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Words
in the News |
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INTRO
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This
week, the question of whether the Christian festival of Christmas
has become too commercial. |
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IN
FULL
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Listen
to the report in full |
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23rd
December 1999
Has Christmas become too commercial?
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NEWS
1
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Listen
to the Rev. Nicholas Holtam,
Vicar of the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in Trafalgar
Square, London |
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Has
Christmas been subverted? Because it's such a commercial occasion
now in Britain, isn't it? A commercial celebration that starts in
early November. And the shops fill up with goods that tempt you,
and cause you to spend too much. And people spend too much
on their credit cards. Is it an average of seven hundred pounds
that families spend on Christmas? An extraordinary amount of money.
Christmas has become such a commercial celebration, hasn't it? And
C.S. Lewis used to talk about Glory to God in the High Street
and the spirit of X-mass rather than Christmas; and
that does not fit well with a baby born in a stable in Bethlehem,
two thousand years ago, with no home, as a refugee. There's something
that doesn't connect between the commercialism of our Christmas and
the real bare simplicity of the story of the Birth of Jesus.
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WORDS
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subverted:
if you subvert something you destroy its power and influence
tempt:
you tempt somebody by offering them something they want in return
for doing something you want
cause:
make something happen; seeing the goods in the shops makes you spend
too much
an average of: the total amount of money divided by the total
number of families
C.S.
Lewis: an English scholar and Christian writer (1898-1963):
he makes an ironic play on words between "Glory to God in the
Highest" (Heaven) and "Glory to God in the High Street"
(the main shopping area).
bare
simplicity: the essential, most important elements
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| NEWS
2 |
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Listen
toTony Marsden, who is Merchandise Manager for a large department
store in London
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There's
a number of departments that have what we would call extremes
of Christmas
trading. Perfumery, undoubtedly, is one where the uptake
in sales in enormous; toys, naturally, is another one; menswear,
dinner jackets, of course; evening wear, and of course we
see a benefit in sales of those. You know, whatever your
beliefs are, at this time of the year you have the opportunity to
live Christmas as you want it. My job is to sell products and as
successfully as we can. And people give a lot of pleasure in giving
presents.
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| WORDS |
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extremes
of Christmas trading:
people buy far more at Christmas than at other times
undoubtedly:
very definitely
uptake
in sales: increase in sales
evening
wear: clothes worn for formal evening
occasions
a
benefit: an improvement - increase- in sales
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| NEWS
3 |
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Listen
to the second part of the report |
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"From
Advent Sunday, four weeks before Christmas, we go into Christmas
gear - and all sorts of people come and celebrate Christmas
with us; and really for those four weeks, we'll be full one, two,
three times a day with people coming to celebrate Christmas in preparation
for this event, and I think, that says there's a tremendous longing
to find the heart of the story in the story of Jesus, and the search
for God come among us - I really think there's a strong longing
for that. So it's not all Glory to God in the high street, and there's
a much deeper longing for something substantial, and we know
that you can't buy it, but we do want it."
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go
into Christmas gear: prepare for Christmas ( as a car changes
gear)
a tremendous longing: when you want something very much:
a rather sad feeling
substantial: here, something which is important
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Read
about the background in BBC News Online |
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