Christmas: Let's celebrate to the max while we can

There are lessons to be learned from grim pandemic Christmases past – and one is to properly embrace joy when possible, writes James Millar.

In North Korea, they have Kim Jong-un, shaping the nation and policing thought and behaviour.

Sometimes it feels like, in Scotland, we have a similar figure maintaining an iron grip on the public imagination – the Reverend I.M. Jolly.

The nation that prides itself on Hogmanay high jinks in fact used to pause the party every New Year’s Eve, just before the bells, to switch on the TV for the Scotch and Wry sketch show, and check in on the annual antics of Supercop, Dickie Dandruff and, most iconic of all, Rikki Fulton’s master character – the lugubrious and misnomered minister, I.M. Jolly.

It struck a chord every year because it spoke to something deep in the Scottish psyche; an embarrassment at excess, a discomfort with the camp of Christmas that needed to be salved.

But, this year, of all years, it is imperative to cast off the pall of Jolly.

Justify past sacrifices by making merry

The last two Christmases have been grim. The first Covid vaccines, administered in December 2020, offered a spark of festive hope, but let’s not pretend that Christmas dinner with granny on Zoom was something any of us want to repeat.

Last year, the shadow of omicron meant celebrations were downsized at best, or cancelled altogether.

After two Christmases under Covid restrictions, we can now celebrate together (Image: Kim Cessford/DC Thomson)

To somehow justify that sacrifice, we will, and must, look for lessons. And there is one staring us in the face that ought not to be overlooked.

We must celebrate Christmas to the max while we can. Shamelessly. Without restraint.
Next year, we could all be under health-induced house arrest again, or subject to some other new and unexpected calamity. If you don’t make the most of this one, you’ll look back at a missed opportunity.

Spend wisely, but spend

Of course, the economy is looking shaky and liable for further deterioration in 2023. But that only makes it more important to go as far as you can (but, to be clear, not beyond your financial means) right now.

We’ve all signed up to capitalism as the least worst system for distributing resources. Christmas is the apogee of that arrangement

It’s not true that stuff doesn’t bring happiness. That looks a lot like ecstasy on my son’s face when he unwraps a big box of Lego.

And, frankly, if folk all start making rather than buying presents for each other, we’ll be in significantly worse straits in the New Year. The entire economy is built on the accumulation of stuff.

There is joy to be found in both giving and receiving gifts (Image: Dmitry Naumov/Shutterstock)

We’ve all signed up to capitalism as the least worst system for distributing resources. Christmas is the apogee of that arrangement.

Don’t overspend. And spend wisely – shop local, trawl charity shops, be ethical. Though capitalism can be cruel, it doesn’t have to be. But, do spend, for it will support the economy and it will spread happiness.

Christmas is multifaceted. It is faith and family. But it’s also excess and accumulation. Embrace it all for the full festive experience.

James Millar is a political commentator, author and a former Westminster correspondent for The Sunday Post