Playing Grinch At Christmas Time

December is almost upon us and so is Christmas. For me, it’s a time of trees, tinsel and twinklement. I fully immerse myself in the spirit of Christmas, enjoying decorating the house, walking the neighbourhood, marvelling at the Christmas light displays. Somehow the atmosphere feels more charged when Santa’s expected in town, with good will and cheer abounding.

Whilst most people feel like I do, eagerly anticipating Kriss Kringle’s arrival, some people have feelings of anxiety too. Worry over the expense of Christmas frequently dominates. Stress can rear its ugly head as well through the sheer amount of prep needed to put on the once-a-year special day! Wanting to survive Christmas, avoid debt hangovers and stress myself, I’ve turned to the Grinch and stolen a leaf or two out of his book.

ADOPTING GRINCH’S THINKING

People think of the Grinch as a mean-spirited joyless creature, intent on spoiling everyone’s Christmas fun. True to a point, but that cynical character has his good points too. When you deconstruct the Grinch, you’ll likely see value in mimicking some of his thought patterns and behaviours, which don’t result in forgoing the spirit of Christmas.

First and foremost, Grinch rejects the commercialism of Christmas. He holds contempt for those who rush around buying extravagant gifts and attending overdone parties. His scorn for indulgent consumerism serves as an aide-memoire Christmas isn’t found at the bottom of a tree or an expensive glass of bubbles. Rather, it lies in the fun and meaningful moments we share with family and friends. An example of this for me is putting up the outdoor awning so we have shelter on Christmas day. Every year one of my best friends and I wrestle with constructing the outdoor cover, bemoaning the fact of lost poles and ties. That hour or three is peppered with one liners and laughter. This epitomises Grinch’s perspective, which is to fill up our Christmas season with good times with loved ones opposed to filling our trolleys with fancy presents.

Aside from his steadfast refusal to engage in Christmas prezzie shopping, Grinch rebuffs partaking in traditional Christmas events merely for the sake of it. Listening and enjoying carol singers is one of his Christmas peeves. Last year, rushing to do a million things before the magical day dawned, I couldn’t help but concede Grinch had a point. Every year we follow customs without questioning if they add to our enjoyment of Christmas. Grinch would refuse to do that. He’d question the value in adhering to traditions. Take for instance the Christmas dinner. Annually, many of us spend hours in a hot kitchen, making the perfect Christmas dinner. If we think about it, do we really need to stress ourselves out over cooking the turkey and ham, along with all the trimmings? Must we actually slavishly follow the customary sit-down Christmas dinner routine, eating ourselves silly? Probably not. This year I’m adopting Grinch’s thinking and forsaking the traditional dinner and throwing a BBQ instead. We’ll still have some nice food but by-passing the traditional Christmas day dinner, I’ll save myself lots of stress as well as hours of time which I fully intend to spend out of the kitchen.

MIMICKING GRINCH’S BEHAVIOUR

In a bid to reduce my stress levels further, I’ve also copied Grinch’s behaviour when it comes to playing and paying Father Christmas this year. In part, my motivation has been driven from necessity. All those who read my last article know 2023 has been a very expensive life of existence for me. Literally losing the roof over my head and the majority of personal possession through the Auckland Floods was a costly experience. So, not wanting to splash the cash, I’ve adopted one of Grinch’s practices and kept my Christmas spending to a minimum.

I recall being faced with the dilemma of wanting to buy presents for friends a couple of years back, having little money to hand. My solution was to visit the Red Cross second hand shops. I bought pretty old fashion China plates and filled them up with home-made Christmas chocolate brownies. Interestingly, several of my friends still have those plates which they cherish or at least which they bring out when I visit. This proves we don’t have to spend up large, buying Christmas presents to show our love and appreciation to others. It also shows that thriftiness and thoughtfulness can co-exist. With saving the pennies in mind and in true Grinch fashion, I examined my present buying habits. On Christmas day, we have an open-door policy – everyone is welcome. Immediate family, extended family, ex-family and their relations, children, dogs and even the occasional rabbit have all graced our humble abode on Christmas day. Accompanying our come-all-yee welcome, is the subtle unconscious pressure everyone, be it adult, child or animal, must receive a present from Santa. Paying creed to this has seen a year-on-year increase in prezzie expenditure.

Playing Grinch this year, I’ve pulled tightly on the reindeer reins. In the process, I’ve introduced a fresh tradition in the form of Secret Santa and along the way, saved money. Under this new regime, I told every adult who was going to share the Christmas BBQ with us, they need buy only one present for another person. By removing the pressure to buy for everyone, I and everyone else have saved time and many particles of gold reindeer dust. Come Christmas day, Rudoph will also be grateful as he won’t have to bundle up and haul numerous gifts from one side of Auckland to another.

I’ve extended my copy-cat Grinch ways to putting on the Christmas feast itself. We all know food prices have dramatically increased this year. This meant laying down the Christmas spread was going to be a costly affair for me. I’ve mitigated this as much as possible by asking everyone to bring a particular food/dish to the BBQ lunch we’re having in substitution of the all-you-can-eat traditional Christmas dinner. I’m even asked the flipping rabbit to contribute by bringing lettuce for the salad. Through food cost sharing, neither I nor anyone else will bear the burden of divesting ourselves of large quantities of reindeer dust to supermarkets’ tills.

PLOTTING A GRINCH COURSE

Unquestionably Grinch is a planner and schemer and the success of implementing my budget friendly practices has laid in adopting these aspects of his personality. This didn’t require me to embark on a military style operational exercise, but it did necessitate a bit of forward thinking and action taking.
Actually, my strategic Christmas planning began in October when I decided the foods and drinks our merry band would consume on Christmas day. Making this decision permitted me to buy food over the past couple of months, taking advantage of supermarket specials when they were on offer. I extended my behaviour to present shopping for the children, dog and rabbit too. Ultimately, my energies and reindeer gold dust have been spent over the course of several months, thereby avoiding a money crunch in December.

SINGING THE GRINCH’S SONG

In replicating some of Grinch’s ways, I’ve asked myself is he really the mean-spirited creature he’s made out to be? I’ve decided he didn’t steel Christmas but instead taught us to see Christmas in a different light. Revolting against the commercialism of the season, Grinch demonstrated Christmas is so much more than the practice of putting up the tree, attending Christmas parties and filling the stockings with gifts. Ultimately, he showed us the true spirit of Christmas didn’t lay in merriment and presents that cost us three months salaries and our own mental sanity. Rather, Grinch taught us Christmas is the act of spending time with those we love, meeting new people who want to create special moments with us, revelling in the magic of close bonds with family and friends, experiencing financial and emotional stress-free times. This is what I believe Christmas is about and undoubtedly, the subliminal message Grinch wanted to teach us.
Merry Christmas everyone.