I don't know why, but every year I seem to need to be
reminded as to how much I dislike Christmas. I dislike the commercialization of
what was in Victorian times, a relatively small event, to now something that
last for what feels like months. I dislike the pressure to buy, the need to
spend money to prove how much one cares about another, the raised expectations
of children (and even adults who should know better) and above all else that
assumption that everything will work out for everyone and that we will all be
together and happy on the 25th of December. But most of all I dislike the
mindless pap that are the Christmas movies that fill up the time slots of all
of the television networks for the month of December.
The endless variations of Dickens's Christmas Story are some
sort of perverse tribute to both the capacity of producers and writers to
re-work a story that did not need re-working and the empty headedness of those
who watch all of the variations. It boggles the mind that anyone believes that
one can make money telling the same old story over and over again - except of
course that they do. There as well appears to be an ever expanding repertoire
of made for television movies that create alternative realities where families
come together in joyful harmony; where single people (sometimes with children)
find someone of the opposite sex (I don't remember ever seeing a movie about a
same sex couple finding love at Christmas?) to not only give and get presents
from on Christmas morning but presumably for the rest of their lives.
I suspect that the writers, directors and producers who
"create" these movies and the people who negotiate their release to
the networks have little or no understanding of what life is like for so many people.
For those who live alone and have long since stopped believing that a handsome
or beautiful stranger will magically fall in love with them on Christmas Eve;
for those who have no choice but do without the "magic of giving"
because they just don't have the money; for all of those for whom Christmas is
not a time for celebration but a time to morn or to feel guilt or to be
reminded how empty their lives are - those movies are just one more crushing
reminder of what could have been and if one believes the movies - what should
have been.
I understand that the world needs rituals and celebrations.
I am sure it is true that for many people Christmas morning is a magical time;
that perhaps for even a majority of people there are parts of the month long
Christmas extravaganza that are looked forward to with great anticipation. For those people, if watching these movies
are part of that process of celebration - that is wonderful. But the rest of us
should have a choice. It is not that I need to find any more reasons to be
depressed or that I want to watch movies that always reflect the sadness in
life but how come there are not movies made about the week after Christmas
where people need to go back to their jobs as clerks in big box stores dealing
with dissatisfied customers, or where
people sink into deep despair as they look at their credit card bill or where
the superficial happiness that may have been there for a brief time on
Christmas morning has evaporated into the thin air of a cold January morning.
I understand why no one wants to make such movies or to air
them. But do we have to keep on showing movies that promise what for so many
people are visions of dreams long lost in the tragedy of their lives.
