Life

Leona O'Neill: It's time to ignore the adverts and reclaim the real Christmas

Christmas is coming and many parents are already feeling the pressure. It's about time that we took a stand against the modern world's unrealistic and overly commercial version of the season of goodwill, writes Leona O'Neill

There's no such thing as the 'perfect' Christmas
There's no such thing as the 'perfect' Christmas There's no such thing as the 'perfect' Christmas

I KNOW it's still November and we're not allowed to mention that festive word in civil conversation yet, but there is simply no escaping it, Christmas – there, I typed it – is well and truly here.

You can't walk into a shop in the city centre without adverts screaming at you that you need this thing or that thing for a 'perfect Christmas'. They are blasting out the festive tunes and flashing their twinkly lights at us in the hope that it will somehow hypnotize us so we'll buy stuff we don't need.

People the land over have been scrambling to be the first in their street to put up their Christmas decorations. Some of them took down their Halloween decorations and put the Christmas tree straight up, no messing.

Personally, I couldn't look at a Christmas tree for three whole months, but each to their own. I have found myself getting swept up in it all a bit this year though. It could be the election's fault.

I often find myself, after a day of perhaps vicious and divisive political stories, wandering around the Christmas decoration isles of stores, taking in the twinkly lights and admiring the shiny baubles. It is nice there, with the quaint wicker reindeer and the Santa who dances and sings Jingle Bells when you clap your hands. It's not the real world. And there are no election posters there taking the shine off the decorations.

The only downfall is that my car boot is now full of too many Christmas decorations that I don't need. Proving the point that I, like so many other people at this time of year, spend money I don't have, on things I don't need.

Parents are under so much pressure at this time of year. As we all know, Santa's presents still cost money. The North Pole Toy Factory doesn't donate gifts for free in this age of cutbacks and austerity. Long gone are the golden days when Santa would be giving out free presents to every child on the planet. These days it's payment up front.

And as parents we put ourselves under so much pressure. We absorb the adverts that say to have the 'perfect Christmas' we must buy this item or sign up to this contract. We buy cheap plastic tat with hugely expensive price tags for our children because we are told that they are this year's 'must-have toy'.

We are told we must buy new carpet and sofas for Christmas, a fancy new table and chair combo. We must have this expensive watch, the newest phone. We need £300 worth of groceries and enough booze to get an army drunk. Really? It's one day, for God's sake. We don't 'need' any of it.

The adverts tell us that Christmas is all family sitting around in matching jumpers or pyjamas, looking perfect, laughing and smiling and opening expensive gifts. And anything less than that, it's just not good enough.

We need to resist this. We need to put a barrier up between ourselves and the commercial Christmas juggernaut which will be hurtling our way these next few weeks telling us about all the stuff we 'really need', that inevitably we will wholeheartedly regret when we look from behind our fingers at our bank accounts on January 1.

I think we should all calm down. Christmas is but one day out of the year. I don't want to be a Grinch, but before you get swept up in the festive hype and purchase that 'must have' item, imagine yourself crawling on your hands and knees towards January's pay day.

That might make that 'must have' piece a little more 'don't actually need'.