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No time of the year can invite ill-feeling like Christmas. Easter doesn't result in an increase in the societal feeling of entitlement. They don't come out with whole new drink-driving advertising campaigns in response to the imposing threat of Valentine's Day.
Not that I have any issue with drink-driving commercials. Especially the ones shown on TV in Ireland - it's the best place to see well-choreographed child killings.
Christmas puts everyone into far worse moods than they ever are at any other time of the year. Dim 16-year olds who don't get Valentine's cards from the boys they like don't come at the world with the same kind of rage that a stressed breeder sow will when she walks down Oxford Street, not to mention the number of spoiled brats on Christmas morning who don't get what they want.
My sister is a beautiful example. She's 13 years old and spoiled rotten. She's rude, sarcastic and ungrateful. And Christmas makes her even worse.
She started out by complaining about my grandmother. She's decided that she hates old people. I can understand that. I despise seeing revolting, unshaved men and sluttish ladies covered in over-thick eyeshadow shuffling at the speed of a mother with a pushchair as they go to collect their pensions. But my grandmother isn't like that. I find her to be an intellectually stimulating woman with a well-defined personality and strength of will. She and I relate to each other.
This is not the case with my sister, who has complained non-stop that she's a daft old biddy. Why? Because she had the gall to tell my mother that my sister liked classical music.
Shock, horror. My grandmother should know the name "Westlife", and how dare she imply that my sister would even THINK of listening to Beethoven or Mozart. You know, something involving talent.
She went on when my brother bought and wrapped her Christmas present. He got her a CD rack, which is roughly 5 feet high. My sister, being a materialistic girl to whom the size of a present is directly proportional to how much the giver loves her, took one look at it, felt it, and declared that she knew what it was.
Lovely.
Given what she's been like so far, I'm thoroughly dreading Christmas day, which is closing in at a rapid pace. And attitudes like my sister's are being echoed across the country, not only from brats who place huge present demands on their parents. There are also the brats who feel that "because it's Christmas, I can get away with anything".
The "entitlement" attitude is felt by most of modern society. It's demonstrated by joyriders. It's demonstrated by "No Win - No Fee" compensation groups. It was demonstrated by the woman who tried to sue her school for not doing anything about the fact that she was bullied, despite the fact that she'd long since left school and gone and gotten a job.
At Christmas, thousands of brats across the country feel that the world is their oyster, even more so than usual. And society encourages it. Children's organisations set up toy appeals, where the public buy cheap, pathetic toys, which they wouldn't even give to their dog, for "under-privileged" children. The very words "go on, it's Christmas, make it special for the children" will result in kind-hearted reactions out of even the stoniest of people. I'm expecting there to be an extra-special present for the oh-so-brave Payne family.
Society needs to reclaim the word "no". You say Christmas is expensive? So tell your brats that it's not practical to get them a £3000 electronic dog. Let them scream and complain. If they guilt trip you, all you have to do is guilt trip them back. Be evil. they have no problems being evil to you.
