This house would cancel Christmas - Closing speeches

Third Proposing Speech
Dear Members of the jury, Opposing team, Proposing team, hello. I would like to come back first on what has been said before, especially by the last speaker. Saying that Christmas doesn’t oblige anybody to buy gifts to others is a clear evidence of ingenuousness. It’s underestimating the power of peer pressure, and it isn’t the same peer pressure that teenagers suffer from when they feel that they have to smoke a cigarette to be part of a group. It’s much more powerful. It also concerns parents who would contract debts to buy beautiful gifts to their kids with this new phenomenon of the "king child"...

Third Opposing Speech
Dear readers, I have two [pieces of] news for you, a good one and a bad one. Let’s begin by the bad one: this is the last speech you will read about this interesting debate. Fortunately, it means by the same time that we are closer to Christmas. I would like to explain you first where Christmas comes from, to allow you to build your own opinion about its congruence with humanity, and then, beyond its timeless values, what it brings us today, to imagine a world without Christmas...

Third Proposing Speech
Dear Members of the jury, Opposing team, Proposing team, Hello.

I would like to come back first on what has been said before, especially by the last speaker. Saying that Christmas doesn’t oblige anybody to buy gifts to others is a clear evidence of ingenuousness. It’s underestimating the power of peer pressure, and it isn’t the same peer pressure that teenagers suffer from when they feel that they have to smoke a cigarette to be part of a group. It’s much more powerful. It also concerns parents who would contract debts to buy beautiful gifts to their kids with this new phenomenon of the "king child".

This peer pressure is more powerful, because it’s organized, and more, it’s institutionalized. Indeed, Santa is just the best commercial consultant ever. He’s working for all the companies together, convincing people to buy and consume. Indeed, Santa, as we know him today, has been created by Coca Cola, which is one of the biggest company in the world. What does Christmas have to do with business, will you say ; and I agree with you, and more, I will answer you: NOTHING.

Moreover, Christmas is intensifying the social inequalities, and reminding everyone of them, especially poor people. Indeed, take a walk along the “Champs Elysées” during Christmas, and you will see on the one hand , elegant women with big Cartier and Chanel bags walking with more than the national average wage in their gift wraps, or entering their beautiful chauffeur-driven Mercedes or Jaguar. On the other hand , you will see very poor hobo dying of cold and sleeping on a public bench. Again we aren’t saying that Christmas is the only time when we can see those things. But obviously, it amplifies them. When you think that Christmas is the most important catholic day, and that Catholicism was all about care and share, don’t you feel ashamed of what it has become?

The second opposing team speaker is saying that it would be a great economic danger to stop this shopping peak. However, because most the sellers are expecting Christmas to make up for their loss during the year, consumers should pay for it ? It’s exactly the same problem with banks, that the government saved with billions of dollars without asking for any compensation. My team isn’t saying that consumers should stop all the shopping, and put the whole country into bankruptcy ; but that this consumption fever, especially during a religious holiday, if we can still call it like that, isn’t a good thing for our society, whatever the capitalist world want to make us believe with all these advertisements …

But Christmas is not the only religious event that has turned to an apology of consumerism. Take for example Ramadan for the Muslims .It’s supposed to be a sacred month during which you live like poor people, with no eating or drinking from the beginning of the day until the sun comes down; then you’re supposed to eat some dates , to drink some milk and water , and then to have a light dinner. Also, you cannot have bad thoughts, you are not supposed to have sex during the day , and so many other rules that show the sacred aspect of this month. But nowadays, it has turned to the exact opposite: in Morocco for example, the household finances are three or four times more important than the rest of the year, prostitution is everywhere, and there is a great increase of criminality because of social inequalities during this month.

The second speaker is talking about a great culture heritage. And I totally agree, Christmas, as Ramadan or any other big religious feast, is a global heritage, and it should be preserved as it. Would you let investment bankers rule your national museum, Le Louvre, or the Egyptian pyramids? We don’t think so, and I’m sure you neither. So let’s preserve our cultural heritage, let’s say no to consumerism and capitalism ruining it. Let’s show the world that we are concerned by our roots and our history. Let’s cancel Christmas this year only, as a sign that we don’t want our culture distorted, and come back to healthier values next year.

If you too want to take part in this action, please vote for us!

by MA

Third Opposing Speech
Dear readers, I have two [pieces of] news for you, a good one and a bad one. Let’s begin by the bad one: this is the last speech you will read about this interesting debate. Fortunately, it means by the same time that we are closer to Christmas. I would like to explain you first where Christmas comes from, to allow you to build your own opinion about its congruence with humanity, and then, beyond its timeless values, what it brings us today, to imagine a world without Christmas.

First of all, the origins of Christmas are firstly a roman feast, close to the winter solstice: we all gathered, turned on lights and partied to ward off evil spirits, because the night are the longest at this time of the year. So it was a way to prove to our relatives that we care for them and that we are all united. This statement remained through the years, and although we know we have nothing to be afraid of evil spirits now, it shows us two things: one, this tradition and their values are rooted in humanity, and second, even if these fears don’t exist anymore, the need of all humans to feel surrounded by their relatives is still strong enough to let this event to survive through the centuries. Of course, if we pick this fact alone, out of his context, it is a bad example for the children, because we lie to them, they receive gifts even if they don’t deserve it… But that’s somehow the part of the dream: it has to break up with the usual rules. No matter if you are not a perfect person, that doesn’t deserve all these gifts, we won’t let you out of the party because you didn’t behave as we judge you should have, and we know that you will return the favor, because that is somehow the tacit and unconscious contract. And this learning is, from our point of view, much more important than the fact that a child could be rewarded even if he had a bad behavior. Because it is one of the rare way to learn what humanity deeply needs, probably because loneliness is the “evil spirit’’ of our times, that we are trying to fight.

And we seem to manage it. If you close your eyes you should probably already hear the laughter of the children discovering their gifts, and feel the warmth of your relatives… Because as my colleagues explained it that is the main point about Christmas: Do you know any other opportunity in a year to gather all your family at the same time around you and have a good time with? It is not just a matter of gifts: just look at a child at his birthday and at Christmas; even if his birthday is in summer and “the climate [is] much agreeable”, I’m pretty sure you already know when his heart beats stronger. We strongly believe that it is also a matter of emotions; indeed it represents a way to recharge batteries, physically and emotionally, as my colleague mentioned it. Of course you can replace it with another date – as you proposed it, which is not a cancelling at all! – as long as there are enough people who believe in the power of the date, and it represents a kind of break in the repeated everyday, in fact an oasis of happiness in a world where we seem to have lost some of the most human values, not because we have no more feelings, but because we don’t have courage/time/opportunity (circle the excuse that fits you) to express them. So if you cancel Christmas, you kill somehow a part of our humanity, which is expressed through all this event represents. Of course, in a perfect world, people should pay attention to each other all year long, but we can’t disagree more with you when you’re saying that cancelling the only moment of the year (0.3% of the time) during which we care for each other would ameliorate the situation. And my colleague just proved that the first step to help those in need is to show your relatives love. So if you stop celebrating Christmas only for such “buy nothing day” reason, you won’t have courage enough to give to those you don’t know, if you don’t even receive anything from relatives. And – worst of all – you won’t have any Christmas gift!

So please, keep dreaming, show us that your child’s soul is not dead, have a lot of fun for Christmas, and vote for us…

by FR