CHRISTMAS time is drawing closer, and while it’s supposedly the happiest time of year, it also turns out to be one of the most wasteful.
Do you know the old rhyme, “Christmas is coming, the ducks are getting fat ….”?
Nowadays ducks rarely get a mention at Christmas – it is all ham and seafood.
Not that either the pigs or prawns are getting fat, but it seems many retailers are.
One can mentally hear the song, “It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” from mid-October.
These days, the concept of Christmas seems to be that one gives expensive presents.
The Australia Institute reports that approximately $1 billion worth of Christmas gifts are never used, with a large percentage eventually ending up in landfill.
According to my research, “on average, Australians are expected to spend $1479 on Christmas food, alcohol, eating out and travel this Christmas season.”
Every year we hear how credit cards have been “maxed out”, how people are accused of spending more than they can afford and have to spend the rest of the year making it up.
Why is this seemingly the spirit of Christmas?
Why is it that it is seemingly impossible to “celebrate” Christmas without all of this expense?
When our grown-up children ask what we want for Christmas we insist that it must be edible or drinkable.
Even so, without expense, Christmas can be the happiest time of the year (see above) particularly if one concentrates on the importance of the original celebration – the birth of Jesus and the meaning of his whole life, based on hope, peace, joy and love.
May you have a hopeful, peaceful, joyful, loving Christmas all within your financial means.
By Father Kevin Njoku
