Friend or foe?

So here it is, the Christmas anti-climax.

Christmas is over for another year, time to start saving for the next.

In the true Christmas fashion, we had an estranged family member and arguments. But of course Christmas wouldn't be complete without them.

I was at my mothers on Boxing Day evening and one of her friends said something that made me think. He said that he liked being around other peoples houses at Christmas because he liked to listen to other peoples families arguing. It made him feel at home and it amused him that every household was the same.

I want to know when Christmas turned from being a classical tradition to a commercial maze of potholes whereby the whole point seems to be to spend every last penny on food that will go bad before it is eaten, toys that are out of date before the queen's speech and quantities of alcohol that would have even alcoholics stumped for a week.

To be fair, Christmas is still a tradition - of sorts. A tradition which states that we must cram as many people as possible under one roof, but under the condition that they must all detest each other entirely. The tradition then ensues that we all eat until we are sick, drink until we hurt someone and exchange pointless gifts whose cost would be better spent on countless other things.

It does however make a nice change that families get together on a 'happy' occasion, how often at funerals have you heard the words "we should all get together more often" uttered. In past times, families have been a support network to people, people upon whom one depended and vice versa. People now, are all too often estranged from their families and out in the world alone but for their friends.

But in the words of Edna Buchanan - "Friends are the family we choose for ourselves".

Surely this can't be an entirely bad thing?