December Culture

The pace of the year has, again, surprisingly caught us off guard. We’ve made it to the ninth month and everyone is just tired of work and school at this point. Assignments are culminating and work just seems to be overloading. The only thing people feel like the year still has to offer is its ever exciting curtain closer-festive season. The month of December is always much anticipated for being hyped with festivities, love, joy, gifts, weddings and other social events that take place every week, if not almost every day. Social cohesion hits its prime this time of year as the spirit of togetherness is never more emphasised. It’s almost as if the year’s final moon allows us to be more human again-where we just want to spend time with each other. The rest of the year everyone is just stuck up and busy with school or work.

It has, however, become apparent that spending time with people just seems to cost more in December. Or maybe it’s because we spend more time with people then, so we spend more money. We constantly want to go clubbing, have lunch dates, travel and engage in other activities. I mean why not though? Things are on sale, everyone’s in one place on holiday, bonuses are out and things are happening. It is probably the best time to spend your money but also the riskiest. We have developed this interesting practice of spending a bit too much in December that we forget we have lives beyond December 31st. Most of us are caught up in enjoying ourselves and spending money on people that we dive into economic negatives. Our December culture has this tendency of morphing into a very unaccepted first moon. It has come to my attention that in addition to the holiday coming to its end, work and school starting-people are also normally very broke then. A circumstance I never really understood, taking into consideration that there are so many financial transactions at that time of the year. It’s as if people unconsciously spend money in December and finally wake up in January when school fees have to be paid. Children end up going to school with no stationery and fund money because a little less than half of the average adult cannot manage money. I’ve seen so many people ask for loans because there’s no food at home while they were living like Kings and Queens in December. This results in debt for the first quarter of the year and leaving most to only kick start their year beyond April. The rest of the year then becomes an adjusting series of months trying to make up for everything people feel like they missed out on. This develops into same sorry sequence repeating itself year after year. We hear the same song every fucking year!

Is it possible not to spend over one’s “supposed” budget during festive? I think it’s mighty difficult but definitely possible. As much as it’s fun to drink and eat out every day, sometimes togetherness is all we need. We need to stop this notion of constantly wanting to spend when together in December. Sure, we yearn to do things and experience the most but there are so many things to do that don’t involve money. Everything involves money so let’s say that don’t involve too much money.

I’m not discouraging spending money in December, in fact that’s probably the only opportunity we’re given to do all things at once. Spoil yourself, go all out and spend things on those you want to spend on. However, I feel like we just need to emphasise efficient money management. Murder that deserved bonus you get but also just make sure it overlaps to, at the very fucking least, help you kick start your January, if not the year. Seeing that most of you are in school or just started working, I thought it was important to stress and avoid the easy assimilation and adoption of/into our notorious December Culture.