Halloween And Christmas Consumerism And Commercialisation In The UK
On social media a friend wrote:
I believed more required sharing and so I added this comment to the thread.
We live in the UK with a consumer driven society and a commercialised culture, many people believe buying and using products and commodities, gives them an identity and meaning associated with a false sense of power.
TV, media and properganda brain wash us into believing we need these things.
Halloween originated from the Celts and was a festival to ward off evil spirits, but has quickly turned into something rather different. I personally hate the modern concept of trick or treating BC most people are handing out sweets and lollipops to young unsuspecting children in the midst of a global diabetes epidemic!
I only hand out apples and believe me the children are always happy to recieve an apple, amongst all the other sugary rubbish they are given.
It has also become second nature for the TV networks to offer up endless horror movies to watch, and the majority of people still have no idea about the mental health issues associated with watching these scary frightening things. It's all a way for the 'Them' to keep us stressed out and anxious, so we go out and buy even more goods that we don't really need.
As for Christmas 🌹 I see photos plastered all over social media where living rooms are actually full of gifts? What for? We are ladening ourselves and our children with the burdens of goods and commodities, and all of the stressors and anxieties that comes along with it.
I'm all for family celebrations and get togethers, I'm all for sharing a gift or 2, and it's fun to see children excited and dressing up in costumes, however we should keep in mind just how skewed these celebrations have become, and how profit driven they really are.
And also take a moment to consider those less fortunate than ourselves 💕
Now I add this for my blog...
... and the unnecessary pressures we cause one another by living in a modern society, where most of us consider we are in some kind of race or competition, and many people believe those with the expensive vehicles and big houses are the winners?
How ludicrous this idea truly is in reality!
If we have shelter over our heads, a bed to sleep in, running water from taps and pipes to wash in and drink, a toilet we can sit upon and flush using the sewerage system, and food available, then we are very lucky.
If on top of that we are also lucky enough to have heating systems in our homes, and TV media entertainment to watch, and the interconnectness of the Internet on tech devices, and mobile phones then we truly are extremely lucky people.
It is often overlooked that currently in 2023 and 2022 is it estimated that some 10 million people die each year from malnourishment and starvation, but these figures take some finding online, since it seems, so far that from what I can see "malnourishment and starvation" is not listed as a leading causes of death in the world.
These figures seem to be obscured from plain sight, as though someone "they" are trying to hide just how important it is in reality.
United Nations article from 2008 available online at
Accessed on 11th October 2023.
Screenshot from website
25,000 people per day is approximately 9,125,000 million people per year.
Other information online with regards to malnourishment and starvation can be found at:
The World Counts article online available at
Accessed on 11th October 2023.
Screenshot from website
"Globally, 822 million people suffer from undernourishment."
"Acute hunger
Of the 822 million undernourished people in the world, 113 million face acute hunger meaning they are in urgent need of food and nutrients".
Further this website reports with live figures of:
Screenshot
Oxfam reports in 2022 this online available at
Accessed on 11th October 2023.
Screenshot
"One person dying of hunger every four seconds"
Let's calculate this:
60 seconds in 1 minute
60 minutes in 1 hour
24 hours in 1 day
365 days in 1 year
60 seconds divide by 4 is 15 people per minute
15 people x 60 minutes = 900 people per hour
900 people x 24 hours = 21,600 people per day
21,600 people per day x 365 days =7,884,000 people per year
Now let's look at this comment again!
"Why is it that shops are putting Xmas stuff out now when Halloween is before Xmas"
The Bank of England released a report online in 2020
Available at
https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/explainers/how-much-do-we-spend-at-christmas
Accessed on 11th October 2023.
"What do we spend at Christmas?
A typical household in the UK spends just over £2,500 in a month.
But in the run up to Christmas our spending habits change. We spend on average almost £740 more in December, which is 29% more than in a typical month."
Now I can go around in circles looking at what we might spend at Christmas and the amount varies, some websites report we will all spend less this year due to the cost of living crises and some say we will all spend more.
For example Statistica data showed in the United Kingdom we spend:
Screenshot
No doubt, some of us will come to our senses and spend less and some of us will spend more for a wide variety of reasons. For many of us these reasons are subliminal from our experiences and history in modern society. We live in an era of commercialisation, if you watch any live TV networks then your home is likely to be heavily burdened by the daily stressors of regular adverts.
These TV advertiser's try to sell you anything and everything. Leaving you overwhelmed by choice Anxiety, and leaving you with feelings of nostalgia and wanting to have another lovely festive Christmas dinner with family, but also young children see fun new toys and devices and then go ask Santa at his grotto for some of these items, leaving parents feeding overwhelmed and challenged to keep up with the Joneses'.
And of course many of us still live in daily fear that we are not good enough, often our inner self-esteem feels crushed from feelings of failure and not quite living up to modern societal expectations.
In reality see above:
If you are lucky enough to have warm shelter, running water, clothes, beds and blankets, food, bathrooms with toilets, electricity and power supplies, fridges, freezers, ovens, microwaves, washing machines, sewerage systems, internet connectivity, mobile devices, computers, gaming consoles, cars and other vehicles, national healthcare system, education systems, etc,. Then you are some of the luckiest people in the world.
So just maybe take a moment and some deep breaths and remember something very important, it is not about the gift or gifts you buy or don't buy, it is about the people you share your time with, it is about love, happiness and joy, the memories you make live on forever, and the relationships you make are likely the only thing you can with you at the end of the day.
I personally am coming to find that by reducing the burden I was held from haunding items in my home, I am slowly feeling less burdened, also by reducing the products I buy on credit I feel less stressed and anxious.
After all the competition we sometimes feel like we are running in, is all in our imaginations, it does not exist.
Love life and live happy, smile and make memories they matter the most.
By
Toni Cairns
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