Christmas coping for the climate engaged
A talk to inform and support
Tuesday 6th December 8 - 9.30 pm via Zoom
Christmas and the time leading up to it can be a very difficult time for those engaged with the climate crisis.
Christmas and consumerism have already started endless cheerfest that starts at the end of October every year and ramps up till 25th December. For those concerned with the climate crisis it can be extra challenging in lots of complex ways.
It is hard to celebrate when you are living with the certainty of collapse and people around you seem to be refusing to believe it. The shops are now full of extra plastic, Black Friday is encouraging everyone to spend and spend on more unsustainable stuff and launch the Christmas shopping period.
There is pressure all around us. Schools are having their Christmas parties, work are organising secret Santa’s, the ‘naughty or nice’ story seems to be everywhere. Family members are expecting us to follow the usual traditions and we are required to be quiet about our ‘extreme’ and ‘political’ beliefs for the sake of harmony.
If you are a parent of young or youngish children then there is a lot to navigate. At this time of year we are thrown into even more dissonance with the crazy world around us. We are thinking of the devastation of people who are facing drought and floods around the world. We know too much about the plastic in the seas to bear packaging at any time of year but now the volume is turned up. We are aware of and impacted by the cost of living crisis that makes it hard to many to afford to eat and keep warm.
Echoes of Christmas past
Christmas has its different echoes for everyone. Did you have lovely cosy times with your family gathered round? Was it a bleak time where arguments escalated with the drink? Was it a time of feeling like you don’t belong because your family was not Christian and no one was interested in your cultural traditions? We all have our own meaning for Christmas based on our childhood customs and the atmosphere around us.
Whatever our experience, Christmas time can evoke painful feelings but if we are engaged with the climate crisis then there is an increasing noise of dissonance with the growing madness of buying and consuming, and navigating family and friends who are not living with the same awareness as us.
It doesn’t have to be a nightmare! We can face this together, share the pain and challenge, work out how to navigate it all and create some new nourishing traditions for our families that align with our values.
In this 90 mins zoom call I will share some ideas and strategies, invite questions and then there will be time for live participants to spend some time with each other sharing experiences and feeling connected with others who really care about this. The first part will be recorded for those who want to catch up later. The second part will be confidential to those who are there live.