It has been the same story as last year or the year before, only on a bigger scale. The Bank of England issued figures to say that never before during the Christmas season was there so much currency in circulation as this year – an average of £55 for every man, woman and child. The figures were symbolic of the general mood of optimism. Production has been rising faster than for a whole decade and longer. Unemployment has fallen well below half a million. Wage claims have proved negotiable and all threatened strikes have been averted. Apart from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, nobody dropped the slightest hint that there was any cause for concern and even he spoke with restraint appropriate to the general mood of festivity.
Buying Spree
It is safe to assume that most of the money in private hands was spent in Britain’s undoubtedly biggest ever spending spree and if any was left, the last day of the year, the day after tomorrow, will take care of that. The great sales season opens on Tuesday. During the whole month the shops have been well stocked with goods and crowded with customers.
In big departmental stores like Selfridge it was no easy task to make one’s way through the multitudes. Spare a thought for the salesmen and sales girls at the counter, said the Daily Mail and it did not sound inappropriate. They were harassed. In Oxford Street and Regent Street, London’s fashionable shopping centre, the police had to direct even the pedestrian traffic day after day and if the cops did not just “give” it must have been because of their sense of discipline.
When the shops were closed on Sunday, thousands of couples brought out their children to see the decorations. Since the place was too crowded for pushing prams anyway, one could see scores of children being carried on the shoulder, a rather unfamiliar sight in this city of children in dog collars (they call it the safety belt here).
It might appear strange, but I find it difficult to resist the view that, compared with the lighting arrangements in New Delhi on Republic Day, at least before the emergency, the decorations here are a modest affair. But we have little else to feast on. Here it is common to need the attention of the doctor after Christmas.
If I have not spoken of carols and services it is not for want of awareness that the festival is supposed to celebrate the birthday of what was a pagan feast before the Church thought of converting it into a religious occasion (Christ is believed to have been born in October) has returned to the old form in the West. Not without a difference though. In the old days they offered animals for sacrifice. These days humans fill the role. Thousands of posters here proclaim the fact that 147 persons were killed in road accidents during Christmas last year. Whatever the toll this year, it will indeed be surprising if this week does not turn out to be the bloodiest in the whole year. The Transport Minister has been shrieking: “If you drink, do not drive.” If this request had been heeded, the roads would have been empty which they were not.
With this business of greeting cards (604 million are estimated to have been sold here) gifts and parties which quickly turn into orgies of drinking, Christmas fever has become, as one writer has appropriately said, a disease of the mind which must be making heavy demands on the services of the psychiatrist.
The principal beneficiaries are the tradesmen. If Santa Claus brings gifts for the children, he keeps the choicest ones for the favoured ones, the tradesmen. At least during this one month they do not need the services of ever new techniques of advertisement to sell their wares. One toy shop for instance did one-third of the annual business in just four weeks this Christmas season. This figure may not hold for other trades but the percentage would be fairly high.
Fancy Dolls
Taking about toys, dolls which walk, talk, pucker their noses and even give a kiss have run away with the show this year. “If “Talkative Jane” with a total vocabulary of eleven sentences sold for three pounds, there was also a demand for “Charming Cathy” with a repertoire of 120 sentences at £25. One doll had a wardrobe of sixteen dresses ranging from plain nylon to a pony club kit – of course, all for a price. If this surprises you, let me add that it is common for loving and rich parents to buy prams for the dolls of their children here.
Good Works
In this atmosphere of pagan festivity, one young Oxford student was able to impart a touch of idealism. He persuaded 3,500 undergraduates from different universities to go round the country’s 72,000 pubs to raise half a million pounds for Oxfam, short for the Oxford Famine Relief Committee. Jeffrey Archer was inspired by President Kennedy and he thought of the scheme when he learnt the committee was likely to be short by half million pounds of its target. Incidentally in the last financial year, excise duty on alcoholic liquors yielded 465 million pounds which is one indication of the money that is spent in pubs.
Oxfam and other charities have larger share in the sale of the cards as well. One million copies were sold of one of its cards with the design of the Madonna and Child. The design was prepared by a thirteen-year-old girl. In all, five million Oxfam cards were sold, almost twice as many as last year. National Spastics, the Polio Research Institute of Race Relations, Save the Children, Mentally Handicapped Children, the National Association for Mental Health and other organisations similarly had a large share in the sale of the cards than in previous years. In all, about 80 charitable organisations sell Christmas cards here. Some of them make a profit of 75 per cent. As the practice of sending cards is becoming popular in India, similar organisations at home can take the cue.
While everything else connected with Christmas has grown, the ritual connected with the Queen’s message has suffered a serious decline. It is symptomatic of the changing attitude that this year the head of Granada Television refused to carry the Queen’s message and put an old Hollywood film in its place. It was not being insulting to the Queen. He was only reflecting the popular attitude to this ritual. The testimony was the absence of an uproar. Partly the explanation lies in the Queen’s voice which Lord Altrincham once described as a pain in the neck and broadcasting manner. If anything these inadequacies get magnified on television. More important is the fact that in recent years some kind of standardised view has emerged of what constitutes a television personality and manner and no monarch has a chance of successfully competing with the professionals.
Nice Weather
Finally, since it is customary to talk about the weather at this time of the year, I might add (touch wood) that so far the winter in London has been cheerful if not mild compared with last year. We have had what English broadcasters call an “outbreak of sunshine”. You can better appreciate what a blessing this is only if you know that the English weather is generally pretty awful. It is not so much the cold of ten below freezing point in winter that gets one down. It is the dark grey sky which can for weeks blot out all difference between day and night.
The Times of India, 29 December 1963