Tortoise Knows Best

Let it Slow, Let it Slow, Let it Slow: Seasons Greetings!

Written by Matt Caulfield on December 16, 2010

Excuse the bad pun of the title, I just couldn’t help myself…

Well, it is that time of year again. Christmas has snuck back round and this will most probably be my last post of 2010. So I just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

For the last two years (since this blog began, back in October 2008), I have written a Christmas themed blog about Slowing down over this most un-Slow of festivals. Unfortunately, what should be a celebration, a time to spend with friends and family and (in it’s earliest incarnation) escape from the winter dreariness with a massive feast, has been usurped and become nothing more than a celebration of consumerism.

Over at The Idler, Tom Hodgkinson draw’s our attention to G.K Chesterton’s comments in “The Spirit of Christmas” , Christmas is “…deliberately placed under the conditions in which it is most uncomfortable to rush about and most natural to stop at home… the old healthy idea of such winter festivals was this: that people being shut in and besieged by the weather were driven back on their own resources.”.

Don’t rush about this Christmas, think about what is important to you and try and embrace the true spirit of Christmas, don’t indulge in the orgy of overspending due to some sense of duty or obligation.

Eat, drink and be merry with the people that you love!

For the new readers out there that haven’t come across these posts before, I have linked to them below:

Slow Yule Part 1

Slow Yule Part 2: Pre-Reformation Celebrations

Slow Yule Part 3: Bad Santa

Slow Yule Part 4: Merry Christmas/Seasons Greetings

Bah Humbag: Slowing Down Christmas

I will see you all in 2011.

Matt

Slow Yule Part 3 – Bad Santa

Written by Matt Caulfield on December 9, 2008

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.