There isn’t much that warms my cold, black reporter’s heart, but that is exactly how every Christmas redemption arc begins.
From How the Grinch Stole Christmas to Scrooge from Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, characters opposed to Christmas are as old as the holiday itself.
My criticisms of Christmas are as predictable as they are varied, and we have to get through some of those before we get to the good part.
Why? Because I’m the author of this column, and this is how redemption arcs work. Hang tight.
There’s the pressure to buy something nice for all of your loved ones, not to mention the fact you have to buy anything at all — especially in these times — just to live up to a standard of giving that is thoroughly muddied by consumerism.
Then there’s the people who, God help me, insist on beginning the thing well over a month before it happens: Christmas trees, lights, movies, and music in November, candy cane-flavoured everything, commercials encouraging you to buy. The list goes on.
It all displays a Christmas spirit I would argue is compromised, and publicly reinforces the fact others, regardless of their station in life, are obligated to participate as well — lest they suffer the shame of being a ‘have-not.’
This year, in particular, the ‘have-not’ crowd has grown quite a bit, which has me wondering how appropriate it is to celebrate as usual.
The city and the country have been hit hard.
Inflation hit 40-year highs through 2022, and the ongoing housing crisis has left many scrambling for a roof over their head.
In turn, consumers are purchasing less than they did before during this holiday season.
The Sharing Place Food Centre has seen skyrocketing numbers of people access its services in 2022, a sizable portion of whom were first-time food bank users.
The Lighthouse can have a wait list of up to 15 people on any given day, even at its new facility, and it went through its $30,000 hotel voucher budget, allocated for the year, in April, in only two months as the number of families staring down homelessness grew.
The same story has unfolded across all sorts of Canadian sectors and populations: Situations are now much more difficult, both here and across the country, than they were not so long ago.
The point of all this is I’m kind of a Scrooge myself, especially when Christmas, or at least the way we collectively act it out, fails to be an achievable reality for a growing number of people.
However, that does not mean the Christmas spirit — the spirit of giving itself — is gone. In fact, it’s plugging along just fine.
If you’re still with me, you’ve made it to the good part.
Since I began as your city hall reporter in March, countless people around our small city have overwhelmed me with their capacity for generosity.
When you work a job like this, you get a bird’s-eye view of all the people trying to make Orillia a good place to be.
Rest assured, there are plenty of them, and they are trying their absolute best — even now. Especially now.
Just the other day, Home Hardware owner Chris Locke pitched in $2,100 to ensure the Orillia overnight warming centre would be open over Christmas.
Lighthouse staff happily stepped up to the plate, too, sacrificing their own Christmas so others could stay warm as a harrowing storm hit the city.
Over at the Sharing Place, staff have increased their number of holiday hampers from 450 to 500 this year to make sure everyone has the chance to have a Christmas dinner with their families.
The Orillia Youth Centre put together a Christmas dinner for 200 youth, replete with Christmas stockings and more, so our most vulnerable young population would have the chance to open a gift for Christmas.
This type of generosity isn’t limited to the holiday season, either. If you look hard enough, you’ll find it all over the city throughout the year.
There’s too much of it to capture in one column, and if that doesn’t make your heart grow three sizes, I don’t know what will.
I know mine has.
Unfortunately, I can’t leave you there.
Though numerous actors are stewarding the Christmas spirit through these times, I still have a few hang-ups about a holiday that requires a truly valiant effort to simply grant people dignity while it’s taking place.
I don’t believe it should be normal for a vulnerable person’s holiday dignity to be tied to others’ seemingly bottomless wells of generosity because maybe we just haven’t found the bottom yet.
As more and more people find themselves in precarious housing, food-insecure, or otherwise challenging situations, those in social services are struggling to keep up.
Many of them are burning out.
When I look at a holiday that, on its surface, celebrates overspending and over-decorating, and I see how it grates against the lived reality of a growing number of people, I have to wonder why we try so hard to uphold a thing that’s becoming increasingly difficult to do.
If you’re one of those who are struggling, I’d encourage you to take it as easy on yourself as you can, which I know is far easier said than done.
There’s only so much we can all do, and the past few years have been difficult for everyone.
For the rest of us, there are some broader questions to consider as we move forward into the new year.
Simple dignity is becoming difficult to reach for many. Why? Who should address it, and how?
Why do we rely on charity? Shouldn’t dignity be guaranteed? Who should be that guarantor?
I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I’m certainly thinking about them.
When I look at our traditions, and how the current times make them difficult to uphold, I can’t help but feel something’s amiss.
In the meantime, there are many looking to help, and that is certainly worth celebrating.
Greg McGrath-Goudie is a reporter with OrilliaMatters.
