Who’s coming to town?
I remember how much I wanted that Yellow digger with the long handle, the one off the TV ad; it was the only thing I ever really wanted off Santa, it was in my dreams and in my prayers, although I never told my mother or grandmother that I was praying for a toy instead of all those poor children in Africa, that would not have gone down too well…
But I really wanted that Yellow digger with its big black wheels and the big scoop bucket. I wanted that digger more and more every day, so much so that when Christmas Eve came, I was more than happy to have my bath and get into my Christmas pyjama’s and go asleep as fast as I could because I believed, I truly believed, that Santa was coming to Dublin and he had my yellow digger with him.
Of course I ended up staying awake for what seemed like the whole night and had to be woken up by my mother the next morning. She held my hand as we walked down the stairs, I was still half asleep, and when the door to the sitting room opened I just stood there staring at the yellow digger with a big red bow under the Christmas tree. I remember my mother speaking to me, I don’t remember what was said, slowly I let go of her hand and ran to the yellow digger. Santa had answered my letter, my dreams, my prayers, I had my yellow digger and I was the happiest boy in Dublin.
I have never spoken to my mother about this wonderful childhood experience; never have I asked her how hard was it for “Santa” to get that yellow digger or what was sacrificed to make me the happiest boy in Dublin, or how long did it take to “make” the digger. I have never asked because a big part of me does not want to know. Knowing what it took her to have that yellow digger under our Christmas tree would ruin my memory of it, I don’t want to know.
With Christmas just about here I am reminded of that yellow digger and how happy I was to get it on Christmas morning but I am also well aware that this special time of joy and celebration is only for the lucky few, those who still have a job, those who are still able to provide for their loved ones. For many this is a time of sorrow and of high pressure, a time of regret and anger. This nightmare before Christmas is for many akin to the childhood fear of a lump of coal from Santa, a punishment for being long-term unemployed, an unjustified entry on the naughty list without explanation and with no Christmas star for guidance.
Of course you can be happy and unemployed, you can celebrate Christmas for its true meaning without the need to buy gifts and put on a large festive meal. But like any addiction, it’s hard not to do what you have always done. You have been exposed to so much pressure to provide, to buy, to spend, to see, to do, to wear, to dance and to drink like everyone else. You have been conditioned to accept as a norm an idea of what Christmas looks and feels like. You have been trained to feel this way, to act this way and to want this way of celebration by commercial means only. No simple real world celebration of the birth of Christ will do you, or so you believe.
You will do whatever it takes to make it a “Great “Christmas – which means a spending Christmas – lots of clothes and presents and food and drink and good times with no care as to the new year and the inevitable financial hangover, you will avoid looking in the mirror for fear of seeing a Christmas ghost with tales of reality.
This year is set to be the hardest yet if you go by the CSO figures which show the long-term unemployment rate has increased from 6.5% to 8.4% over the year to Q3 2011. Long-term unemployment accounted for 56.3% of total unemployment in Q3 2011 compared with 47.0% a year earlier and 25.5% in the third quarter of 2009.
This means that there are nearly 180,000 people out of work for over a year, they had no job last Christmas and they have no Job this Christmas…
