I neglected the blog at the weekend, so I will try to make up for it today posting more stuff. Yet, don’t worry, my temporary neglect wasn't caused by the fact that I was busy doing the Christmas shopping. I have indeed developed an extreme and shameful aversion for Christmas shopping since I first saw how things worked in the UK.
I was born and grew up in a country, Italy, where you would only start thinking about Christmas after December 8th, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, and your Christmas shopping would mainly start on December 24th and finish on the same day. It’s only natural then that, when I first saw how the Christmas shenanigans unravelled in the UK, I felt misplaced, confused and a bit disgusted. I remember I was simply shocked to see how some restaurants advertised their Christmas dinner parties in July, urging people to book then, but when the lights went up between October/November and the Christmas shopping rush started I usually developed some serious killer instincts.
In Glasgow it’s perfectly normal for serious shoppers to trample people in the main street as they furiously march to the next department store/high street chain/shop/whatever in search of that final but elusive perfect present. I know there are people with huge families, but I honestly can’t understand why you need to start doing your Christmas shopping in October. Well, I suppose there are fewer people around, you’re perfectly right, that’s a point, but why are those people who started their shopping in October still busy doing it in December? How many things do they really need to buy? Who knows.
The main reason why I hate Christmas shopping is because of the violence people display while they do it, I hate the fact that nobody smiles while doing it as if there were no pleasure in this capitalist but supposedly cathartic activity (is that because they know they’re spending too much and they will indebt themselves even more or because they know the people they’re buying those presents for do not deserve them?), I hate the way these people don’t care about the misery, poverty and sadness that surround them. I don’t want to sound like a party spoiler, but do you ever think about all the people who have lost their jobs this year, to all those who are sick in hospital or at home or to all those families who have lost a dear one? You may think that in a blog that’s supposed to be mainly about fashion and style, it’s rather unusual to speak like a terrifically conservative preacher or a ghost of the Christmas past, present and future out of a Dickensian story, but I don’t see things in this way. I think there’s nothing stylish or cool in buying without putting your heart in it, in splashing some money out just for the sake of it.
Last week I was at a charity auction in Glasgow. All the goods being auctioned were pieces of art offered by local artists. I was pleased to see that the auction managed to collect roughly £10,000, it was a remarkable achievement and I was very happy for them, yet at the same time I felt there was something wrong about it. Very wrong. I had the feeling that most of the people - mainly middle to upper class types from Glasgow’s West End - who were buying things weren’t really into the “charitable” aspect of the event, but they were more into the “let’s buy something relatively cheap and use it as a Christmas present” or “let’s try to make an easy investment that can also help us feeling less guilty” spirit. This turned the whole event into a painful process for me in which I witnessed some wealthy people battling each other out to buy a few interesting pieces and some horrendous things as well. I wonder if those people who spent £400 on a book with burnt out pages or £3,400 for a collage by Jim Lambie would have given the same amount of money to a charity without receiving anything from it. The answer, you will agree with me, it’s definitely no.
So what shall I make of this Christmas that has arrived too soon for my tastes, in times of recession for most of us and has found me with a heavy heart? I guess I will try to survive it as best as I can, trying to repress my killer instincts. Though, I warn you, it will be extremely difficult to do so.
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