My one holiday wish is for an end to the cult of Christmas

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. The two million single parents, almost half of whom live in poverty, the people working in the service industry who have to work on Christmas Day, when there is no transportation available for them to travel home, people whose families are Muslim or Jewish or Buddhist and do not celebrate a holiday rooted in organised Christianity, the 3.5 million people who are homeless, including the 24 per cent of young homeless people who identify as LGBTQ+. Half of Britons buy Christmas presents for the sake of it Homeless Christmas shelters stop recruiting volunteers in July because there’s such high demand from people displaced at this time of year, hoping to do something meaningful in the face of the inevitable disappointment at spending 25 December alone. Last year I spent Christmas in my dad’s flat, the two of us getting drunk and watching a three-part documentary about the death of JonBenét Ramsey. If we really want to embrace the Christmas spirit we’re told about, one focussed on generosity and love, we must do so by treating 25 December like any other day.