Posted by on December 25, 2019 8:00 am
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Categories: µ Newsjones

I had a steak – with chips, no sprouts – and a nice bottle of rioja. I went for a walk. There were no arguments about what to watch on TV. Best Christmas ever

I haven’t always hated Christmas; I think I enjoyed it as a kid. Not so much since. It is a little about the food (if turkey and sprouts are such good news, why don’t we eat them on any other day, eh?). It has a little more to do with rampant consumerism. Gluttony, greed, sloth, envy, wrath … funny how a festival that is supposed to be about the birth of Christ has come to encompass so many Christian sins. But this isn’t about him; it’s about me, my own family and my own insecurities.

I think things turned sour in my 30s, when my siblings selfishly started having families of their own. Suddenly there were new people and generations involved; it became more complicated logistically, as what had been a simple family gathering exploded. This lot went here, that lot there … oh, God, what about Sam? Where’s he going to go? Whose turn is it? I wasn’t involved in these conversations, but I’m sure they happened. They did in my mind, anyway. I had become the grumpy grandad no one wanted, before even being a dad.

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