The holiday break that stops you from breaking down stops you from breaking through

We talk of Christmas as a time of rest and renewal. I think truly the holiday break leaves us even more entrenched in the systems we dream of escaping.

Instead of being a season for reflection, Christmas has morphed into a decidedly anti-spiritual event: a series of rituals that keeps us distracted, compliant and stuck.

We allow this, year after year. The comforts of consumerism, nostalgia and escapism like glittering baubles, dazzle us into dazed acquiescence.

We take, many of us, an entire week off, and spend a month's salary, yet spiritually we have little to show for the investment. We enact and enshrine the values of capitalism and conformity, then in January book that fancy holiday...spending our lives looking forward to one splurge after another, in the meantime, barely enduring.

In this piece I work towards an alternative conception of the week's break, that offers transformative potential.

And whatever festivals and holidays you celebrate, or are socially dominant in your part of the world, the underlying principles hold true.

Consumerism and the idea of what we deserve

“Christmas has become a commercial racket,” George Orwell wrote, almost 100 years ago.

The impact of consumerism on our ability to find purpose is insidious. The season of giving has become a season of self-justification. The rituals of buying, the wrapping, the frenzy of sales, all offer fleeting satisfaction while tying us more tightly to jobs and systems we despise. Each paycheck spent on gifts becomes a subtle validation of the grind: a whispered reassurance that all this work, this time lost, has meaning.

The gifts themselves often speak less to care or thoughtfulness and more to proof of our success. A designer handbag for her, a coveted gadget for him, a curated pile under the tree; all whisper to the world (and to ourselves): See? I’ve made it. I matter. I can give this because I earn that.