Nik Butler: Illuminating thoughts for this year’s Christmas season

O Christmas Tree! O Christmas Tree! Thy leaves are so unchanging; which might be explained by thy electric plastic-ness and LEDs unflickering.
JPCT 120314 S14110969x Nik Butler -photo by Steve Cobb SUS-141203-095917001JPCT 120314 S14110969x Nik Butler -photo by Steve Cobb SUS-141203-095917001
JPCT 120314 S14110969x Nik Butler -photo by Steve Cobb SUS-141203-095917001

The conversations surrounding the quality of street decorations especially those focused on the style and manufacture of the Christmas tree in the Carfax leave me feeling not a little bit disappointed.

Whilst I may not wholeheartedly embrace the religious, spiritual, or commercial, aspects of the season I consistently believe that the value of any gift is measured twice; once in the thoughts of those who provided said gift and again in the grace of those who receive it.

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We might compare the size, the volume, or the artificial qualities of the tree to other venues. We may go on to consider the lights and the illuminations and instagram our insults over these displays. Certainly other towns and parishes may have larger trees and brighter displays, and bigger budgets, but do we really want to be considered as the market town who spent all their time counting our presents and checking their value against what other towns and parishes received?

Where can we possibly go from there? Do we expect to be told: “I wont bother shopping around for you this year. I will just give you some money and you can spend it as you like.”

I know we can look back on years past to brighter, louder, frankly warmer, festival lights and wonder why the same has not been seen today as it was then; but that butters no parsnips when it comes to delivering on a promise we should be making between ourselves. Every year the conversation of the lights and the tree become another political hot potato to be passed between party, pundit, and parish, and with every pass and every excuse we attempt to justify, or avoid, the cost and we remove another measure of the value in a gift we could receive. It may be time that we stop pinning superstitious beliefs upon these installations; we should not be illuminating the streets with lights and trees believing that they will summon mysterious distant shoppers.

The lights, the tree, should be for us, between us, as a gift to each other. To remind ourselves that the darkness, both physical and emotional, are temporary and that with one light or many, we can create a space which brings our community and not the shoppers together.