it to good use. The general argument made is that countries are spending ridiculous amounts of money to be a part of the trend that is, putting Christmas decor everywhere- as well as citizens being persuaded to participate in the shopping frenzy during the holidays.

For example, lets have a look at the Christmas tree in Knez Mihailova, in our very own city and why it is so necessary. Decorations are put up as early as September, in hopes of attracting people to come to the centre, putting said people in the holiday spirit and thereby leading to them purchasing numerous things. The underlying reason behind all this also seems to be the increase in tourism. Now, whilst I understand the financial viewpoint behind this decision, this is taxpayer money. Taxpayers are funding these controversial decorations and lights which amount to millions of pounds. The growth in Christmas expenditures has therefore let to it being condemned my many civilians and leaving several people wondering why all this money is being spent, when there are bigger problems that need fixing- and lets just say that having lights on every other street isn’t the best way of trying to hide said problems.

With that said, the situation in Belgrade cannot be compared to bigger and richer cities around the world- especially in places such as the USA. The infamous Black Friday sales have become over-the-top events, knowing to even involve violence among customers. The plummet in prices seems to attract people and gather stupendous lines in stores everywhere. In Western countries particularly, security on these Fridays are generally increased by immense amounts due to the reputation of disorderly behaviour that has been seen to take place. These clashes between people are often created by the brands. Corporations tend to include the ‘left in stock’ number on websites which somehow triggers something in the human brain. People don’t want to miss out- regardless if the item is something they actually want. Competitive instincts kick in and mayhem begins spreading.

But what is all this for? Why is the chaos necessary and why does its presence seem to be felt during the holiday season? What happened to Christmas being a ‘merry’ occasion?

It is now the time of year when shopping becomes the most dreaded- yet frequent occurrence.

Overall, Christmas is seemingly becoming a holiday, which is becoming more and more associated with commercialisation. Now, wether or not people believe it’s for the worst is