Now I may be talking way out of my depth here from a sociological viewpoint but the biggest thing I hate about Christmas bar none is consumerism. I hate it so very much it makes my blood boil. I know some of the people around me don’t see it that way and I don’t think that I alone can change the world but boy does it get me angry.
Father Christmas. We all know what he looks like and the image of the ruddy-faced fat bloke in a red fur-lined suit will feature heavily in people’s Christmas decorations. Well, if you don’t know this already, here’s a shock for you. That fat old bloke is nothing more than the adopted creation1 of Coca-Cola. It’s the worlds biggest marketing campaign ever and it’s nothing more than brilliance by the people behind it. You actually get to sell your product to the masses by using the biggest symbol of the festive season2 .
I haven’t checked if Argos is just a UK company or it’s part of a global concern but for the benefit of anyone who doesn’t know, we have a chain of stores here in the UK called Argos. You find them in town centres and retail parks. They generally all look the same and even when it’s not Christmas I perish the thought of walking through their doors.
Reason 12: Illuminating Chez Vous
I once registered the domain name tackyxmas.co.uk with the plan of taking photos of people’s exterior Christmas lights. I was then going to upload the pictures to a website for viewing pleasure. Once I’d set things in motion I realised that despite my misgivings about the lighting displays themselves, it might be considered a bit offside putting images of peoples homes on-line. So I abandoned the idea, which was a shame.
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