有三样东西是奉圣诞之名过的。
其一是宗教节日，它对基督徒而言是个重要且必须得过的节日。不过既然少有其他人对此感冒，在此我就不多说了。其二是佳节良辰，是个让人尽享欢乐，迎宾待客的好时节（它跟第一点有着千丝万缕的历史渊源，但我们还是先别寻根问底了）。如果要问我对第二点怎么看，我只能说，欢度佳节嘛，我举双手赞成。但其实我更想说的是，每个人管好自己的事儿就好。依我看，既然是别人在业余时间跟他朋友一起花他自己赚的钱，我就没有什么理由去指手画脚。这个节要怎么过，他们肯定没兴趣跟我请教，我也没兴趣跟他们讨教。但不幸的是，关于圣诞节的第三点，却与每个人都息息相关。
这第三点，自然是指轰轰烈烈的圣诞购物热。
搁以前，英国人庆祝节日的方式里鲜有交换礼物这一元素。顶多就是匹克威克绅士带上鳕鱼去Dingley Dell酒吧小酌几杯（译注：场景出自查尔斯·狄更斯小说《匹克威克外传》）；良心觉悟的守财奴终于狠下心给他手下点了份儿火鸡；情人互赠爱的礼物；孩子们得到玩具和好吃的。以前只要朋友之间互赠礼物就行了，现在却连点头之交都要互赠礼物，或者至少得写张贺卡什么的，后者完全是被现代商家给逼出来的。朋友也好，点头之交也罢，送礼本身倒没什么好谴责的。我谴责圣诞购物热是基于以下几点：
首先，它带给人们的烦恼远大于快慰。
要明白这点，只消找个真心想保持这一“传统”（当然，我是指第三类，购物传统）的家庭，跟他们同吃同住一阵即可，这样你就知道称圣诞为噩梦都不为过。离12月25日还有老长时间呢，人们就都身心俱疲了——身子骨累趴是因为几周来每天都得去逛人挤人的商场；心灵憔悴是因为得为给谁送什么礼物想破脑袋，而且还一个都不能忘。这跟欢度佳节可连边都沾不上。当然，这离宗教习俗就更是差十万八千里了（即便他们想过）。对他们来说，与其说是欢度佳节，倒不如说是害一场久治不愈的大病。
第二，大多数人对此都不大情愿。
现代法则就是，任何人只要给你送一份“不请自来”的礼物，那他就能强迫你给他回赠一份礼物。这简直是敲诈。诸位都听过这样的悲叹，或者说忿恨吧：就当你以为终于可以跟送礼这件麻烦事儿说明年见时，居然收到了一份来自一位“没事儿找事儿”的先生的礼盒。于是乎你就只能掉头回商场重新厮杀一回合。
第三，我们收到的礼物好多都是奇葩，谁会给自己买那样的东西啊。
什么花哨无用的玩物啦，还有些标榜为“非主流”的东西，之所以称之为“非主流”大概是因为还没那么多人蠢到去追捧的地步吧。除了把钱花在买这样的垃圾上，我们就无处施展人类智慧了吗；这些材料就无其他用武之地了吗？
最后一点，太麻烦。
说到底，圣诞期间，我们也得买日常用品，而圣诞购物热大大增加了我们日常购物的难度。
据说，这门令人生厌的生意还得继续，原因是这有助于拉动GDP。
事实上，圣诞购物热不过是我们国家，或者说是当今世界的某种病态一年发作一次的症状：每个人活着就是为了鼓动别人消费。我不知道出路在哪里。但每年冬天都去买一箩垃圾再收一筐垃圾，以此来帮助商家真是我的义务吗？如果情况再这样糟下去，我情愿直接送钱，不要回礼，就当做慈善好了。真的要白白送钱？嗳，总比惹一身麻烦要好吧。
本文写于1957年12月，收录于1970年出版的C.S.鲁益师文集《站在被告席上的上帝》（God In The Dock）。
关于作者
C.S.鲁益师 (1898-1963)，是20世纪英国一位具有多方面天才的作家。他26岁即登牛津大学教席，被当代人誉为“最伟大的牛津人”。1954年他被剑桥大学聘为中世纪及文艺复兴时期英语文学教授，这个头衔保持到他退休。
他在一生中，完成了三类很不相同的事业。他被称为“三个C.S.鲁益师”：一是杰出的牛津剑桥大学文学史家和批评家，代表作包括《牛津英国文学史·16世纪卷》。二是深受欢迎的科学幻想作家和儿童文学作家，代表作包括“《太空》三部曲”和“《纳尼亚传奇》七部曲”。三是通俗基督教神学家和演说家，代表作包括《天路回归》《地狱来信》《返璞归真》《四种爱》等等。他一生著书逾30部，有学术著作。小说、诗集、童话，他在全世界拥有庞大的支持者，时至今日，他的作品每年还在继续吸引着成千上万的读者。
译者：Yihan@ 杰罗姆之友翻译小组
译者水平有限，英文好的朋友不妨读原文。
附原文
What Christmas Means to Me
By C.S. Lewis
**Three things go by the name of Christmas. **One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here. The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn't go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business to have a 'view' on this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyone's business.
**I mean of course the commercial racket. **The interchange of presents was a very small ingredient in the older English festivity. Mr. Pickwick took a cod with him to Dingley Dell; the reformed Scrooge ordered a turkey for his clerk; lovers sent love gifts; toys and fruit were given to children. But the idea that not only all friends but even all acquaintances should give one another presents, or at least send one another cards, is quite modern and has been forced upon us by the shopkeepers. Neither of these circumstances is in itself a reason for condemning it. I condemn it on the following grounds.
