Lost Negatives

[gothwalk]

I do wonder what happened to the negative parts of the various seasonal traditions - the kids who didn't get Christmas presents because they weren't good (or got coal, or sticks, or whatever), the ones who didn't find Easter eggs, and so on. They seem to have vanished entirely.

I was reminded of this by an overheard conversation in a supermarket today wherein two (well-dressed, well-spoken, polite) kids were discussing blackmail tactics to get the maximum possible number of Easter eggs out of their relatives. The small boy was good on the numbers, but weak on motivation (his concept of beating up his older brother seemed doomed to failure, for instance), and the small girl had them down a lot better, having already concealed pictures of "Mary and George" in safe places for a later exchange against a chocolate currency.

Comments

[ailbhe]

We were threatened with loss of presents from Santa if we were bad, but there was never any behavioural connection with Easter Eggs as long as I can remember. We got one and one only, from the Easter Bunny, and none from relations of any kind.