Since I was a little boy I have always been fond of the holiday season. As a child in Scranton, what wasn't to love? The holidays were that time of year when familes of modest means spent a fair bit of their annual disposable income on a large number of things they didn't need. I am glad to say that over the years my fondness for the holidays has evolved somewhat beyond the conspicuous consumption. To me, the holidays are the one time of year when the financial world I know stops for a few short days and lets me spend time with my family and reflect on things other than whether the dollar is going up or down. (O.k. In Europe my world stops for the whole of July and August too. But you should never let the facts get in the way of a good story).
After nearly 15 years in the financial markets, however, I have increasingly found myself needing a "jolt" each year to get me into the holiday spirit. After all, while the pre-holiday season for most is spent at shopping malls, my schedule is usually dominated by the dreaded bonus season. Poor Jim, I can hear you all saying. How tough can the investment banking bonus season really be? In truth, it is harder than you realize, especially if you are in research. Remember, research doesn't actually make any real money for a bank - the money is made by traders (or lost by traders, in the case of 2008). So during the bonus season, you spend 3-4 weeks convincing traders to give a little of that bonus cash to their loyal research support. Then, once you've spent all your political capital with the traders, you spend one day in December being told by your research staff that the bonuses you have fought for are well short of what they deserve.
Normally, the holiday jolt comes at the start of my December trip with Dina and the boys to the US. But this year, for various reasons, we are staying in England. Which means I had for look to a new source to kickstart my holiday spirit. Now admittedly, there is no better place than America for a little holiday lunatic fringe:
But England has some wonderful holiday traditions of its own - christmas crackers, mulled wine, mince pies and the most traditional of English holiday traditions, the annual nativity play. It was here, Ranen's first nativity play, that I found my holiday jolt. And I must say, it took me a little by surprise. For one thing, in a country where less than 15% of the population attends church services once a month, the central role of the nativity play has always been a mystery to me. More important, it is true that Dina has grown a little less dogmatic about how we will raise our jewish boys. But even for me, the thought of Ranen playing an inn-keeper in a play about the birth of jesus hadn't fully registered when he started school in September. Indeed, one reason we chose his school was the headmistress' insistence that it is not a very religious school. If it isn't, I can only wonder what the religious ones are like. (For the record, the other reason I liked the school were the really cool uniforms).
And so, on a chilly Friday afternoon, after a long week and a long commute from Canary Wharf, I arrived at St. Luke's Church to find my holiday jolt. As I walked in, my first sight was Ranen in a bath robe, size 18-24 mos (pictured above). Dina insists that she was told by Ms. Sasha, Ranen's teacher, that a white robe was acceptable attire for a inn-keeper. But deep down, I reckoned it may just have been her little way of protesting the school's "non secular" play. No matter. The sound of children singing and the occasional smile from Ranen as he checked to see I will still there was enough to put me in the holiday mood. (Not to mention the mulled wine and mince pies served afterward).
Happy holidays,
A Scranton Boy in Chelsea
P.S. If you need a little holiday jolt of your own, have a look at this video - it is Ranen singing a little African holiday ditty (when I was his age, I did not even know that Africa existed).
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