Thanks for this timely reminder that if Christmas should be about anything, it should be about those less fortunate than ourselves. I have embedded the Daily Motion version in my blog.

I personally have disliked Christmas for as long as I can remember. At first I wasn’t sure why; and I always felt guilty for that – or was made to feel guilty. As an atheist, I presumed it was my godless leanings making me feel disassociated with it all. But then I realised it was because of scenes like those shown in the above video. The sheer inequity of the “Season to be Jolly” rouses feeling of depression within.

It’s nearly 10 years since I’ve lived in Dublin, but one of my abiding memories of Christmas was walking across the Ha’penny Bridge on a particularly busy afternoon. It was busy of course because there was only a few days of unadulterated shopping left before the big day. The atmosphere was palpable. Thousands of people swarming the Dirty Auld metropolis in an effort to buy some piddling old crap for Cousin Micko and Uncle Anto whom they hadn’t seen since last xmas anyway!

As most Dubliners know, there’s almost always someone begging for money on either end of the bridge – it wrenches the soul at any given time – but this afternoon was particularly harrowing because the traveler who was begging at one end of the bridge with her very young toddler was being kicked and walked on by the zombified throng who were blinded by the pure white light of consumerism. I’m sure I even heard one punter threaten her as his size 12 Doc Marten accidentally caught her 2 year old square in the head.

So excuse me if can’t countenance the madness again this year, but I just don’t have the stomach for it anymore. It’s bad enough that we’ve just come through 15 years of Celtic Tiger rip-off only to find that the moral compass of some has been sabotaged by the capitalist magnet that’s been placed next to it, but now we have to endure one more season of greed on earth and good will to some men.

Happy holidays all . . .
Gudenfast

Thank you for your insight Gudenfast. The Ha’Penny story conjures up a too becoming common image of a sign of the times. What with stampedes going fatal in Wal-Mart and rowdy cross border shoppers in the North, it’s a right mess we humans sometimes get ourselves into.

Christmas should for everyone, christmas should be about those less fortunate than ourselves and who is enabel to make christmas for them also.

It’s a good documentary which can make us know that “Christmas for Everyone”.