And It’s Christmas Eve Again! Radio Drama Review

by Laura Lai/Review

It’s hard to believe. I know! But it’s Christmas Eve again. It’s no joke. The holy Christmas is the holiday when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. In general, Christianity splits into two geographic groups: the West Christians and the Eastern ones. The Eastern Christians split into two groups, too, depending on the Julian or the Gregorian calendar they use, in order to celebrate Christmas. Therefore, a minority of East Christians celebrates Christmas on December 25^th and a majority of them celebrate Christmas on January 7^th.

            The fact that my Writing Break blog doesn’t have audience among the Byelorussians, Russians, Serbians, (a part of) Ukraine it’s no reason to ignore these people. On the contrary, it’s a good reason and the best time of the year to wish them

a happy, peaceful, joyful and full of hope Christmas holidays!

Some of the old tradition Christian Orthodox might have taken the time to organize themselves in such a way to best avoid the last minute Christmas shopping’s hunting. It would not be a surprise. Some people do take time in organizing Christmas.

            For example, Radio New Zealand organized since August 2019 a song contest, in order to choose the best Christmas song. I’m a great fan of borrowing from other genres or of the mixing of genres in all mediums. Quentin Tarantino is the film director who fascinates me with his genre mix in movies. And I try to rise to this fascinating challenge in my writings, too. This broadcast of Radio New Zealand for the best Christmas song contest is in this fascinating multi-genre mix. No wonder that the choice was very difficult. The plays were sensational and you can hear the broadcast and the winner here. 

Some other old tradition Christian Orthodox may still be in the fever of the Christmas shopping, as Francis, 34 (Sarah Jane Holm) and James, 35 (Toby Jones) were in the BBC radio play ‘Christmas Shopping’ by Max Hillman.

            This play broadcasted by the BBC on the 23^rd of December 1997 (and very recently uploaded on You Tube) is a journey backwards from what Christmas became to mean to most of us: a shopping list and a struggle for gifts’ ideas, which cause people pressure, nausea and even a dislike for … Christmas. The paths of Francis and James cross several times in this Christmas shopping hunting. It is through these people getting together for Christmas that the author, Max Hillman, takes us back to the spiritual meaning of Christmas: from the shopping list to the ‘unimprovable’ spiritual list of kindness and of the ‘never ever’ hurting again.

Isn’t that ‘unimprovable list’ lovely? Does this wonder last three days until the third day of Christmas? Would it be too much to ask from the human kind to make it last until New Year or longer? And if it’s really too much to ask, what’s wrong with the human kind, in order to take the time and fix it until the next Julian or Gregorian calendar Christmas?