14
2008
Christmas Sucks
An article by 
Someone told me yesterday that it’s Christmas soon and we should celebrate. He asked me if Santa was bringing me anything for Christmas. He told me that where he comes from Christmas is a time where everybody buys presents and gives it to their family and friends.
He described Santa to me. He said Santa was a fat jolly man who wears red and white and flies around the world in a sleigh giving presents to all the kids who have been good. He said that where he comes from, at Christmas time everyone eats heaps and they have lots of Christmas parties. He said that sometimes people eat so much that they need to sleep in the afternoon before getting into more food at night time and sometimes they have soooo much food that they throw it away or eat it the next day. He said that sometimes they have ham so big that it lasts for days and they sometimes get sick of eating it.
He was a funny man with a big smile on his face. It made me feel good. I asked how much money is used in his country at Christmas time and he said that some people guess about 450 Billion American dollars. That’s massive! I said that I had heard a big number once. He asked what. I said that once a person told me it would take 10 Billion American dollars to give everyone clean water to drink. I said I would like that.
My friend drank some water that his mum hadn’t boiled last year and he got really sick and died. His poos went really runny and wouldn’t stop. He got really thirsty and after a while he couldn’t play or anything. Then he died. His mum cried really loud.
I didn’t tell the nice man about my friend.
I asked how people got so much money to buy stuff. He said that sometimes they have to use money they will make in the future to pay for it. he called it credit. I didn’t understand that, but I didn’t tell him coz I wanted to look smart.
He looked at me and said it was the season to be jolly. I asked him what jolly was. He said it was being happy and laughing lots. He said it was enjoying Christmas.
I don’t know about that. My mum isn’t very happy. My sister died just on Monday. Mum said it was a thing called Cholera. But I didn’t tell the nice man about my sister. My sister was kind to me. My sister used to walk me to school. I haven’t been to school in ages.
He said I would like Santa. I don’t know about that. Santa sounds like he eats too much. Yesterday my mum mixed cow poo in the water with our soup. She said she had to otherwise I would be very hungry and she said it would give me the stuff I needed in my body. She wasn’t going to tell me about it, but I saw her do it. She looked sad when I saw her do it, but when she saw me she smiled. She said it was a special mixture, but I knew what it was. I didn’t care though…. I was so hungry.
I didn’t tell the nice man about that.
He had to go so he said goodbye. I said goodbye too. He said he was going to have a good time at Christmas. I hope he does. He said merry Christmas. I asked him what merry was. He said it was to be happy and have fun. I don’t know about that. I hope he has a merry Christmas, but if Christmas is everything he described then it might be good where he is from, but for me that Christmas sucks.
Rebel against Christmas excess this year. Do something different – join the Advent Conspiracy.
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About the Author: Frank Ritchie
Frank is the Education and Advocacy Manager for TEAR Fund NZ. Frank is a licensed Minister in the Wesleyan Methodist Church of New Zealand and has a keen interest in biblical perspectives of Justice and how this connects to service to, with and for the poor, disadvantaged and marginalized people of the world.
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Hi
Perhaps it isnt Christmas that sucks, more how people choose to celebrate it that sucks.
Last Sunday i preached at Chruch, a Christmas sermon, based on what Jesus did and said, much of the material come from the Advent Conspirary website.
This week i was blown away to get a call from a lady in the church, she had decided this Christmas to do something different, she had called the local prison offering to take in home baking to the immates, sadly they dont take home baking, but happy to take in baking from a shop that is still sealed.
We shared this Story at church yesterday, today i arrived at my office and found bags of baking sitting at my office door.
Whiles its not water for those who desperately need it, it is encouraging to see people caring for others.
For anyone else who may have the chance to share with others, the Advent Conspirary site has great resources, together we can help make the reality of Christmas better for people we may never meet. How cool is that!
Thanks for the posts frank, really gets ya thinking
Look I understand what your saying and to some degree I deeply agree with it. we need to greatly love our neighbors.
Consumerism is a huge problem which comes out at Christmas but does that mean its wrong for a family to buy each other presents as a act of love towards each other. To spend quality time as a family. I’m just a bit wary of extreme views out there that seem to be just guilt inducment
If you do think so then you should apply that principle in every area of your life and never go out for coffee, accept birthday presents or go see movies because there are people in the world who are hungry.
I think to be more balanced we should all consider scaling back and be generous to our families with our love gifts or not and with the poor in the world – and there are poor struggling kids in america too often due to broken families.
I would our genourosity to come from our hearts not just gulit
Darren,
That’s encouraging to hear.
Astrid,
Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to add your thoughts. I appreciate it.
Allow me to say that this is more a conversation starter than an actual well thought out opinion piece.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with buying gifts for loved ones and enjoying great food etc. I enjoy all those things… as well as the coffee, movies, birthday presents etc.
But I do think we should be open to being challenged to hold these things in balance and we should be open to be questioned about our lifestyles. We live in a world where it’s very easy to give into and justify our excess. The point of this bit of writing is to challenge that.
What you said here is my point – you captured it well:
Guilt should not drive us, but guilt and feeling challenged are not the same thing. Let’s enjoy life to its fullest and understand how much we have, but let’s also understand the responsibility we have with the things we have been given. Let’s allow the challenge of balance and global responsibility to inform our lives. When we do so, I have a sneaking suspicion we may value our lives even more
no that sounds good frank I glad you have balanced view point