THE BLOXIDGE TALLYGRAPH

Dateline:  19 December 2009

At this time of year, it’s often tempting to make a trip to the nearest pound shop and invest in a black Santa hat and a king size bag of humbugs.  After all, these days Christmas is just another commercial con, surely?  

What do we normally see around us during the modern ‘festive season’? Parents in a blind panic because little Shane wants the latest X-Station games console and their credit cards are over the limit (again)…  Middle class hubbies struggling back to their Range Rovers beneath a hundredweight of M&S mince pies and port while wifey chooses her latest unnecessary handbag…  Chavs slouching around Brownhills Market doing their Christmas shoplifting for fake dvds, X-Factor singles and counterfeit Chinese Burberry… 

And that perennial winter sport of charity-mugger and Big Issue-seller dodging up and down the broad avenues of Park Street, surely the envy of slalom skiers the world over…  Of course the sport is a bit trickier this year as there’s a fair chance of banging into a market stall if you’ve overdone it a bit on the Tesco’s lager or the Poundland liqueur chocs…

But, hairy old cynic that I am, as I sit here in the garret at Tallygraph Towers scratching away with my quill pen like Bob Cratchit, shivering and wondering whether I can afford to toss another coal on the fire, I’ve begun to feel my heart warming a little, and I’m surprised to say that I have seen evidence of the good old Christmas spirit in Bloxwich and beyond this year, maybe because I’ve been more involved than usual myself through the Bloxidge Tallygraph.

For example, the return of the Bloxwich Christmas tree to the Promenade Gardens - who would have expected that at a time when some uncharitable folk might suggest that Scrooge is alive and well and living in Lichfield Street? Provided by a partnership of Bloxwich retailers and traders supported by Walsall Council staff, this surely is one ‘green shoot’ that has more implications than merely festive ones.  After all, support for our village, or anywhere else in the borough, has to mean more than just filling pot holes and ticking government boxes - the raising of morale in bleak and difficult times is as at least as important as the physical infrastructure, and anything that can cheer us up through the darkest part of the year is surely very welcome.  Our new tree offers us a beacon of light in more ways than one.

Other trees popping up here and there have shone a light on their own communities, notably in Lower Farm, Little Bloxwich, which usually gets ignored when it comes to the doling out of gruel by the Beadle.  This month, hundreds turned out on a freezing cold night to greet little Demi Cullum and the deputy Mayor and Mayoress at the Lower Farm lights switch-on before repairing to a jolly fair for all the family at Lower Farm School.   And the enormous tree was actually paid for personally by two local Councillors.  Now that’s care in the community and by the community.  Can we have some more, please?

This year there’s also been the harmonious and plucky tweeting of community-minded folk out there in the Walsall blogosphere and Twitterverse, which is even now increasingly festive (albeit occasionally cynical) in tone.  It seems that communication, community concern and scrutiny are not dead, despite the sad demise of the town’s most historic local newspaper and whatever you may think of the effectiveness of local democracy.  There are still people out there who want to make a difference, you just have to listen for them in the right way, although some are as yet undecided whether to hand out ferrero rocher or humbugs this Christmas…

And apart from cyberspace, what about the work of all those community and tenants groups and clubs in the real world who selflessly put themselves out to offer a jolly Christmas to young and old alike each year?  Bloxwich Community Partnership, New Horizons, Leamore TMO, the Lions and Bloxwich Rotary to mention just a few of dozens?  Not to mention the vicars and church groups everywhere running their carol services and fairs and offering help and support in the community? This is, after all, their time of year, inspired by the first Christmas, and a season when both Christmas spirit and community spirit are more important than ever. 

We are a long way down the timeline from Bethlehem, which has its own problems today, but whether you are religious or not, you have to admit that whatever or whoever inspires good in the world has to be good for the world.

The Christmas spirit is still out there, alive and kicking, you just have to dig your way past the dross and the trivia of the crudely commercial to find inspiration beneath. It’s remarkable how many good things go unnoticed in our community simply because we don’t take the time to look for them or because our busy lives so often give us tunnel vision.  This festive season is the ideal opportunity to look a little deeper and think a little harder about what we do with those lives.

May I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a much happier New Year than 2009, however you choose to spend it.

The Edditer

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