Bah Humbag: Slowing Down Christmas

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Well, it is December and I have lifted my self imposed Christmas embargo. I refuse to even think about Christmas until now, no matter how much adverts and Tesco try and make me (I am sat here watching Love Actually. It is the one film that cannot fail to make me feel Christmassy!).

I don’t like Christmas. Well, that is not strictly true. I don’t like what Christmas has become. It seems to have become this secular celebration of consumerism.

All people care about is what presents to get, what presents they will receive, what food they need to buy (and, boy, do they buy! It is only 2 days, yet people seem to shop like they will never be allowed to buy food again), it is all spend, spend, spend…

Go and walk around your local high street now and you won’t see much the “season to be jolly” (or much “good will to all (wo)men” for that matter), all you will see is crowds (and crowds, and crowds…) of stressed and angry shoppers shuffling around.

It is ridiculous, and about as far removed from the original meaning of Christmas as we can get…

What is Christmas? Really?

What are the ancient roots of Christmas and the festivities that surround it?

Well, I am sure you are all aware of the song “12 Days of Christmas’”…

“Fiiiiiiiiiiivvvveeeee Gooooooolllllldddd Riiiiiinnnnggssss….” And all that.

That was because Christmas would last 12 whole days! It would start on the 25th December and finish on the 6th January (12th Night). Originally Christmas Day was celebrated on January 6th, when presents were given in honour of Saint Nicholas (the forefather of Father Christmas).

It was a time of merriment, feasting and general festivity (but still a holy day, with 3 masses on 25th December to start the ball rolling), with plays, processions and merry-making. It was not the family orientated affair we know today, but a celebration that involved the whole community.

Christmas (or Yule, or Christmastide, or the festival of Epiphany, or the Winter Solstice!) was a time of revelry, of community spirit, of celebration and feasting that lasted days (some sources say they started in November!), ending on 12th Night, or the Feast of Epiphany on the 6th January. It combined pre-Christian traditions and Christian elements to give thanks and distract ourselves from the cold, dark winters…

The Christmas We Know Today

The Christmas we know today (with the 2 days – Christmas Day and Boxing Day) was really an invention of those lovers of speed; the Victorians, to reduce the festive period into a manageable 2-day holiday so we could all get back to work as soon as possible (this was in the midst of the Industrial revolution).

However the rot set in a long time before those harebrained Victorians got their mitts on Christmas, around the time of Reformation, when Martin Luther created the Protestant Church (and the gave name to the dreaded “Protestant Work Ethic”) and started to cull the Pre-Reformation holidays and festivals as they deemed them “hedonistic” and “superstitious” (Christmas was even BANNED in Britain in 1647).

The blueprint for the modern Christmas celebrations was laid down in Charles Dickens “A Christmas Carol” (thanks Charley), with the idea of the one-day of feasting and celebration (Boxing day wasn’t traditionally classed as holiday unitl 1871, when the Bank Holidays Act in the UK was designated a Bank Holiday). It is suggested that Dickens (being a popular author of the time) was unofficially employed to do a bit of PR job on the new, shorter Christmas celebrations, as the workers were somewhat reticent of giving up their festivities (and who can blame them?).

Because of the truncated nature of the celebration and the fact that people were moving into the cities and away from the traditional village community, the onus moved away from the community as whole and focused much more just on the family (remember, most families all lived under one roof back then…).

When you describe Christmas like that, and discover the modern celebrations cynical roots, can you see why I am not a huge fan?!

How Can You Slow Down Christmas?

“We’re all dreaming of a pre-Reformation Christmas, when the festival really did last twelve days and during which time work and trade were forbidden, and instead we all danced, sang, ate, drank and generally made extremely merry. The sour-faced Parliamentarians of the Cromwell state actually tried to ban Christmas altogether, considering it Popish, old-fashioned and far too much fun. Luckily Charles II brought it back in 1660 and the medieval spirit of Christmas has survived.” - Tom Hodgkinson

The fact is, we are going to celebrate Christmas aren’t we? And why shouldn’t we?! I am not against Christmas as festival, I am just not too comfortable with it as the modern celebration of consumerism and speed that it has become.

Christmas should be a little bit of a revolt against the increasing pressure and stress of work and the consumer society and, in my humble opinion, the old Pre-Reformation celebrations were a much “Slower” than our current ones.

The idea here is to introduce (or re-introduce) some of the Pre-Reformation intentions that you may find will reduce you Christmas stress and turn it back into a time for you to enjoy!

1) Celebrate the full 12 Days!

