By Kendall Worth!
Readers may remember Part#1, published recently.
In part#1, I talked about how, a wide range of mixed feelings, relating to anxiety, are being experienced by people living in poverty, about celebrating Christmas. The news about COVID cases increasing, is making the community-of-people-living-in-poverty nervous. This year, however, it is not just COVID spoiling Christmas, for people in poverty, inflation is another concern for 2022.
I wrote this article: https://worthmatters.blogspot.com/2022/10/concerns-around-celebrating.html which illustrates the cost of celebrating Thanksgiving in non-Covid times of costing upward of $94.00. In pre-COVID time we were also not experiencing the same inflation we are experiencing these days. I was talking to people recently, who told me that, this year they found that, even cutting all the corners they can think of, at Thanksgiving, celebrating cost them from $150.00 to $200.00. That is a huge jump from what they normally spend for Thanksgiving. People I have talked to recently told me, that after experiencing what they had spent on Thanksgiving, they are faced with the possibly that Christmas might be out of the question for this year. After all, you also have to consider groceries in-between Thanksgiving and Christmas, keeping payment of bills up to date, and the cost of fuel - that just keeps increasing. So, the living expenses in-between Thanksgiving and Christmas will all add up, as well, this year.
Some people living in poverty who remembered and pointed out this https://nsadvocate.org/2019/12/23/kendall-worth-christmas-2019-where-to-eat/ article, once posted in the Nova Scotia Advocate, have recently asked me if the Christmas Dinners advertised in this linked article, especially now that COVID Lock-downs and Public Health Restrictions, have ended, are going to make a come-back?
People are saying: if yes, now is the time for the organizations who host these Christmas’s to start preparing. It is expected that this year, Christmas 2022, there is going to be an increase in people needing these Christmas Dinners
I always use the number 20% to describe welfare recipients that have good family or friend connections. (Also just a reminder, that when I say, “ the 20%”, we have got to remember that exact statistics here are unknown.)But there is whole another issue for the 20%-lucky-income-assistance-recipients, who, under normal, non-Covid, circumstances, do get to spend Christmas with family and or good friends. This feeling is not related to COVID or inflation, but to stigma.
When you have a look at what the meaning of the Christmas season should be according to religious Christians, part of the problem is Christmas has become too commercialized over the years. Christmas should be happy, joyful, full of love and forgiveness time of year, when things like belief in the stigma about people on welfare, should be forgotten. A couple of Christians I recently talked to, told me they blame the reason why people worry about not having money for celebrating Christmas, on the commercialization of Christmas. However, when inflation is on the rise, what Christians believe in this regard, is not always true.
I want to address myself to families who do truly believe in stigmatizing welfare recipients: Christmas is the not time of year for stigmatizing! They should be putting that stigma aside, and families should be showing more love, support and happiness toward their family member, who maybe a welfare recipient. In recent conversations, I have had with a few welfare recipients who identify themselves as some of the 20% lucky ones, spending time with family involves leaving Halifax and travelling to rural Nova Scotia. These people actually told me that they called not going home to where they grew up in rural Nova Scotia, at Christmas 2020, and again in 2021, a welcome break. During this conversation, they pointed out this article: https://nsadvocate.org/2019/04/11/kendall-worth-why-many-income-assistance-recipients-in-halifax-want-to-forget-their-rural-past/ and they said: “Kendall. Even though this article, is not written about Christmas, it still points out the reasons why we called “not going home for Christmas”, in those 2 years, a welcome break. For more on the stigma, that people who believe in stigma, should be putting aside at Christmas see: https://nsadvocate.org/2016/10/17/kendall-worth-ignorant-ideas-about-welfare-i-hear-a-lot/ and https://nsadvocate.org/2016/10/24/kendall-worth-more-ignorant-ideas-about-welfare-that-people-actually-believe/
For more on Mental Health, related to this misunderstanding/stigma, they experience when visiting Rural Nova, see https://nsadvocate.org/2016/07/25/hey-ho-mental-health-stigma-has-got-to-go/
(Note – Not all the linked articles above, are about Christmas, but they do all concern the reasons why some welfare rcecipients do not want to travel home to rural N.S., at Christmas time. )
In this article, https://nsadvocate.org/2020/04/02/Kendall-worth-for-many-on-social-assistance-moving-back-to-rural-nova-scotia-right-now-is-a-bad-idea/ I explained that during COVID lockdown, there were some welfare recipients, with mental health issues, who were harassed by people, from where they grew up in Rural Nova Scotia, who wanted the welfare recipient to move home temporarily. People who know them from where they grew up in rural Nova Scotia do not seem to understand that they need to be living here in the city, because of their Mental Health Issues. Not going home to rural Nova Scotia means staying near mental health supports and services, and not wanting to be away from them for long on any occasion (not just Christmas!) No matter who anyone is, this welfare stigma is uncalled for. Christmas is not a time of year for a welfare recipient to be experiencing this stigma.
Overall, I believe, to the bottom of my heart, in the reason for the season, and I strongly believe in Christmas being an example of a time for family togetherness. Sadly, many welfare recipients I talk to, are saying they have already made the decision that they will not be spending Christmas with family again this year. We can all agree that there is sadness behind this decision, but they say their decision is all for the best.
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