Shutting the door on 2024.

A personal reflection.

Well, it is that time of year again. For those of us in the Western, predominantly Christian-influenced world, it is time to gather with family, exchange gifts and generally overeat to the point of discomfort.

The older I get, the less hectic my Christmas has become. My kids are all grown up and have families of their own and it is no longer practical to get everyone together under one roof at the same time. They each have their own pressures to spend time with their extended families and manage the multiple demands that go with children and blended relationships.

To be honest, I don’t miss the chaos that is Christmas with young children, and I certainly no longer feel the incredible pressure to spend increasing amounts in a race to top last year's efforts. I no longer buy gifts for my kids and have become one of those grandparents who simply give money to my grandchildren. I did try buying them books or vouchers but after a couple of years, they all suggested that cash would be better received.

Here in the South Pacific, Christmas Day is a few days past the summer solstice, and the weather is often hot. Most of our Christmas marketing, which usually begins in early October, is of snowy winter scenes and for some reason, many people here stick to the northern hemisphere idea of a Christmas feast with roast turkey, all the trimmings and an unnatural number of desserts or puddings.

Our family have drifted away from this tradition and now look to dishes such as salmon with salad or other meals that are more seasonally appropriate. We still usually end up with two or more desserts, perhaps some traditions are too difficult to do without.

I am a strong advocate for a more simple meal, on perhaps recyclable paper plates which can be quickly dealt with afterwards. I feel that Christmas should be about spending quality time with family and friends rather than slaving away in the kitchen.

Hopefully, gone are the days of spending 3 days preparing a meal, an hour eating it and 6 hours washing up afterwards.

I am lucky enough to still have both my parents, and along with a few close friends, Christmas Day is usually spent enjoying good food and great conversation.

For many Christians, Christmas is a deeply significant celebration, but as I am not a particularly religious person, I find it is more a time for reflection and gratitude. I do get the hypocrisy in my taking the time off work to celebrate a festival from a faith that I don't subscribe to, however, in our part of the world there is little choice as the country pretty much shuts down for the week between Christmas and New Year. While I identify more as an atheist than a Christian, I do think that living one's life according to the Christian principles of tolerance and forgiveness is commendable. Curiously, these seem similar to the basic principles of many religions.

Unfortunately, a few Christians demonstrate some rather un-Christian behaviour and attitudes. I suspect that this may be the case with other faiths, but I can only speak from my own experience and observations.

Racial intolerance, political intolerance, and gender intolerance are seemingly based on a misguided sense of morality and appear to contradict the teachings of tolerance and acceptance found in faith-based texts.

Despite the incredible advances in communication and access to online communities, something that you would think exposes us all to a wider group of ideas and attitudes, people appear to be increasingly fragmented and isolated.

We seem to have lost sight of the basic concepts of kindness and tolerance. The idea of “Do unto others what you would have them do unto you” appears to be something that is often spoken of, but less often acted upon.

The New Year is traditionally a time for people to reflect and consider making changes to their lives by way of the popular but often temporary New Year's resolution.

I imagine that most resolutions are things like trying to lose weight, exercise more, spend less time online or generally bettering ourselves in some way.

2024 has been a challenging year on many levels, and it seems that some of the freedoms and things that we have taken for granted are perhaps being slowly eroded away. The world seems a more hostile and less tolerant place.

No matter your faith, or if not your faith then perhaps your philosophy, maybe we should try and be nicer to people. Not just to the people we know but to everyone, no matter their race, politics or gender identity.

Whatever it is that you resolve to do differently next year I sincerely hope that you succeed but I also hope that we can all add kindness to others as a focus. Hopefully, we can all make the world a place with less conflict and confrontation.

Wishing you all a peaceful, happy and safe 2025.

Thank you for reading. Have a comfortable day.