Do you think if we told our kids they were eating Pepper Pig every time they had a sausage, they would lick their lips each time it's bangers and mash for tea?
As we get more focused on thinking for ourselves, instead of relying on the opinions of others, our choices are widened, giving us scope for some refreshing revelations.
We live in a box, we get information from a box and we die in a box, so some out of the box thinking would be a good thing for all of us.
We would all agree that lying to a child is wrong if you want to model the right behaviour yet every year we tell our children that Santa flies in with reindeer's and presents, wished for in a letter to the North Pole from your child.
We do it because that is what we do at Christmas. I am not the Grinch just because I put the green costume on. The truth is when your child is sitting on the lap of a complete stranger in a red suit and false white beard, the magical illusion could in fact be a closet paedophile.
It is not easy thinking outside the box but telling your child to never accept gifts or sweets from strangers, then introducing them to a random man dressed as Santa, is a mixed message. In truth for most (how many are truly marking Jesus Christ's birthday) the Christmas celebration is made up to keep up a shopping tradition centred around over eating, materialism and maxed out credit card bills.
Should the system take a break and stop driving the behaviour (like during a pandemic) it doesn't "feel like Christmas" so the pattern behaviour doesn't happen and when you think about you, being just a cog in a massive consumerism wheel being sub consciously steered at every turn to make money for someone else you wake up and start think for yourself.
Photo by: hue12 photography Unsplash