A Stornoway Christmas 'Outrage'?

It's hard to surpass the warmth and atmosphere that a Christmas fair/market can bring to the season. Stepping into that familiar world of winter delights and Christmas cheer gets me straight into the festive mood. The magical community of little wooden huts holding vintage gifts, mulled wine, handmade arts and crafts and the sight and smell of quality, local foods (which, if you're like me, instantly dismisses any sort of calorie allowance for the rest of the month). An ice rink, rides, live music and the town's biggest Christmas tree. What's not to love?

I'm not the kind of person who starts a Christmas Day Countdown, nor do I tag my husband in every Christmas related post I see on Facebook. But I do love Christmas. I love everything about it. Mostly the food, if I'm honest, and spending time with my family, of course.

So why does Stornoway’s Christmas fair give me 'outrageous' shivers?

Maybe it's the music?

I'm going to give myself a little credit here - I'm pretty musically open minded.

I can remember begging my mum to buy me a Westlife tape for Christmas one year - even though I hated Westlife - so I could feel a bit more 'normal' at the age of ten. You see, I was seriously into folk music (and I still am) - Silly Wizard, the Battlefield Band and Dick Gaughan etc. I can even remember doing an entire school project on one of Dick Gaughan's songs - what child does that? Then of course, I also had fiddle CDs playing on repeat. On repeat. On repeat. My Blazin' Fiddles and Patsy Reid CDs almost wore thin in the car. So I'm pretty open minded about the songs people choose to listen to, because I know my own choices can be slightly obscure - I am no person to judge anyone.

That said, I found it really hard to be open minded about, or sing along to the following key lyric blaring from our fair's sound system when I was last there:

'Suck my d*ck, Suck my d*ck, Suck my d*ck!' - On repeat.

Such a wonderful and blessed Christmas message for those children innocently riding on the Winnie the Pooh teacups. Not.

Let's also talk about the 'artwork'.

I like to think I'm pretty open minded about art too. I always loved it as a subject in school and still today, nothing relaxes me more than painting or drawing. I come from a family of art lovers and appreciators; it's just something we're into. Anyway, I struggled to marvel, at any positive level whatsoever, over the drawings plastered all over the 'Outrage' ride. They're vulgar, nasty and they're misogynistic. The only appropriate thing about them is that they truly are befittingly ‘outrageous’. I'm into art, I'm not so into that.

'Some folk are never happy!'

Before you comment, this is not a case of 'some folk are never happy'. I tried to find happiness in vulgarity, but failed. I’m quite an easy person to please, really, and I think it’s clear that anything to do with Christmas makes me happy. I think the Christmas tree in Perceval Square is lovely and I'm so enjoying the projected moving lights against some of the buildings in town - they're amazing!

I'm really not having a 'good old moan over nothing'. Like I've said in my blogs before, I'm only bothering to write about stuff I care about.

On another note, I can understand why our leaders would support something that you'd think would give our community (in particular its younger members) something nice to do over Christmas. I can see why permission would be granted (by whoever - I'm not pointing fingers) for the fair to take over one of our harbour car parks. I get it, this is supposed to be fun; a gift to our younger islanders, if you will. It should be something everyone can look forward to, during what can be a pretty long and dark winter. I'm not overlooking that.

I'm not really 'outraged' either, I'm actually just sad.

I feel sad for our islanders with families, who'll find that treating their children to the fair also means subjecting them to the possibility of blaring, offensive music (and having to empty their wallets for the pleasure). I feel sad for church goers, who pass this sight on their way to worship. I feel sad for people like me, who love this quirky little town and want to see it looking particularly lovely at this time of year - not trashy and not sleazy.

There has to be something our whole town can welcome that, over the festive season, would be fun for islanders of all ages, while still in keeping with the values of Christmas and those island values we so proudly hold on to? Smutty fairs accompanied by x-rated music is so unnecessary, especially at Christmas, and it's so not in keeping with the beauty of our island.

It's true, Stornoway doesn't go over the top with Christmas and it never really has, not from what I can remember anyway. We don't live in New York City and we're certainly not New Yorkers.

For me, our town centre should be a reflection and celebration of our people and place; wholesome, respectful and humble.

No, we don't to go over the top, that's just not 'us' and as far as I can see, no one is expecting us to do so. We don't have to transform Perceval Square into Times Square and we certainly don't have to degrade it to this, not in my opinion.

We proudly state that we live in the perfect place to raise a family. We should be true to that, especially at Christmas - the least smutty, least misogynistic, and most wonderful time of the year.