Tis the Season

Can you hear that? The soft jingle of Boney M or Micheal Bublé and a nativity song? Or can you see it? White bearded, cheery Santas everywhere. Only the 2nd of December and already Christmas has been gently putting its fingers around our throats for the past two weeks. For most this heralds the much needed and anticipated end of the year, a holiday, family time and of course, all the commercial indulgence that comes with the festive season. Trinket after trinket, bauble after bauble, meal after meal, there is a desperate need to make these traditional days feel as normal as they can feel in a time and a world that is anything but.

In the past two years we have seen radical change in our ways of life and as we enter the second festive season under the pandemic, shadowed by Omicron and potential increased lockdowns and red alerts, the general consensus is one of frustration tinged with fear – not of COVID or the new variant but rather that this is somehow a new way of life. When will things go back to normal? When can we take off these damned masks for good? It is the question on the minds of most. Already generations are getting accustomed to this warped way of life and yet an answer to this question doesn’t seem forthcoming

We’ve covered how COVID has impacted our local and international artistic scenes before and while many have been deeply affected, for many of those who make their career in art and culture, there has been limited platforms in which to actually practice their careers, to make money off their craft and survive in a time where individuality is being destroyed by repetition. Big brand names start colouring the details of the world and to add insult to injury, as if corporate fat cats couldn’t lie even more, we get Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Items slightly marked down to make it look like the floor price of that product wasn’t the exact same as this “new INSANE Black Friday Deal!!!” – Any business that advertises with anything more than one exclamation mark is a clear example of untrustworthy joviality.

All of this is an effort just to clear stock. Next year will see new things, December will see new holiday sales with hiked prices, all the old, unpopular stock needs to go to make space for all that new, only SLIGHTLY different popular stock. Because that is all it is: a product.

Now Santa and his elves are too big a capitalist system for anyone to be able deconstruct any time soon, let alone for me to combat in just one article. The myriad of societal issues that allow the gross indulgence we practice to happen are too large to digest in one go. The mountains of systemic issues that keep piling on one another tower over us. But we can move those mountains, stone by stone. And the first stone we can move is finding artists in our communities, whose voices speak for so much more than just profit. Support those artists. Buy their work which is very much not just ‘a product’ and bring joy to your loved ones with things that were made out of love or expression, fear or experience. For your own sanity: DON’T go to the mall.

From casualsexstore to Bandcamp and Etsy, there are so many sites to find the art, clothes, music that are being made by people with all of who they are. Safe, convenient and increasingly easier, it is more accessible to purchase the works of local artists from across the country than it has ever been.

We start turning back the tide when we start resisting the same tired things. Instead of a stupid gift found after HOURS of walking around a shopping centre wondering what the hell to buy your sister or brother, mom or dad – buy them Ringz by Willow. Get them locally made clothes by OTZ, Illucid or Studio Candor or surf lessons from Carltopia Surf. There are so many local and lekker creators and thinkers. Support local art and gift your loved ones something truly special.

By supporting our local artists we help keep afloat a facet of our culture that we do desperately need. Creativity is the lifeblood of our species, it finds itself in every major situation in our life and yet the monolithic giants of corporate industry cares not one whit for it. Individuality is a wrench in a machine that is there for the masses, not the individual

So make it about the individual. Be yourself. Support people like yourself. Create the world you want to see. It starts with one small stone and soon all those towering mountains of issues start look like stepping stones to a better, brighter future.

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