Try and plan to do something for the full 12 days, rather than rushing to get everything done in the 2 days we have allotted to us. The time between Christmas and New Year is often a bit of an empty space and we are not sure what do to with ourselves. Well by celebrating the full 12 days you can use that time to catch up with friends and family at a more leisurely pace.

There are still some organisations that shut between Christmas and New Year (and good on them!), but if not, you can still do something in that time.

2) Go carol singing (or Wassailing as it was traditionally known)

Ancient carol singing was a bit of a rowdy affair, where people would go from house to house and sing and be offered alcohol by the inhabitants. I am not suggesting you go and harass your neighbours for booze, but a spot of drinking and singing does wonders to lift the spirits!

3) Don’t bow to pressure to do things that are “expected” of you

Christmas is a time for celebration not “duty”, if you don’t enjoy it at the rest of the year, why do it now?  Spend it with people you really want to, not people you think you should.

4) Buy gifts that mean something, not that cost the earth

The giving of presents seems to have become the central tenant of the modern Christmas with people stressing and panicking about what to buy people and often going into debt to pay for it.  Don’t buy pointless gifts just because you think you should, take some time to consider what that person would really appreciate and it (or make it!) for them. Presents don’t need to be expensive to be good.

5) Don’t go shopping

The internet is a godsend for this. You can do all your Christmas shopping from the comfort of your own sofa without needing to go out and face the hordes (unless fighting your way through crowds of angry shoppers makes you feel Christmassy).

6) The thorny issue of Christmas Cards

Hand written? Electronic? Don’t bother? Every year we seem to have to send cards to more and more people; work colleagues, neighbours (who we often don’t even know the name of), distant relatives we can barely remember. It gets more and more expensive, it is strain on the poor postal service and all that paper is hardly good for the planet (even if it is recycled or from a sustainable source).  I like the idea that seems to have sprung up of recent years (at least with people I know), and that is to donate the money you would have spent on cards to charity and then just send a generic email telling everyone that is what you have done. Of course, still send cards to people who are close to you!

7) Give something to the community

Boxing day got its name from giving gifts (or Christmas “boxes” to the poor) and Christmas was traditionally a time for community. So why not give something back? You can do anything you want from giving a donation to a charity (see the suggestion about Christmas cards), to getting more involved in something, it is up to you. Giving something back honours the Christmas spirit and will make you feel surprisingly good!

This is will probably be my last post of 2009. So I wish a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year (and, in fact, the new decade) and I will see you in the 2010.

Matt

PS, If you liked this post, please bookmark it on Digg, Stumbled Upon, Twitter, etc. I would really appreciate it

The ideal Christmas Present for the Harebrained person:

Vision For Living

Just a quick post to let you know that I am doing a talk entitled “Welcome to the Slow Life” at the Vision For Living Exhibition in Cardiff on the 31st October at 5:00pm. The talk itself is free and the entry to the exhibition is only £4.95 for the day.

You can learn more about Vision for Living here:

www.visionforliving.co.uk

If you are interested in attending it would be great to see you there. Please feel free to pass this on to anyone you think might also be interested.

I will be hanging around the ACT (Associated Contemporary Therapists) stand for most of the day if you want to come by and say “Hello”.

Matt

In the Media: TNT Magazine

Below is a clipping of a small interview I did for TNT Magazine (www.tntonline.co.uk), they call me a “Slow Travel Expert”, but that is only because it will be a travel magazine! Click on it to get the full size image.

It will be added to the newly created “Media” section under “About” where I will be collecting any media appearances that I have done.

Matt

If you liked this post, please bookmark it on StumbledUpon, Digg, Twitter, etc. I would really appreciate it

Slow Seminars – Some Tortoise Training Events

I have added some seminars to run this autumn. I have done my best to make the price as fair as possible at £55 per place.

If you can’t attend don’t worry, hopefully the events will be recorded and made available on this site (for a small charge).

All seminars are taking place in Birmingham UK. If you are interested in running any events near to you and would like to organise one, please contact me to discuss it.

Welcome to the Slow Life

Date: 10th October 2009

The Slow Life is the Simple Life is the Easy life. But how do you start slowing your life down?

This day will introduce you to the slow philosophy including the key steps to help you start slowing down straight away!

Learn how, my developing your “slow” mindset you can:
•    Increase focus and concentration
•    Relax and de-tress
•    Become calm and collected
•    Focus on the things you really want to get out of life
•    Reconnect with life and appreciate the present moment
•    Sleep better
•    Become healthier and more energised
•    Get control on your spending and your finances
•    Melt away worries and concerns
•    Much, much more

Finding Time to be Slow

Date: 7th November 2009

The biggest excuse I hear for not slowing down is that “I just don’t have the time. I have FAR to much to do”.

