Alternative Christmas Carols, November, 2008

Alternative Carol Singing

The Buy Nothing Christmas Campaign was started on the West coast of Canada in the Christmas of 2001 by a group of Mennonites concerned about the emotional exploitation of Christmas and the accumulation of personal debt created by overspending.  It has become a worldwide movement, voicing a prophetic ‘no’ to the patterns of over-consumption which typify Christmas in the Western world, campaigning for the restoration of the true meaning of Christmas and redesigning a Christian lifestyle which will be richer in meaning, smaller in impact upon the earth, and greater in giving. 

Campaigners are encouraged to make or bake alternative presents or offer a helping hand to someone in need: two nights babysitting, perhaps, or a back massage for a stressed out friend.

Alternative Christmas Carols, December, 2007.

Last year members of the Queen’s community invited a few friends to join them in singing anti-consumerist carols in the Bullring shopping centre in Birmingham. “We spent nearly an hour singing, chatting to people, giving out debt advice and generally having fun while giving people good news.”

Serious debt impacts the lives of 6 million of the poorest British citizens and as borrowing on credit becomes a spiral of social and economic despair. Being in serious debt is embarrassing and frightening for individuals and families. Every Christmas economists and TV ads encourage us to spend our way to happiness and even spend ourselves richer.

Credit card debt, already huge in Britain, becomes much greater because of Christmas spending.  Father Christmas has become the god worshipped at Christmas because he represents the abundance of commodities, all of which can be bought for money. 

Alternative Christmas Carols, 2008

A first year student preparing for Anglican ordination, reports as follows:

“The message of 'Spend less, Live more' this Christmas struck a chord with Birmingham shoppers today. Students and staff from Birmingham's Queens Foundation sang anti-consumer lyrics put to traditional carol tunes in a sing-a-long this morning. Lyrics such as, 'Slow down ye frantic shoppers, for there's something we must say' in place of, 'God rest ye merry gentlemen' and 'While shoppers shopped by day and night all wondering how to pay' in place of the more familiar, 'While shepherds watched their flocks by night' proved a welcome distraction for city centre shoppers.

There were broadly three types of reaction. Many of the comments such as, 'I'm with you on that' showed the general sense of empathy for our message to slow down with the spending this Christmas, whilst others explained that spending less was a necessity rather than a choice this season with comments like, 'I can't do anything but spend less, I haven't the money'. The third category was those who were too busy to talk. Although probably a symptomatic response of our culture where we anticipate people speaking to us in the street must be wanting to sell us something, the irony was not lost that those probably most likely in need of the message to slow down were too busy to stop and chat.

There was some sharing of ideas of creative gifts that don't cost the earth such as organising family days out, offering babysitting, and simply spending time catching up with those we love. And a Christian shopkeeper explained how she balanced the Christian message with her way of making her living by giving over one of her shop windows to an eye-catching nativity scene.”

Conclusion

This was an enjoyable and worthwhile event. Nine staff and students took part, which was a slight increase over last year. Our position underneath an overhanging building multiplied the sound of our voices.  Shopping crowds had greatly increased by the time we finished our singing, at about eleven am, and went off for coffee and cakes, mixing with the shoppers in a different way!