I'll go with Kestrel

"What is life if we cannot enjoy with friends and family at this lovely time." I quite agree. In fact you have neatly led me into my rant for the Christmas period.

Now, before I start I have to admit that I am not a fan of shopping at the best of times, but particularly when I am broke. I loathe abject materialism and the spend, spend, spend culture in which we live.

So, my rant. On Christmas Eve I was fortunate enough to settle down with two out of three of my girls, along with Bruce to watch A Christmas Carol. My eldest had gone out to work at the local pub and had bought in a glass with an icecube and told me to open the present from her boyfriend - a bottle of Baileys - perfect. I love that film and the message it gives. Now the bit that stood out most to me was when Bob Cratchitt is going at the end of the day on Christmas Eve and Scrooge says something along the lines of, "You'll be wanting the day off tomorrow I suppose!" and Cratchitt replies,"if it's not too inconvenient, it is Christmas Day" and Scrooge shouts at him that of course it's inconvenient and that he must get in extra early on Boxing Day to make up for it. He had one day with his beautiful family.

We have returned to the days of Scrooge. The news on Boxing Day was full of the sales and the millions of pounds spent and the thousands of people who hit the shops. I hate the thought of all those people who are unable to enjoy even two days with their families and friends before they rush off to spend even more money that they don't necessarily have. The sight of young women standing to be photographed with their collection of designer bags which, even in the sales, had cost them well over a thousand pounds, probably on credit.

However, my sympathies do not lie with the mindless idiots who worship at the altar of consumerism but with the poor people who have to work in the shops. When I left university, the Metro Centre in Gateshead was just about to open and I got a job in Currys as a graduate manager. It was standard that you worked on a Saturday and in the 9 months that I was employed by them, I had one Saturday reluctantly granted to go to a wedding. I was lucky that, in those days, there was no Sunday trading, otherwise I am sure that working on a Sunday would have been expected aswell. All those thousands of families whose holidays are cut short because a parent/sibling/daughter/son has to return to work after just one day, just so that people can go shopping. It is so sad. Family life is being eroded by greed. This is not written from a religious angle, although I do find it difficult to reconcile the basic principles of living a Christian life with what we have reduced the Christmas celebrations to, but just from the point of view of the family.

Anyway, enough ranting. I shall return tomorrow with reflections from 2009 and looking ahead to 2010 (and I suppose, my weight!).

E xx