Christmas is economically strange. We stop working. Spending surges. Profit stops mattering. Time off is normalised. Family and care come first.
And we accept all of this without question.
That should make us pause. Because if we can suspend the rules of economics at Christmas, then those rules were never inevitable in the first place.
This video is not about religion or ritual. It is about what the Christmas season reveals about our economic choices. It shows that we can pause economic activity, value rest, prioritise care, and organise work around life rather than the other way around.
Christmas proves that life is more than money — and that a better economy is possible.
The real tragedy is not Christmas excess. It is forgetting the lesson in January.
This is the audio version:
This is the transcript:
Christmas is really weird, economically speaking, that is, because in a sense it breaks every one of our normal economic rules. We accept that fact without question, and that should make us think, because if we can break the rules of economics at Christmas, when else could we do so?
Let's put this in context. I'm not talking about religion now. I'm not talking about ritual. I am just talking about the economics of, in a sense, the Christmas festival, which I'm not referring to in a religious way, because you could be celebrating the solstice, or the festivals of any other religion, and they would all be the same.
What I'm talking about is the fact that we behave economically differently because of Christmas. We normalise strange things, like we take masses of time off. This video is coming out on what might be called the first Saturday of Christmas, and millions of people will have already stopped work for the next fortnight. They'll be taking two weeks off, usually with maximum employer cooperation and also with the state's cooperation by giving them three days' bank holidays, and sometimes that leave is even enforced. People are required by their employment contract to take time off during this period.
At the same time, consumption surges, spending rises sharply, excess is tolerated and even expected, and all of that, despite climate change and the cost concerns, which we put aside for the time being.
Normal rules are, in other words, suspended.
What's usually condemned is praised.
Time off is celebrated
Economic inactivity by businesses is just fine.
Family takes priority, which is very rare in our economy.
And making money is suddenly not the point of being.
What this tells us is something that is quite important. We therefore know that life is more than money. When it comes down to it, Christmas proves that.
We know that care matters: seeing the people who matter to us, whether they are friends or family, or anyone else that we care to come across, we will give them priority. Connections are important, and so too is rest.
Whilst community does, for some people, have a significantly higher priority at this time of the year than it does normally, whether that be through celebration of the religious festival, or by working with a charity, or whatever else it is that you partake in, then community seems to be a priority for many during the course of this holiday. I think that's important, because what it says is that there is the capacity to do something different.
But, and I stress the point, this does not apply universally. We know that there is inequality still. Essential workers are, of course, required to keep going. People who work in hospitality have no chance of taking much of Christmas off, but they do get extra pay as a consequence because work has become the exception and not the norm, and again, that still shows that Christmas is abnormal.
That's important because what we're saying is that our obligations to each other, expressed through the supply of services that we need, is also really important. We are valuing those who work at this moment precisely because their work matters to us, and most of the year, we don't. I just liked that fact too because it emphasises just how important what we do for each other really is.
We have special rules at the moment, and the economy adapts to our unusual situation at the end of December, but we should value these things all the time.
There are political-economic lessons in this. What it shows is how we look at the economy is a choice. We can pause it when we want to, because we do at Christmas. We can, in other words, change our priorities when we want, even if we only do so briefly, and then, unfortunately, we forget.
The point about this is Christmas reveals that a better instinct about the economy is possible.
We could give humanity the space it needs.
We could put economics on the back step every now and again.
We could push care towards the front.
This should not be seasonal, is my point.
We should learn that we have to value time, and not just output. Time for ourselves, time for others, time for community, as well as time for work.
We should design work around life, in other words.
We should treat care as economic.
And we should stop pretending that growth is everything.
So, enjoy this Christmas. Enjoy the time off if you get it. But remember, Christmas shows what's possible. We could do things better. The tragedy is forgetting that in January.
And a quick note, we are not going off air for Christmas. We will, in fact, be putting out videos right through the Christmas season, starting on Christmas Eve with a series of videos discussing a common theme, which is light and the way we interpret it in economics and other subjects. So, we will be here even when you are at rest. And if you've got nothing better to do over Christmas, please look in; we'll be pleased to see you.
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In the interests of multiculturalism I would say that the same arguments surely apply to Thanksgiving, the end of Ramadan and the Chinese New Year.
Agreed!
The French see an obsession with work as weird. Not being indoctrinated with the Protestant work ethic they place a high value on work-life balance believing they should work to live, not live to work.
What this means in practice is interesting. In recent decades French and US worker productivity per hour has grown at similar rates. At a cost to its GDP, the French have chosen to bank more of their productivity gains as leisure time than Americans do, with each French worker working about a fifth fewer hours than an American one. Workers in Britain, on the other hand, work more hours than in France but fewer than the US, and are less productive than both.
Yes, Christmas is an occasion for us to be reminded of care, both within and beyond the family. And more broadly to recall with gratitude the care we might have received through the year while remembering (however briefly) our obligations to return that care.
But I don’t see an economic lesson in it. For many (most?) people the things that are possible at Christmas are made so by deferred actions in our normal constrained economic activity – saving in preparation, or debt to be paid back after. In an actual household economy we cannot sustain the way we live and care for each other at Christmas – that will require the kind of changes in the greater economy that you focus on in your work here in this blog.
For most Christmas is a dream that passes as the “real world” returns in the new year. We must all try to change that real world so that the dream can become part of normal life again.
Thank you for your efforts, and enjoy the season with the rest of us, even while continuing to work!
