Ebenezer Scrooge, the protagonist of A Christmas Carol, was perhaps the leading economic minimalist of Dickensian times. From rationing the coals that burned in his clerk´s grate to his consumption of gruel on Christmas Eve and the lighting of a solitary candle to guide his way to a cold bed, he showed an early preoccupation for both the austerity of the Victorian environment and an ever-increasing value for the contents of his money and deed boxes.

For about one hundred years after the visitation of and tutorials by the ghosts of Marley and Christmas (past, present and future) little changed. Christians began advent on 1st December by preparing the religiosity surrounding the birth of Christ while a growing number of pagans impatiently awaited the coincidental winter solstice on 21st December with its similarities of erecting and decorating evergreens, burning yule logs, lighting candles, singing incantations and donating to the needy. Presents were given within the limits of income. At school, girls baked cakes and puddings in domestic science classes; boys made bedside lamps, stools and book-shelves in their carpentry lessons. Mothers knitted woollies and sewed home-made clothes; fathers raised vegetables and chickens at the allotments or in the garden. Whatever the reason for the seasonal festivities, it was a family affair without thought of travel by the celebrants beyond the home locality.

All this changed in the 1970s and 80s when the aptly named baby boomers rebelled against the austerity which had been endured by their parents. Years of “make do and mend” and “is your journey really necessary” were discarded for the new era of plastic, throwaways and a travel passion for “been there, done that”.

Encouraged by television, social media, smartphones and other paraphernalia of the digital era the newbie denizens have put to one side the worry of responsibility towards society and embarked upon a never-ending carnival of gluttonous consumption financed by seemingly unlimited resources of credit.

So, what? This may well be the response of these devotees of wanton mass marketing. They remain incredulous at the austere discipline forced upon their forebears. The Omnipotent has placed the resources of the planet at their disposal and who would dare to alter the mantra of “Think big, act big, be big” recited by billionaire manufacturers and financiers.

War on Want, the charity which campaigns on behalf of those most affected by poverty and alterations in the climate, tells us that excessive consumption of food, goods and services is caused primarily by the activity of the top one per cent of world population who one half of universal wealth.

The great seasonal fleecing epidemic is no longer confined to North American and European empires but has been carefully promoted in the Eastern hemisphere from whence the majority of festive tinsel, tat and baubles emanates. Their production followed by huge advertising causes an orgy of spending which makes December the champion month for greenhouse emissions generated by the excess of energy required for the irresistible and hedonistic frenzy of travel, gifts, food, drink and exotic waste.

Will the millennial and Z generations resist this relentless, profit-motivated drive towards a catastrophic ending to the 21st century by replacing rampant capitalism with a grand societal change of fewer people consuming less of a ravaged planet´s limited resources?

Scrooge heeded the warnings of his ghostly mentors to become a kindlier man responsive to human need. For a better future, can we hope, pagan or religious, to echo the words of Tiny Tim Cratchit. “A Merry Christmas; may God bless us, every one”?

by Roberto Cavaleiro Tomar 27 December, 2024