Is shopping now the true meaning of Christmas?

The Christmas decorations have gone up in Birmingham city centre (in October) and one of them simply reads ‘Birmingham Shopping’. So not Merry Christmas then…

The Christmas festival has been hijacked by the marketing people who push us into ever greater degrees of consumerism. The true meaning of Christmas is lost under a pile of garish discounted items pushed in the face of consumers at every turn.

After spending most of my professional life working in and supplying the retail trade, I do understand that Christmas spending generates jobs and opportunities. Without it, the industry would collapse taking down wages and jobs with it. Many staff desperately need you to take advantage of their Christmas offers because they need that commission to bump up their low wages. It isn’t their fault. It’s the big retail bosses who sit in their plush offices, the marketing teams, the people who’ve never worked a Boxing Day in their lives. Every year they set even bigger targets, expect more from their retail workers, extend opening hours.

All the major stores now open on Boxing Day – someone told me this week that their company has banned them from taking any holiday Christmas week so they work Christmas Eve, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. How long will it be before the Government lets shops open on Christmas Day? Then Easter Sunday won’t be far behind.