Every year it come around again without fail doesn’t it? Christmas.

Most of us dread it of course don’t we? We daren’t admit it though would we, as the stigma of Charles Dickens’ Scrooge would stick to us like glue?

It starts very early in the year nowadays. It is supposed to be in December but it kicks-off in the summer no less. Most of the population in Britain these days seem to have no idea that it is actually the Christian Religion’s main festival of the year – set to celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Son of God, divinely conceived, born on Earth to a Virgin woman Mary.

Oh yes, human virgin birth is a true medical ‘possibility’ (parthenogenesis), but even Christian believers know that the birth was NOT actually historically on 25 December – so that is just an ‘official’ birthday (like our Queen has one in the end of May/ start of June, varying by country, for ceremonial reasons when her real date is 21 April – seen as too cold for fun times). Did a star really guide three wise men to the stable where Jesus was born in a manger? Did King Herod really slaughter thousands of innocent male children in fear of a Saviour being born (as according to Matthew’s gospel)? Was Jesus a real man, did he perform miracles, and was he crucified so died to save our souls from our sins? Those are questions that only each individual can answer according to their faith or lack of it.

You see, Christmas is in fact these days nothing to do with belief or faith – oh no, it is simply a massive commercial enterprise in the UK isn’t it? It is when the shops and businesses make the killing of the year.

Every year husbands and wives agree that the merry-go-round has to stop, and that next year for the first time the endless shopping for presents & food is terminated, there will be no more expensive gifts, that it will be presents only for the little ones, continuous wrapping will be gone, that the food gluttony will finally end, that Christmas dinner will be a small personal gathering and not a dozen or more, that it will be a small turkey and a couple of veg, rather than a monster bird that doesn’t fit in the average oven served with numerous other meats and a dozen veg, that the bins will not be filled with discarded wrapping papers, polyester & cardboard & cans & bottles and uneaten or out of date food, that part of the day will not be spent semi-comatose’d on the sofa, that the off-licences & supermarkets will take a hit, and the still surviving pubs might as well shut up shop for the holiday.

But it never happens does it? No, every year we are all back in there again aren’t we? Our resolve and determination to walk away from the Christmas fiasco is undermined by our personal weakness, and the overwhelming pressures of the commercial concerns & advertising media.

It is nothing to be proud about is it? What we all should doing at this time of year is indisputably to show love for others, to do something for another, help those in our communities who are struggling through oppression, discrimination, abuse, poverty, homelessness, old age, or ill health – whether or not brought on by themselves? Churches are charities are in there of course, providing Christmas dinners, support, comfort, and collecting those shoe boxes of gifts from followers for impoverished children in other countries – but did the rest of us play any part at all? Not many perhaps? Did we spend like no tomorrow on our own loved ones and friends, without a care in the world for the stricken strangers that we have never seen or will never meet? The true meaning of Christmas has been totally lost – lost now forever unfortunately don’t you think? That is a really sad reflection on our sick commercially driven society surely?

Oh yes, many will have made the pretence of being a god-fearing carer, a follower of Jesus Christ, so we would have been to a church carol service (or even watched one on television), or been to midnight mass – all done to give ourselves a warm feeling of self satisfaction and nothing to do in reality about worship, faith, or demonstrating our support for the real Christmas spirit eh?

The weekend before Christmas saw the biggest consumer UK spend for a quarter of a century – a one and a half billion pounds outlay (that is £1,500,000,000 everyone). Where the heck did all that money come from? The Country’s economy is still in the cacky (despite what George Osborne says), we are living at a time of severe austerity, facing worse to come after next summer’s General Election, and the majority of the population hasn’t seen any wealth growth in five years – so how comes then?

Mothers who have been saying for years that they didn’t have two pennies to rub together have now bought their children expensive electronic toys, i-phones, and x-boxes. It is all too much and the kids have been given so much that they can’t appreciate it – times are long gone unfortunately when children got a single present, an orange, and some special sweets, which made their day.

Where has all the bleeding money come from then? You guessed it didn’t you? The Banks of course. The same Banks that brought this Country’s economy to its knees over six years ago when the Labour government of the day had to bail them out and rescue the economy to the tune of FIVE HUNDRED BILLION POUNDS – and that cost us all the rest of us the pain of recessions and the cutbacks of the past half decade (but those responsible marched on ‘regardless’ with their excessive rewards and pensions intact didn’t they?).

Many families will now for the next six months, because of this Christmas, face many sleepless nights on the results of their stupid folly spending on their credit cards and their unauthorised bank overdrafts.

The Banks borrow money from the Bank of England at half a percent interest then they lend it to you and me at an out of control ten or twenty or more percent – that enables them to pay their guys millions of pounds in salaries and bonuses, you see. Happy about that are you? Yes if you are a banker.

The biggest laugh is that this is supposedly a Christian country (forty million – sixty percent), but we are in fact these days a multicultural society with a high proportion of Muslims (three million – five percent of our population), probably half a million Jews, and numerous other religions and non believers playing their part, but all who have no religious connection to Christmas – at least it means that an off-licence run by Muslims is open on Christamas Day (but the religion is supposed to be against alcohol isn’t it?).

[Don’t relax you Chief Execs of Amazon, M&S, Next, Dyson, Card Factory, Wilco’s, Royal Mail, Tesco’s, Boots, Harrods, John Lewis, Lidl, Smiths, Homebase, ToysRus, Dixons, Dell, Mothercare, Sony, DHL, Nike, Cadbury’s, Cracker companies, Apple, BT, VFE, et al – our mind is made up now, we are determine, and for us NEXT Christmas is DEFINITELY cancelled!]