Santas Against Excessive Consumption, London UK, Xmas 08

Five brave coun­ter­cul­ture war­riors don San­ta Suits, sing anti-con­sumerist and anti-cap­i­tal­ist Xmas car­ols, and leaflet for more mind­ful atten­tion to love, gifts, and cat­a­stroph­ic cli­mate change – in Oxford Street, in the heart of the shop­ping dis­trict of Old Lon­don Town, on the busiest shop­ping day of the year: Sat 13 Dec 08.

Turn­ing mate­r­i­al wealth into pos­ses­sions makes you hap­py; shop­ping till you drop and retail ther­a­py are good for every­body; prov­ing you love some­body means giv­ing them an expen­sive present. The bullplop pro­mot­ed by Capital’s adver­tis­ing and mar­ket­ing psy­che-manip­u­la­tors has nev­er need­ed chal­leng­ing more than it does today, in the worst of the mad­ness of Xmas shop­ping mass-psy­chosis dur­ing a cash-strapped cred­it crunch reces­sion.

Our yule­tide ‘tra­di­tion’ at Lon­don Ris­ing Tide [1] involves a ‘San­tas Against Exces­sive Con­sump­tion’ [2] choral street action – mass dress­ing as San­ta Claus, social singing of anti-con­sumerist Xmas car­ols, and let­ting folks know by leaflet that there is an alter­na­tive to the dom­i­nant the-one-who-dies-with-the-most-toys-wins idio­cy of hyper­con­sumerism. Since the rain was heavy and steady, we sought shel­ter and per­for­mance space in the West One indoor shop­ping mall on Oxford Street, by Bond Street tube sta­tion. But anti-cap­i­tal­ist cho­ris­ters only damp­ened what lit­tle Xmas spir­it the secu­ri­ty boss had left – and he threat­ened to call the cops if we didn’t leave forth­with.

Thank­ful­ly, his remit seemed to run out at the doors to Oxford Street, which still left us with a suit­ably sized cov­ered area in which we could sing to our hearts con­tent, and com­pete with the McDon­alds McFly­er to see who could give away the most leaflets per unit time. The applause of shop­pers hap­py to be spared, if only tem­porar­i­ly, from the soul-rot­ting rounds of shop­ping for tat was much appre­ci­at­ed.

The lyrics of the songs you can hear us singing in the video (so you can sing along, or even stage your own San­tas Against Con­spic­u­ous Con­sump­tion street action) are as fol­lows.

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1 (& 3). Jin­gle All The Way – to the tune of Jin­gle Bells

Cho­rus:
Prof­its here, prof­its there,
prof­its every­where
Christ­mas time is fun­ny
we smell mon­ey in the air
Adver­tise, glam­or­ize,
fool you with a flair.
Let’s make sure that Christ­mas
is a busi­nesslike affair.

You’re eat­ing up our lies and dash­ing to the stores
Then all our prices rise and how the mon­ey pours
If we don’t keep you drugged and watch­ing your TV
You might see the hypocrisy
then where would busi­ness be?

Cho­rus

We’ll tell you how to think and tell you what to try
What to eat and drink and how to live and die
And if our plan suc­ceeds, when Christ­mas-time is nigh
Instead of seek­ing love and peace you’ll hunt for gifts to buy

Cho­rus

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2. Con­sumer Won­der­land – to the tune of Win­ter Won­der­land, lyrics by Eri­ca Avery

The TV’s on / are you watch­ing?
Anoth­er prod­uct / that they’re hawk­ing
one more thing you need
to make life com­plete
Wel­come to Con­sumer Won­der­land

In the stores / you will hear it
“Pricey gifts / show hol­i­day spir­it”
That’s what they call it
to get to your wal­let
Wel­come to Con­sumer Won­der­land

At the mall we can go out shop­ping
and buy lots of stuff we can’t afford
we’ll have lots of fun with our new toys
until we real­ize that we’re still bored

When you shop / ain’t it thrilling
until / you get the billing
the mon­ey you still owe the stuff broke long ago
Wel­come to Con­sumer Won­der­land

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4. Oh Come All Ye Shop­pers – to the tune of Oh Come All Ye Faith­ful

Oh come all ye shop­pers
Bur­dened and despon­dent
Come all ye fol­low­ers of ma-a-mon
Come and buy things
Spark­ly and redun­dant

Oh come let us ignore it
Oh come let us deplore it
Oh come let us abhore it
Mon­ey and greed.

Ring tills with prof­it
Ring in exploita­tion
Ring all ye reg­is­ters of cap­i­tal­ism
Glo­ry to prof­it
At it’s high­est

Oh come let us ignore it
Oh come let us deplore it
Oh come let us abhore it
Mon­ey and greed.

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For cap­i­tal­ists, giv­ing means buy­ing tat from them first. For anti-cap­i­tal­ists, a gift econ­o­my can under­mine the mar­ket eco­nom­ics that poi­son our envi­ron­ment, our cul­ture and our minds – for exam­ple, see ‘Cre­at­ing Our Future World One Gift At A Time’ – http://tinyurl.com/gift-economy

Foot­notes

[1] Lon­don Ris­ing Tide – http://www.londonrisingtide.org.uk

[2] The Ris­ing Tide “tra­di­tion” of ‘San­tas Against Exces­sive Con­sump­tion’:
▪ ‘San­tas Against Exces­sive Con­sump­tion hit Lon­don, 16.12.06’ – http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2006/12/358481.html
▪ ‘San­tas Against Exces­sive Con­sump­tion invade Oxford Street’ – http://www.londonrisingtide.org.uk/node/33
▪ ‘Sub­ver­sive Singing San­tas Spread Sea­son­al San­i­ty in Lon­don and Nor­wich’ – http://risingtide.org.uk/node/247

[2] Car­ol resources:
▪ Christ­mas Car­ols – http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/resources/carols.html
▪ Our Entire 11-song Song­sheet – http://www.earthfirst.org.uk/actionreports/node/17929