A Change.org petition demanding that all shops be closed on Boxing Day, set up by Ian Lapworth, claims "we managed 30 or 40 years ago" and should "forget making money for one day" and "concentrate on making more memories with the ones we love".
"Whilst not everyone may see Christmas as a religious holiday, it should be respected as such, and retail workers given some decent family time to relax and enjoy the festivities like everyone else."Whilst I appreciate that some people in the UK wish to live in the 1950's, I have a number of observations wrt this petition:
1 We are not living in the 1950's.
2 Shopping on Boxing Day is not compulsory.
3 Many people (eg doctors, nurses, firemen, TV bods, etc etc) work over the seasonal period.
4 Not everyone is a Christian or, for that matter, believes in god.
5 If you want to spend Christmas with your family and not shop, then good luck to you. However, it's not for you to dictate to others what they can/cannot do over this period.
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ReplyDeleteHave you considered these ideas?
My comments are in brackets.
1 We are not living in the 1950's.(This is very poor argument, is it even an argument or simple contraryism?)
2 Shopping on Boxing Day is not compulsory. (This is true)
3 Many people (eg doctors, nurses, firemen, TV bods, etc etc) work over the seasonal period. (Most of these are essential workers, when did retail become essential? Something that must be available at every hour of every day?)
4 Not everyone is a Christian or, for that matter, believes in god. (No but Boxing Day isn't a Christian holiday is it? Having said that most people who aren't Christian also take a Christmas holiday so religion really doesn't have much to do with it.)
5 If you want to spend Christmas with your family and not shop, then good luck to you. However, it's not for you to dictate to others what they can/cannot do over this period. (Why is it that retail workers are not afforded this same opportunity to spend time with their family? After all would an extra day off really hurt retail?)
Mark Moncrieff
Upon Hope Blog - A Traditional Conservative Future
Very well put.
DeleteI suspect the top brass in these retail outlets have a nice long break with their family however, down at the other end of the corporate ladder; the check out people, the shelf stackers etc, they are forced to work. It is now impossible to get a retail position in a major supermarket or DIY chain without agreeing to work weekends and bank holidays.
Many retailers are no longer paying a premium for weekend or bank holiday working.
Many of those who end up working are women and thus will miss their family time which, in today's busy world, is always at a premium.
Incidentally, before I retired, I was in forensic psychiatry and I chose to work because I didn't want to play "Happy Families" and it allowed some of my more family focused colleagues to have those days off.....That was my choice and it also funded my January cruise which we took every year however, I am now informed that no premium is paid for the main holidays at my old hospital and therefore, if I were still working, I would not volunteer to do the holiday shifts.
Dear Mark.
ReplyDeleteI am all for tradition and I truly wish that Christmas and Boxing Day were seen as ‘family’ times, but what exactly are people to do on your idea of Boxing Day.
Stand around the piano in the parlour singing traditional songs, or perhaps a friendly game of charades?
The point that we are not living in the 1950’s is sadly valid, and the evidence is for all to see.
Entire families in restaurants where nobody speaks to each other, instead each of them whether young or old are hunched over their mobile phones, no doubt ‘updating their status’ or maybe taking photos of their food which they invite their virtual friends to ‘like’.
Young couples in a bar that for some strange reason prefer to ‘Watsapp’ the person next to them rather than simply talk.
Every home now has the usual array of big screen televisions and games boxes.
The art of conversation is all but dead. People no longer communicate in a ‘traditional’ way so it seems pointless to expect them to enjoy an enforced day together at home.
And they would be at home because of course, in your world, there is no point going out because everywhere is shut.
I think that for many people Christmas is seen as an awful time of year, beginning in September with the ads on the television and the gaudy decorations in shops and culminating with a disappointing dinner on Christmas day, and an even more disappointing television schedule.
Boxing Day, and a return to some sort of normality cannot come quick enough.
Interesting thoughts.....I do wonder though, if families spent more time together, say around the dinner table, whether their ability to communicate with each other would improve. Is the inability to talk to each other caused by too busy lives?
DeleteI had my grandchildren over a couple of weekends ago and they appeared to get anxious because they did not have their smart phones at the table with them. It was a similar kind of "anxious" to the kind an addict exhibits when starting to need a fix.
It is sad that too many people cannot hold conversations and many conflicts, at all levels, all too often are down to a lack of communication.
The real irony for me is that, in a modern world full of communication devices, we cannot get a basic conversation going.
I agree that Christmas/New Year needs to be kicked back into December but, businesses are paranoid about their competitors getting the edge on them and thus, each year it starts earlier and earlier.
We are not really living in a country run for the people, we are living in a corporate state run to generate money for the state to waste....Sad, but true.
Dear Anonymous (nice to see you without your Guy Fawkes mask!)
DeleteFamily life is important, why not spend a day enjoying your presents, instead of going out to buy more things.
Why not have a movie day.
Why not have a gadgets free day, start a new family tradition.
Why not have a family outing, to a park, the beach or to see relatives you didn't get to see on Christmas day.
Why not spend the day relaxing after a tiring Christmas day.
Non of these things are exclusive to the 1950's, it's a very silly argument to make.
Mark Moncrieff
Upon Hope Blog - A Traditional Conservative Future