We do not count the families deprived of Christmas Eve on Christmas Day, because an uncle or a sister is positive for the virus or has contact. But these cancellations may help some “natalophobes”, those worried about Christmas who say: “I don’t like Christmas anyway. That kind of family reunion scares me.”
franceinfo: Why do we have to party that day? We have the impression of hearing it more and more. Christmas is no longer so unifying?
Jean-Viard: Oh yes, you’re a little pessimistic, a little Parisian, but it’s true that there is an age, between 20 and 30 years old, well, it’s less easy because we no longer want to to be a child. And we’re not parents yet, in general. So, it’s true that there is a bit of a hollow, but otherwise, it’s still the big celebration of the family, affection, gifts.
So we have to say all that. You have to be careful when looking at indicators of happiness, for example. Over the past year, they have increased. We have gone from 75% of people who say they are happy to 80%. So, of course there is the crisis, there is all that. But at the same time, why? Because we fell back on the family. We fell back on the near. Often, we have reduced certain trips, a little constrained and basically, we realize that we are very happy like that.
Maybe it shouldn’t last too long because it turns us in on ourselves a bit, but basically, I think people, at the moment, are quite happy. They are very close to their families, but it’s going to be a tight Christmas. But you know, it also avoids inviting the great-uncle in the background, who’s a bit of a nuisance, etc. You don’t have to be completely naive either …
Precisely for some, that also represents Christmas?
Yes, but Christmas is also the fact that it first represents these three generations. Because there are grandparents and grandchildren. It’s a great intergenerational moment. But afterwards, it must also be said that there are 10 million French people who live alone. There is that age, 20/30 years old, so there are also all these questions.
We must also think about the other side of Christmas, families, people who do not have children. People who have lost their children. People all alone. There are still a lot of people that their children have abandoned. So you also have to think about all these “sad” at Christmas. They are very much in the minority, but it is also part of Christmas. You have to think about it. There is the joy that is expressed. And then there is the sadness of others, but you have to recognize them, talk about them, say it, etc …
And we think of them, of course, today. Can the Covid, which has put a damper on family gatherings in general for two years, and Christmas Eve in particular, once again this year, change our habits a little in the long term?
I believe that in the long term, society is reorganizing itself on the premises and on the family. I think it is a fundamental phenomenon. After a period before, where fashion was basically modernity, mobility, all the time, etc. There, there is a fundamental phenomenon. What has changed a lot is that since 1981, since we had the fifth week of paid vacation, in fact, between Christmas and New Year’s Day, we no longer work, except for pastry professionals. , police, firefighters, etc.
So that means that basically it’s a week’s vacation, and that has changed enormously. This was not the case before, until the 1980s, it was not a week’s vacation. There were two times a day when we weren’t working, but on Monday we were all at work. So that’s a bit of a long time.
There are a lot of people on the move. People who have second homes go to their second homes, and so on. There is skiing, of course. This year there is snow. This is not the case every Christmas. So those who can afford skiing, the 8 to 10% of French people who go skiing, they will try to go skiing. It is also sometimes a way of escaping family Christmas a bit. One says : “ah, I can’t, I’m skiing!” There is all that. I think that’s the right thing to say. There are all these movements at the same time.
So it’s been since the 80s that we really make this moment of conviviality sacred?
Sacralize the holiday week! Before, there was already Christmas. Santa Claus as we know him is an invention of Coca-Cola. Be careful. Before, there had been Saint-Nicolas for a long, long time. And in Belgium, for example, Saint-Nicolas is almost still a more important celebration in reality, than Christmas, because Saint-Nicolas, it is he who brought the gifts to the children and all that, and then, indeed, Coke. -Cola, when he started, made him the red, red and white character that we have now.
It’s a Coca-Cola design that has imposed itself on the whole planet with Coca-Cola, that’s why there are lots of people who are not Christians at all. They make Christmas. Children, it’s party time. It has become the children’s party. It must also be said, it is all the same that. For once we put children at the center, I still find that it is an important event for the cohesion of families and social cohesion.