This seminar will take you through a tried and tested process that will help you organise your tasks so that you free up your time and allow to concentrate on what you really want to do.

You will learn to stop reacting to the external environment and banish “to do” lists once and for all you allow you take control of you time and your life!

A Day of Mindfulness

Date: 21st November 2009

Slow is about savouring the minutes not counting them. But how much attention do you really pay to the present moment?

Mindfulness is originally a Buddhist concept and although mindfulness meditation techniques originated as spiritual practices, they have a long history of secular applications with teachers and authors such as Jon Kabat-Zinn introduced Buddhist mindfulness to the West.

Psychotherapists have adapted and developed mindfulness techniques into several promising cognitive behavioural therapies. Clinical research shows Buddhist mindfulness techniques can help alleviate anxiety, stress, and depression.

Present moment awareness is at the core to the Slow philosophy and in this day you will learn ways to be more mindful in your day-to-day life (without needing to spend hours contemplating your navel – unless you want to of course!)

For more details and to book, go to the training page

SC

Slow Yule Part 4 – Merry Christmas/Seasons Greetings

Well, well. I didn’t really get as far into exploring the idea of Slowing Down at Christmas as I would have liked. This is due to a couple of factors; dodgy internet connection over the last few weeks (one of the very few downsides to living out in the sticks) and not having the time due to a strangely hectic diary (I have been working away for the last week)

I will return in 2009 with much more about slow down and the slow movement, including (hopefully):

• A new shiny website (I think I have been promising this since I started this journal!), which will have a proper online shop facility
• A range of information products – audio and ebooks to help you slow down. Including a free ebook or 2 if you are lucky…
• More SlowCasts (if you haven’t had the chance to listen yet, go here to listen via itune - if you do this please leave groovee feedback! – or here to listen via podbean)
• More DeckChair TV episode (keep up to date here)
• Updated training and coaching packages.
• Tai Chi.
• More blogs about the current state of slow…
• Much more (they always say that don’t they? Probably because it is true, although I am not sure what it is yet…)

The subject of my first few posts of 2009 will be how to create New Years resolutions in a Slow way and how by applying Slow principles you will actually stand a higher chance of succeeding in doing them this year! AS well as more in depth look at how to cop with the continued global socio-economic downturn and how slowing down is the only sane option…

So have a good Christmas, a good New Year and see you in 2009!

SC

 

Slow Yule Part 3 – Bad Santa

Santa is evil.

This may sound controversial. Hold on, it is going to get worse…

The Santa you know and love was essentially designed by Coca Cola. Now I love a Coke, don’t get me wrong, and I don’t want to get into any legal trouble, so all I am going to say is google Coca Cola and see what they have been up to in the name of making money. Not the soft and cuddly “All American” company you thought is it?

Santa is the physical manifestation of the current attitude that Christmas is all about giving and receiving stuff. We put ourselves under massive psychological and financial pressure to provide the right gift to the right person. Or provide the right party, event, meal, whatever.

It encourages people from a very early age to demand and expect presents at Christmas.

This, in my opinion, not only goes against the spirit of Slow, but the essential Spirit of Christmas all together.

Although I do like a nice prezzie from time to time.

Ban Santa!

So, what do we do about it? How can we deal with the financial concerns of Christmas (which, to be fair, is probably the biggest headache of all).

Well, as synchronicity would have it, I was just driving back from the recording studio and was flicking through the radio channels and found Martin Lewis from Money Saving expert on Radio 1. Martin is one of my favourite people, he is the king of Slow Money, he is an expert at showing you easy and simple ways to save yourself lots of unnecessary expense. His advice is not based around abstinence, but about just being clued up and not getting ripped off.

(I highly recommend you check him out at www.moneysavingexpert.com)

He was discussing on the show about how to deal with Christmas financially. There is not point me going on about when he can,

So you can listen again here (UK only and only for the next 7 days I am afraid):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/jowhiley/martinlewis.shtml

And you can find all his tips here on his site:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/martin-lewis-radio-1

I hope you find them as useful, informative and empowering (I can’t believe I have just used that word, I hate that word…) as I did.

SC

Slow Yule Part 2 – Pre-Reformation Celebrations.

Well, my apologies for not getting the next part up until today. 

