Has school taken the spirit out of Christmas?
It has come to that time of year where we all start to prepare for the biggest holiday all year round. With December only a few days away, the mad panic for last minute presents and cards has begun.
When checking my phone this morning I was gob-smacked to discover that Christmas is only 4 weeks away. Not only had I forgotten about putting up my advent calendar and writing my Christmas cards, I had forgotten how close we are to the end of the year, and how time has flown. The summer holidays were only 5 months back and yet it feels like the run up to Christmas is going to be very, very short. I started to wonder how I could have forgotten about things that a year ago I could not have been more eager to do. However, I was most shocked by the fact that the idea of doing Christmas cards and advent calendars and buying gifts seemed incredibly stressful. With not much else on during the weekends apart from homework I wondered why it seemed as if I had no time to do or even think about these things, checking my calendar filled with deadlines and appointments. I wonder: has the pressure of school resulted in us forgetting about Christmas? School is always busy, especially in Year 11. With homework and the added pressure of mock exams coming up in January, there seems no time to stop for a minute and not stress. It seems an age since I stopped and enjoyed some simple things, for example: watching TV, reading, or going shopping with my friends or family. Has the pressure and work grown to such an extent that something that a few years ago would be constantly on my mind all year does not seem so important? Is it a part of growing up? Should I be more concerned about other things? I kept thinking, shouldn't we still maintain the spirit of Christmas no matter how old we are?
Priorities change as we grow older. In the final year of GCSE's the workload is bound to increase and as we reach the point to start A- level we should be thinking of how we can boost our chances of either going to college or university. But if we did slow down at Christmas and have those 2 weeks to enjoy being a child again, would it be so detrimental or would it actually be a good thing? Is the generation of teenagers nowadays growing up too quick? Are we being expected to become an adult before our time, and worry about the likelihoods of our futures years before we need to?
It dawned on me that something so greatly celebrated, should not have been forgotten as blatantly as it did for me. Soon we will have no choice but to grow up and leave home and occasions like Christmas will begin to lose their magic and importance.
But I wonder. Is school gradually taking away the spirit of Christmas?
