Ho ho bloody ho, the season of good cheer is upon us again, and I can truthfully say that there is no worse time of the year to be absolutely and completely skint. It's bad enough facing all the tinsel and glitter when you are single and poverty-stricken, but when you have a child it is like the definition of hell, having tempting luxuries you can't afford dangled in your face, and that of your child...... In a way, as an adult, even though you may not like it, you can at least stomp away screaming about rampant consumerism. For a child though, they are bombarded at school, at home, in the street. How can you tell a six-year old that Christmas is completely cancelled? For here we are not talking about a quiet Christmas, we are talking about no Christmas at all. We are talking if we pay the rent there will be zero presents under the tree, and that's IF we manage to pay the rent. When you can't even afford a Christmas tree. Children need Christmas, it is part of their life-experience. Grim reality enters their lives all too soon, and they deserve a little of the fairytale in their lives before it does. Childhood passes too quickly, and unfortunately we cannot step into the past to make it up a few years down the line. It's too late. I just find it hard to believe that this can happen now, in the 21st century. Even Bob Cratchit got his tree in the end. The Little Women got their lunch. And here in this Glorious Western Democracy in the year 2005, we can't even manage it. Food for thought.