The Sprout

The 12th Blog of CLICmas

Postiwyd gan Stormer007 o Caerdydd - Cyhoeddwyd ar 24/12/2010 am 07:46
3 sylwadau » - Tagiwyd fel Gwyl, Ffilmiau

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From Monday 13 to Friday 24 December, CLIC will feature a different guest blog each day - The 12 Blogs Of CLICmas, in fact! Here is the twelfth and final...

Author’s note: Hello there. Please do not watch the video yet. There will come a time.

There is a lot to be said for Christmas.

It is the one time of the year when siblings stop fighting, when separated parents can stand to be in the same locale as each other for the sake of their children, and when you actually have an excuse to gorge yourself full of food.

Christmas has a magical aura that seems to encompass the planet and send messages of cheer and goodwill to every person on the planet. Every person except those who see through the façade. And please forgive me, but I believe myself to be right when calling Christmas a façade.

Understand, I do love Christmas. It is one of the few times of the year when my family can be bothered to sit down at a table and eat a meal together. I am given presents to celebrate the birthday of a long since dead Jew, and I am allowed to buy presents for my friends without coming across as needy and pathetic.

Imagine buying gifts for your friends just because you liked them as people: the impertinence.

Life as it stands for the rest of the year isn’t particularly great, is it? Siblings fight constantly over things which aren’t of great importance, parents all over the UK are splitting like bananas, and the vast majority of the population is divided into two categories: the ones who are obese and the ones who starve themselves to avoid being seen as obese.

Christmas is the magical time of year when all this worry and woe changes for twenty-four wonderful hours. If Christmas were stripped bare, what would we be left with? We’d be left with the birth of Jesus Christ. But how could that be? What about Santa Claus? Reindeer?

What about the vast majority of presents we send to each other? What about the same old regurgitated films which involve a lot of snow, talking animals, elves and a silhouette of Santa riding past the moon as the credits start to roll?

They, it saddens me to say, have absolutely nothing to do with the actual celebration of Christmas. They are things that have all been added on.

Wait, stop. You’re beginning to sound like one of those crazy nutters on the street. Please, I’m not trying to suggest that we’ve all forgotten the true meaning of Christmas. That’s not even the point of this article.

The point is that we use Christmas as a way to cover up all our flaws and I’d like to, if I may, compare it to The Matrix films. One scene in particular actually. I have included in this article the scene of which I speak. Please, watch it now. I’ll wait.

I hope you’ve watched it now, otherwise the rest of this will be difficult to follow. So, Cypher has decided that the real world is not worth living in. It is a world of eternal war with machines. The Matrix is a world very similar to our own, and Cypher has decided he’d rather live in that as a rich, important actor.

He’s choosing to ignore the real word which is full of pain, sorrow and war and to accept a world he knows to be false so that he can enjoy a comfortable life instead of the harsh one he lives now.

If you ask me, if you decide to partake in the traditional Christmas activities such as having a tree with hundreds of lights on it, giving gifts for no reason in particular and convincing millions upon millions of children across the world that a fat man in a red suit exists and can escape the laws of the universe, then that is very similar to Cypher’s choice to forget his real world.

So, what do we do? Well, it would seem we have two choices. The first choice isn’t really a choice at all, but merely an interesting theory. You could ignore Christmas entirely. You could carry on living the 25 December as a normal day.

However, this would prove incredibly difficult as the rest of the world, I assure you, has no such intention. Thus Christmas not existing is not really a choice.

The second choice is the one I prefer. Enjoy Christmas. Carry on enjoying the feeling of togetherness that it provides. Enjoy the gifts you receive and enjoy seeing the smiles on the faces of those to whom you impart gifts. Enjoy decorating your tree and enjoy your Christmas dinner.

Enjoy the tranquility amongst your periodically peaceful parents and enjoy watching the heart-warming films that you encounter on FilmFour and ITV2. Enjoy watching the Christmas specials of your favourite TV shows (I’m especially looking forward to the Doctor Who Christmas Special) and enjoy eating turkey up until the New Year.

Enjoy seeing your family and enjoy spending time with them while you are off school and work.

Enjoy it while it lasts, because sooner or later, you’ll all be taken out of The Matrix and put back into the real world. Merry Christmas.

Stormer007 is a writer who felt too insecure to use his real name. Uh oh. Instead, he stole the name of his dog to use as an alias so he could write for theSprout. His pieces cover an odd spectrum and he likes hugs… to reassure him.

We hope you have enjoyed The 12 Blogs Of CLICmas. Fancy writing your own blog? Then go for it! Just click the 'SUBMIT NEWS' tab on the homepage and get writing. We'll see you all on Tuesday 4 January - MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR! x