Where did it all go wrong?
Christmas more macabre than Halloween
It’s become a commercial nightmare
Instead of a nativity scene
A tacky, money spinning business
Bedecked with flashing neon lights
Like a bad day out gambling in Blackpool
Instead of a time to put the world to rights
In retail it starts in July
When they open the Christmas shop
Flogging the tinsel and spinning the tunes
Oh, please, someone make it stop!
And now, in November, some erect the tree
Not twelve days before like it used to be
The magic of Christmas eroded away
What would baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph say?
What happened to simple carols
And dining on festive fare?
Curling up with loved ones
All cosy and warm somewhere?
Counting all our blessings
Learning lessons, feeling thankful?
Not wearing out our feet
Pacing malls in a mad scramble
Of frenzied unbridled spending
Like possessed demonic trolls
Bingeing and consuming
Black Friday, January sales
No time for rest at all
Or spiritual contemplation
No time for togetherness
Just indulgence and inflation
Of prices and of waistlines
Whilst souls are starved of nutrition
The true meaning dead and buried
The decay of the human condition
It’s grating on me already
And December has barely begun
Hence why I’m slinging my hook
And spending it an Ashram
Rachel Rhodes 