Paul
Back when the Sunday trading laws were changed somebody pointed out, I think in a Guardian letter that not working on Sunday meant that it was possible for people to socialise as – almost everyone wasnt working on that day
Having seen my mother attempt to organise family get togethers when several family members were working shifts I can understand that.
This year is exceptional in that Christmas Day is Thursday. Many people will have started their holidays; many more will work up to Christmas Eve, as usual. What I find strange every year is that the time after Christmas is supposed to be a relaxing holiday, whereas the run-up to Christmas is when most of the work is done, and the vast majority by women. As well as working full-time, the whole business of presents, decorations, card-sending, entertainment, and cooking is added on. I once calculated that “doing Christmas” as presented in the media would occupy a single person for about 2-3 weeks, full-time. Perhaps the holiday could be better divided so that a lot of time off came before Christmas rather than after?
🙂
There is a historical reason for it, Christmas day is the first day of Christmas and 5th January is 12th night and Epiphany on 6 January in mediaeval times that was the celebratory period with Christmas day being more the religious bit and the holiday in the days after with presents (for the rich) exchanged after Christmas, often Epiphany which they decided was the date of the visit of the wise men though by Henry VIII’s time, presents were exchanged, in court anyhow, at New Year. (elsewhere in Europe often had different present giving timings)
The term Boxing Day had its origins in the 17thC, when the wealthy would give tradesmen “Christmas boxes” of money or presents on the first weekday after Christmas as thanks for good service throughout the year. Also, servants of the wealthy would often be given the day after Christmas off and take boxes of stuff to family.
In modern times though, I suspect it all owes, at least, as much to commercial pressure, hammer into people that they really have to do all these things, that involve spending money, for Christmas. That potentially creates a lack of spending activity after Christmas though, so they come up with things like Boxing Day sales to keep the commercial pressure on.
“In 2025, UK Christmas spending is forecast to reach a record £91.12 billion, with the average household expected to spend around £1,626. Groceries accounting for £14 billion. Boxing Day will see £4.7 billion spent in stores and online with 22 million people shopping on Boxing Day.”
The Attery Squash – Santa’s Laughter Mocks The Poor – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifP_0RN0JTk
Thanks
Many a Neo-liberal will read this post and interpret that those who advocate MMT etc., are promising Christmas everyday and call foul – I can just see it.
But the post tunes into something else for me and is spot on in the sense that why shouldn’t Christmas come at different times throughout the year?
Why should we not have politicians in elections that uphold their promises to the people and provide relief from cruel and unnecessary austerity?
Politicians that protects us from exploitation by markets?
Why should we not have better pensions?
An NHS that does not treat people in hospital corridors?
An NHS that helps us deal with psychological disabilities and helps us to thrive?
Governments that support local infrastructure and make roads and public buildings safe? The list of presents we need could go on and on.
As I’ve said before, I have never understood the ‘deferred benefits system’ of religion: you can have a wonderful life…..when you are dead! Life has to be endured, some form of test of belief or something. This is a very fascist version of religion.
No, life must be brutish and short apparently. And yet at Christmas we celebrate the birth of Jesus who often spoke to us when he walked among us about how to live authentically and empathically with others in the here and now. And it is by doing that, that we would gain entry to heaven or be remembered here on earth as ‘good’.
Hmm……it all seems messed up to me so I’m with Richard I suppose. So in the spirit of the festive season I offer this (again) from a guy I went to see earlier this year at a gig. He played this song and it lit up the venue (it was an excellent gig BTW). It would have only been topped by seeing the Nazarene at the bar having a pint afterwards. I would have gladly joined him!
Now I wonder what Jesus of Nazareth would have made of MMT? And should we ask Chuck to write a song about it? I hope the link works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTiRNRvoG1s&list=RDTTiRNRvoG1s&start_radio=1
Re. Jesus and MMT: I’m only an amateur at theology, but I’m pretty sure he’s for it. Maybe even invented it? After all, one of the standard Christmas texts is from chapter 1 of John’s gospel: “Without him was not anything made” – creation of everything (not just money) ‘ex nihilo’! He was also into multipliers, such as loaves and fish…
Merry Christmas, everyone!
And you enjoy it Richard – its been a good year for you.
It can be a love/hate time – blended families crowded together, some not speaking, two weeks pre preparing for a massive gathering around the non-religious turkey. Then a boxing day reorganising and travelling to other component’s of the family – those you really want to be with.
Glimpsing the manic activity at a local supermarket – it was literally as though the ants had been sprayed with some toxin that speeded them up and made them manically grab more and more stuff and move more and more quickly.
The grinding to a halt over the festive season – must surely be partly the necessary recover phase after the massive spending spree and cards addressing and sending , present deciding and wrapping , and food preparation while still trying to work.
Every place/activity/media programme has to genuflect to the season and reinforce the idea that we are all doing it- can sometimes seem to bring us all together and sometimes seems just part of the getting and spending capitalism propaganda.
For me the season really starts at 3pm lessons and carols from Kings College.
I like Christmas Eve – and carols from Kings is a part of it.
so what about holidays it total and weekends off..In china, weekends and holidays are worked for many
In recent years the Chinese government has extended public holidays to try to stimulate more spending and pivot their economy to be less export dependent. Companies are happy to go with that and adopt more ‘sales weeks’ like foreign events (Black Friday) and their own invention of ‘Singles Day’ (= a week or more).