"This week
sees the start of the Christmas holiday and the last week of 2014. Christmas
Day is the one day of the year when we collectively press the pause button on our
hectic pace of life in the 21st Century. It is a day when most of us take a day
off and the country at large relaxes. The vast majority of shops, offices and
factories are closed, and the traffic on our roads is much less with a
noticeable absence of Lorries. Most public transport ceases and Gatwick Airport
is virtually a ghost town with very few flights.
I believe
this is how it should be for one day out of 365 in a year. Christmas will mean different things to
different people but there should be one day a year when the norm is for us to
have a very peaceful day with the pressures of everyday life forgotten.
However, I always respect anyone who has to work on Christmas Day, as well as
those who are away from their families such as those serving in the Armed
Forces.
I take the
view that as few people as possible should have to work on Christmas Day as it
is such a unique and special day, and we should always be grateful to those who
spend Christmas Day looking after others in need. I believe that a peaceful
Christmas break allows time for reflection, an opportunity to think about the
true meaning of Christmas and how going forward, we can focus on what we feel
is important in life.
It does sometimes feel like there is ever more pressure
to commercialise Christmas, both in its run up and from Boxing Day onwards;
with the media appearing to judge how successful Christmas is by how busy the
shops are. My own view is that a better guide to the success of Christmas would
be how many of us are celebrating the birth of Jesus, but whatever you may be
doing over the next week, may I wish all readers of the Crawley Observer a very
happy and peaceful Christmas."
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