Posted on 01/02/2005 9:08:14 AM PST by UnklGene
Americans have their holidays in perspective -
January 2, 2005
BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
''Are you working over Christmas?'' I asked the waitress at my local diner on Thursday, Dec. 23.
Erica looked bewildered. ''No,'' she said. ''We're closed Christmas Day.''
My mistake. I'd just been on the phone to an editor in London who'd wanted early copy for the late January issue because no one was going to be in the office ''over Christmas.'' I'd forgotten that, in the United States, ''over Christmas'' means Dec. 25. In London and much of the rest of Europe, it's a term of art stretching as far into mid-January as you can get away with.
So Christmas 2004 is over over here, but over there they're just getting into their stride. In America, even with separation of church and state, the Christmas holiday is what it says: a holiday for Christmas. If it happens to fall on a Saturday or Sunday, tough. See you at work Monday morning. But across the Atlantic, if Christmas and New Year fall on the weekend, the ensuing weeks are eaten up by so many holidays they can't even come up with names for them. I see from the well-named ''Beautiful Ireland'' calendar I was sent this year that tomorrow -- Monday, Jan. 3, 2005 -- is a public holiday throughout the British Isles -- the Morning After The Morning After The Morning After Hogmanay? -- and the lucky Scots get Tuesday, Jan. 4, off too -- the First Hogtuesday After Hogmonday? Eventually, the entire Scottish economy will achieve the happy state of their enchanted village of Brigadoon and show up for one day every hundred years.
I've spent Christmas on both sides of the pond and, on the whole, I prefer the intensity of the American version: the big buildup, nonstop seasonal favorites on the radio between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, and then at midnight on Dec. 25, it all stops, and Dec. 26 is a perfectly normal day. Whereas the last Christmas I spent in rural England is as near as I hope I ever get to experiencing my own hostage crisis. ''Is it Christmas Bank Holiday Thursday yet?'' ''No, it's still Boxing Day. Have another cold turkey sandwich and some stale punch.'' I've nothing against a three-week Christmas in principle, but there doesn't seem to be enough to fill it up.
The French and Germans, who average 40 days vacation a year, assume the reason Americans don't take holidays is because they don't get them. In fact, it's very hard persuading Americans to take the ones they do get. In rural states, most federal holidays -- Presidents Day, Martin Luther King Day, etc. -- go unobserved except by banks and government agencies. It was all I could do to persuade my assistant not to come in on Christmas Day -- ''just for a couple of hours in the morning in case there's anything urgent,'' she says pleadingly.
''There won't be anything urgent,'' I scoff.
''What about all that European research you wanted me to chase up?''
''Those deadbeats won't be back in the office till the week before Valentine's Day.'' Since lunchtime on Dec. 23, every business in Europe has been on an answering machine.
It's true there are those in America who occasionally aspire to Europe's elegant lethargy. In the special Princess Di tribute issue of the New Yorker rushed out by Tina Brown, she offered her own queenlier-than-thou farewell: ''When the news came of her death, my first thoughts were of place and time -- of the wrongness of any royal princess, even a divorced one, contriving to be in that place at that time. In late summer, the Paris of the rich and the titled simply closes down,'' she wrote. ''Paris in August . . .? The fact that she was there at all was discordant, a poignant symbol of a season of panic and flight.''
So not only was the Princess of Wales' death a terrible tragedy, it seems it was also a ghastly social faux pas.
But Paris in August, like London ''over Christmas,'' is in itself a symbol of flight -- flight from work. In 1999, the average ''working'' German worked 1,536 hours a year, the average American 1,976. In the United States, 49 percent of the population is in employment, in France 39 percent. From my strictly anecdotal observation of German acquaintances, the ideal career track seems to be to finish school around 34 and take early retirement at 42. By 2050, the pimply young lad in lederhosen serving you at the charming beer garden will be singlehandedly supporting entire old folks' homes. If tax rates were to be hiked commensurate to the decline in tax base and increase in welfare obligations, there would be no incentive at all to enter the (official) job market. Better to stay at school till 38 and retire at 39. That's why America's richer, and why, though the Europeans preen about their kinder, gentler society, customers of Amazon.com have pledged more money to disaster relief in the Indian Ocean than the French government.
It would require enormous political will to shift the people of Europe. After you've turned citizens into junkies, with government as the pusher, it's very hard to turn them back again, and even harder to get them to quit cold turkey. It's all but impossible in the present Continental political culture. Europe has a psychological investment in longer holidays: The fact that they spell national suicide is less important than that they distinguish Europe from the less enlightened Americans.
Many aspects of European life are, indeed, very pleasant: jobs for life, three-week Yuletides, etc. But they're what the environmental crowd would call ''unsustainable development.'' Despite the best efforts of lethargic Scotsmen, it can't be Christmas all year round.
ping
Is that the definiton of hog heaven? Steyn's back ping!
I hear ya, Mark. But these days the buildup is beginning to start shortly after Halloween, not Thanksgiving. ......way too early to be bombarded with Christmas stuff.
LOL. Keep on truckin', Mark.
How can Steyn keep churning these out? His well would never seem to run dry?
I was working 50-60 hour weeks in 2003. In 2004 I managed to cut it down to about 35-40 and this year, my goal at 56 is to cut it down even further. I hope to retire in three years. I'm self employed in a profession which eats people up and I have minimal financial needs. My 62 year old husband just got his first social security check. We plan to take mine as early as possible. He has "passive income" which means he works his behind off almost every day on some investment properties we have bought over the last 30 years. This is our first year when we won't be supporting a child. I remember someone saying, "We child proofed our house but they keep coming back."
He is truly amazing.
Bump for Mark Steyn!
Happy New Year to All Freepers!
FMCDH(BITS)
bttt
Hogmanay is actually the traditional Scots name for New Year's Eve.
What Steyn is hinting at but not really saying, with regard to Christmas, is that in America we celebrate Advent (the lead-up to Christmas) and in Britain they celebrate Christmas (a twelve-day festival from Christmas Day to Epiphany). We often hear of the "twelve days of Christmas" in America, but we never stop to think about it.
The European Christmas is more in line with the traditional Church calendar, which observes Christmas from December 25 through January 6, Epiphany or the Feast of the Magi. That's where the Twelve Days of Christmas comes from.
But of course Europe no longer thinks of it in terms of a religious celebration. Just more time for slacking off.
BTTT
By 2050, the pimply young lad in traditional dress and keffiyeh will be serving you at the charming tea garden.
How lucky we are Steyn chooses to put pen to paper.
Another good one by Mark bump.
Spot on, Mr. Steyn.
Hehehehehe! So very true. The only thing worse than stale Christmas punch is trying to get something done in Europe during the weeks of late July and early August!
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