Last time I was talking about how Christmas really went pear-shaped around the time of the reformation and the rot continued to set in until today it is little more than a celebration of consumerism (again, I repeat, I am not totally against consumerism, I like nice stuff, it’s all about balance, I promise to write a quick entry on that very soon).

Now, I don’t want to descend into a lecture about the origins of Christmas, was it a Christian festival? Is it an ancient Pagan one? That is all a little murky and no one really knows.

The fact is that we are going to celebrate it. And in my humble opinion, the old Pre-Reformation celebrations were much more “Slow” than our current celebrations.

And to be fair, a lot of the things I am going to talk about are still done in some places of the world or have only declined quite recently. So I am not necessary going all misty eyed for a “Merry England” Arcadia…

(Although I often go all misty eyed about the idea of a Merry England Arcadia. But that, again is for another post…)

The idea here is to introduce (or re-introduce) you to some choice Pre-Reformation Celebrations that you may find will add to or replace what you are doing now and reduce you Christmas stress!

Firstly, lets look at the length of the celebrations. Forget the stingy 2 (or if you are lucky 3) day holiday we are used to. That really came into effect in the Victorian era and was a side effect of the increasing industrialisation and urbanisation. It was to encourage productivity and it was difficult to generate the community spirit in the now sprawling cities, so the festival started to focus more on just the immediate family.

I am sure you are all aware of the song “12 Days of Christmas’”…

“Fiiiiiiiiiiivvvveeeee Gooooooolllllldddd Riiiiiinnnnggssss….” And all that.

We that was because Christmas would last 12 whole days! It would start on the 25^th December and finish on the 6^th January (12^th Night). Originally Christmas Day was celebrated on January 6 when presents were given in honour of St.Nicholas.

It was a time of merriment, feasting and general festivity (but still a holy day, with 3 masses on 25^th December to start the ball rolling), with plays, processions and merry-making. It was not the family orientated affair.

Now I am not saying you have to celebrate the whole 12 days really But the idea is to recognise that you can pace yourself a little, it is not about that mad rush to fit it all into the 2 or 3 days that we have and then feel a bit lost until New Year…

SC

PS, Yes, I am posting on a Saturday. It is because I have had a few technical difficulties in posting this week…

Slow Yule. Part 1

Hello,

I have to admit to being a bit random with my journal up until now, just writing what has been on my mind and what I have been up to. Which means I have promised to talk about things in more depth in later entries and then got myself totally distracted and wandered off on tangents, never returning to the subject.

So, I have decided to put a bit of order into the chaos and am going to follow a theme for a while. So, the theme running up to Christmas will be (predictably) about Christmas and how being Slow can make your Christmas much better.

And then, after that is all out of the way I will talk about you can make some really useul

Probably. Assuming I don’t get distracted…

So, Christmas.

Hmmm, I have to be blunt. Christmas has probably become the most un-Slow of all festivals. It has been taken over by excessive consumerism (I don’t have anything against consumerism as such, but excessive consumerism – like excessive anything – is not good. But that probably is a subject for a post of it’s own) leading to unnecessary debt, the pressure and stress of getting the right presents for the right people and going to visit people you don’t really know or like just because you think you should (even though you don’t bother the rest of the year)…

It is has become far removed from the original festival that is was.

In these first few posts I am going t explore the history of the Christmas festival and so we can start looking at ways we can get that back and rekindle the proper spirit of Christmas (which is very slow indeed!).

The Christmas we know today (with the 3 days – Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day) was really an invention of the Victorians (with a bit of help from Charles Dickens) to reduce the festive period into a manageable 2 day holiday so we could all get back to work (this was in the midst of the Industrial revolution), which really goes against the Slow ethos of the work/life balance and is therefore really doomed to be stressful from the get go!!

But the rot set in a long time before that, around the time of Reformation, when Martin Luther (as an enemy to Slow as Benjamin Franklin) created the Protestant Church (and the gave name to the dreaded “Protestant Work Ethic”) and started to cull the Pre-Reformation holidays and festivals as they deemed them “hedonistic” and “superstitious” (Christmas was even BANNED in Britain in 1647!!). Before this Christmas (or Yule, or Christmastide, or the festival of Epiphany, or the Winter Soltace!) was a time of revelry, of community spirit, of celebration and feasting that lasted days (some sources say they started in November!), ending on 12^th Night, or the Feast of Epiphany on the 6^th January. It combined pre-Christian traditions and Christiam elements to give thanks and distract ourselves from the cold, dark winters!

In Part 2. We will look in more details at these Pre-Reformation festivals and how we could include some the ideas into our modern Christmas to reduce the stress and make it a Slower festival…

SC