**1. It gives on the whole much more pain than pleasure. **You have only to stay over Christmas with a family who seriously try to 'keep' it (in its third, or commercial, aspect) in order to see that the thing is a nightmare. Long before December 25th everyone is worn out -- physically worn out by weeks of daily struggle in overcrowded shops, mentally worn out by the effort to remember all the right recipients and to think out suitable gifts for them. They are in no trim for merry-making; much less (if they should want to) to take part in a religious act. They look far more as if there had been a long illness in the house.
**2. Most of it is involuntary. **The modern rule is that anyone can force you to give him a present by sending you a quite unprovoked present of his own. It is almost blackmail. Who has not heard the wail of despair, and indeed of resentment, when, at the last moment, just as everyone hoped that the nuisance was over for one more year, the unwanted gift from Mrs. Busy (whom we hardly remember) flops unwelcomed through the letter-box, and back to the dreadful shops one of us has to go?
3. Things are given as presents which no mortal every bought for himself -- gaudy and useless gadgets, 'novelties' because no one was ever fool enough to make their like before. Have we really no better use for materials and for human skill and time than to spend them on all this rubbish?
4. The nuisance. For after all, during the racket we still have all our ordinary and necessary shopping to do, and the racket trebles the labour of it.
We are told that the whole dreary business must go on because it is good for trade. It is in fact merely one annual symptom of that lunatic condition of our country, and indeed of the world, in which everyone lives by persuading everyone else to buy things. I don't know the way out. But can it really be my duty to buy and receive masses of junk every winter just to help the shopkeepers? If the worst comes to the worst I'd sooner give them money for nothing and write if off as a charity. For nothing? Why, better for nothing than for a nuisance.
Note:
From God in the dock—Essays on Theology and Ethics by C. S. Lewis, published by William B. Eerdman's Publishing Co. © 1970 The Trustees of the Estate of C.S. Lewis, first appearing December, 1957
About the author
Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably one of the most influential writers of his day. He was a Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement.
He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include Mere Christianity, Out of the Silent Planet, The Great Divorce, The Screwtape Letters, and the universally acknowledged classics The Chronicles of Narnia. To date, the Narnia books have sold over 100 million copies and been transformed into three major motion pictures.
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