Oxford Street Christmas Lights

10 Responses to “Oxford Street Christmas Lights”

1. Smudgie says:
   

   Ahem…

   November 7th, 2006 at 9:03 am
2. Dave says:
   

   Thanks Smudgie. Anyone else – I am glad to add to the list on this post but may not notice or remember to do so. In which case feel free to give me an ‘Ahem’.

   November 7th, 2006 at 9:15 am
3. Tom says:
   

   Christmas lights is a really difficult issue for some of us clergy. How do you ask questions about when they are going to start in your local community while not coming across Scrooge-like? (I hadn’t even thought of the environmental issue.) It’s easier to campaign against Oxford Street I would guess (unless that’s your parish!) but surely the Church needs to be a lot more positive about Christmas. We should be rejoicing not only in the season but also in the opportunities it presents. In the planning of community celebrations we have to use what influence we have sensitively and sensibly and be prepared to compromise. For some of us it’s the one time of the year when people see us as a place and a people of joy.

   November 7th, 2006 at 9:18 am
4. Dave says:
   

   Tom,

   Thanks for your comment. You make a very good point. I do actually feel a sense of unease about my campaign for this reason – Christians do often appear scroogelike and negative. But my frustration at the continual rolling forward of Christmas for commercial reasons alone wins over my unease on this occasion.

   As I said somewhere the other day one has to chose which battles to fight. Probably for clergy on their home turf this isn’t one of them.

   November 7th, 2006 at 9:31 am
5. Clare says:
   

   I wrote to them as Maggi suggested. So count me in!

   November 7th, 2006 at 11:44 am
6. Nefertiki says:
   

   Applying “Scroogelike” to objecting to earlier and earlier setting up of Christmas lights is a bit confusing and seems to rely on convoluted logic. After all part of thinking like Scrooge refers to his miserlyness and his inability to share in the loving spirit of giving and the bright holiday accoutrements.

   Yet he was a business man and ought to have supported anything which encourages people to spend more, which supports the economy, even if it is not in the “true” spirit of Christmas. The problem of agonizing over a commercialized Christmas, and objecting to something “for commercial reasons alone” will not go away if the lights go up later.

   Even the somewhat Scroogelike old codger who founded the Ford motor car co. paid the people who made the Model-T a relatively high wage it was because it meant they would pour more money into the economy.

   So maybe people who complain about the earlier and earlier start of Christmas merchandising, and I am one of them, might start thinking, it’s good for the economy, and all of us benefit from a healthy economy. (Not forgetting that “good for the economy” can have agonizing implications.) Or maybe my poor old brain is just too convoluted.

   November 7th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
7. Sarah B says:
   

   Why don’t they understand that there is a well established law.

   Christmas MAY NOT BEGIN until after my birthday (14th November) – that’s just the law. End of. No arguments.

   Oh well ok you could say until after Remembrance Sunday (should be a date they can’t forget!)

   November 7th, 2006 at 11:18 pm
8. joeturner says:
   

   We seem to have forgotten that Christmas is about something other than consumption. But then, as most people are not christians nor care about the festivals, we can hardly complain very much. Unlike Bishop Nazir-Ali, I don’t see that appealing to some [largely mythical] historical christian ethos of our country makes any sense.

   More of a problem is how the Church – and most of us in it – has been force to conform to the consumer culture. As to the scrooge issue, I guess it is down to us to show that you can have a celebration without spending a load of cash on Oxford Street.

   Shame upon all those who use pretty illumination to encourage people to spend money they don’t have.

   November 8th, 2006 at 10:01 am
9. Martin Eyles says:
   

   I think it would be nice if they put them on in stages over the four weeks leading up to Christmas. (As an aside, I think I’d like to do that with Christmas Tree decorations too, gradually of the four weeks of advent.)

   Rather randomly, while being less annoying, and not so commercialistic in intent, it does have potential to encourage return visits to the shop each week, to see what’s been added. Maybe I need a rethink

   November 8th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
10. Darren says:
    

    Mmm, what causes less environmental damage – lights or candles – this could be my true calling in life, to find this out

    Great campaign though, fully support it

    November 12th, 2006 at 5:14 pm