Christmas – a time for celebration, reflection and, hopefully, boredom 

In the face of relentless screen time and a constantly entertained brain this blog is cry out for boredom, wrapped up as an ode to Christmas.

I’m completely obsessed with Christmas. There’s so very little I don’t adore about this most special and silliest of silly seasons. My love extends from family traditions – Carols from King’s and waiting to eat my first mince pie only when I’m decorating the tree – to the cheesiest festive nonsense. Think awfully brilliant Christmas songs (yes to Wham!, Mariah and even Wizzard), putting festive decorations and lights in every corner of the house and wearing a Christmas jumper at every opportunity. From the moment Halloween is done and dusted (I’m living in America at the moment, so hell yes I’m embracing their holidays to the max), I’m thinking about Christmas. I get a free pass to not think about Thanksgiving because… well it’s obvious, isn’t it?!

The Land of the Free

I know not everyone is a fan of the festive silly season. Christmas is so very personal. Our perception of the Christmas is shaped by our memories and family situation. I’m not religious in the slightest, but I do have an appreciation for the spirituality of the season too. The pagan roots of Christmas are well known, and they are some of my most loved elements of it. Lighting up the long, dark nights of midwinter with twinkling lights and glowing candles. Watching the sun come up after the longest night for the winter solstice at Stonehenge. Feasts to celebrate reaching the milestone of midwinter and a chance to gather all your favourite people together in one place.

When the New Year finally arrives, I refuse to take my decorations down until I’m forced to, either by a cross husband or the heaps of pine needles that start to appear under the tree. And, it turns out, by the extremely American concept of a homeowners association. It turns out they can send you letters about (and legally enforce) rules about where you keep your bins, the colour of your fence and mailbox, whether you need to power wash your plastic house and when it’s time for the Christmas decs to come down. Oh and you can’t keep chickens, which the springer spaniels are thrilled about. Land of the free, indeed. 

The privilege of being really bored

But putting all silliness to one side, I think one of my favourite things about Christmas is that it gives me the chance to get bored. I know for some people with big families that’s not the case, but bear with me here… I struggle to relax; my husband will attest to my inability to sit through a longish film without fidgeting. Or my habit of writing down notes on scraps of paper to remember ideas for articles when I shouldn’t be thinking about work at all. But Christmas mandates relaxing. I read in front of the fire for hours. I get a sketchbook and paint and create some very forgettable art. I remember about my camera and fetch it from where it’s been gathering dust since the last American road trip or there’s-a-possum-in-the-garden-James-I-must-get-a-pic day When we lived nearer family, Christmas saw me resisting the organised fun of board games and charades but enjoying them immensely when I caved in. There’s no need to check emails, so I forget where my phone is and that means I don’t scroll social media and news sites. I even forget to listen to the Archers, and it’s a treat in January when I have hours of Ambridge-based action to catch up on.

Slowly, eventually, Christmas forces me to give in and be really, really bored. 

What are phones doing to our brains?

We’re rarely properly bored anymore. When I say ‘we’, for the most part I mean millennials and those younger than us. Our phones are an extension of our brains and at the first hint of boredom we snatch them up to entertain ourselves again. It’s a reflex. Watch people in waiting rooms, departure lounges, supermarket queues. They all have phones in hand, brain entertained, and the real world shut out. I’m not being judgemental, I promise. I do the same and when I catch myself doing it, I’m sad. I’m even sadder when I see couples and families spending time together yet totally shut off from each other, thanks to their phones.

If you’re my age or older (you’ll have to just guess on the age, I’m afraid) you’ll remember life before smartphones or indeed before even brick-like Nokia mobiles. Arranging to meet friends somewhere and being there on time without constant WhatsApp and text updates. Having just a handful of TV stations, a VHS or DVD player, newspapers and magazines and a bookcase full of books as entertainment. Actually watching a whole film without scrolling. I don’t believe we’re any happier today, in spite of all the information, connectivity and entertainment at our fingertips. In fact, it’s being proven that the exact opposite is the case – smartphones make us sadder. I spend a lot of time consuming social media and I worry about what it’s doing to my brain, in particular my ability to concentrate. I’m reading about the brain’s neuroplasticity at the moment, how it can forge new pathways after a stroke or brain injury. I’m also keeping an eye on how that ability to change neural pathways is highjacked by viewing hundreds if not thousands of social media posts a day. And social media’s impact on transactive memory at the moment. It’s my belief that there’s a lot we’ve yet to learn about how staring at a screen all day shapes the way we think, our memory and our ability to concentrate. But that’s for another blog on another day. For now, let’s get back to why I need to be bored. 

Boredom needs to be for life, not just for Christmas

I need Christmas to look forward to and enjoy because I love it. And it seems, I also need it so that I can get a little bit bored by it. The chance to totally relax between Christmas and New Year lights a spark of creativity in me that lasts for months on end! It’s amazing. Before the holidays arrive, I stare at my screen, write crap and then stare some more. Or I write and write… but it’s toothless and limp. But in January, I’m back on form. I suspect my smartphone is the culprit, so this year I shall train myself to place my phone on the mantelpiece each evening and leave it there. I wonder how I’ll get on. The apps I use are designed by very clever people to be very addictive, but I’ll give it a try. I need to be bored more often, not just at Christmas.

And, just in case the phone thing doesn’t work I’d like to start a petition for another Christmas, maybe sometime in June.

Another week or two when I feel obliged to relax, and can relax enough to be bored. 

Please?