The twelfth day of Christmas is approaching and life is gradually returning to normal. I don't regard Christmas as fully over until after January 7th, the Russian Orthodox Christmas. For several years during the Nineties I used to go on the evening of January 6th with Russian and Russophile friends to the Christmas Eve service at the main Russian Orthodox church in London - and enjoy the magnificent singing of the choir there.
I've got mixed views about Christmas. There is something about the spirit of Christmas that gets to me - particularly through the music of Christmas. Many is the time that I have put to one side my disbelief in Father Christmas and joined a scratch choir to sing some of those magnificent carols in harmony. Then there is that general ambience of bonomie, peace, goodwill to all men and all that. I love it.
Against that there is the awfulness of Christmas as a festival of material consumption. A couple of links are relevant here: this old posting in Slate in praise of Scrooge (which I found thanks to a link on Greg Mankiw's blog) and Annie Leonard's famous video, The Story of Stuff. I can't vouch for the accuracy of what she says and I'm not sure that her sideswipes at the military sharpen her message, but I love the video nevertheless.
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