And Cancel Christmas! Spending Down In Mallorca

There is this myth that the Mallorcans don't really do Christmas. Well, it's true, up to a point, but whereas Christmas Day may not be the be-all and end-all of the festive season, as it is in the UK, in Mallorca, "Christmas" goes the whole nine yards, or rather the whole twelve days. It's not as though the Mallorcans don't hand over plenty of readies at Christmas-time; they do, even if they may be somewhat more restrained than their British counterparts. And this year the average spend is down to 766 euros per head (15 per cent lower than last year). Don't ask how they arrive at the figure, but they do. A quarter of this will go on presents for the kids. At 180 all in, that's probably low by comparison with the UK; depends how many kids you're talking about. Add in the purchase of other presents, and the figure rises to 345 euros, something less than half the total average budget.

To these findings, based on a market research survey and reported on the other day in "The Diario", can be added discoveries regarding relative spends at different parts of the social spectrum, which suggest a widening of the social divide between haves and have-nots and with the middle class being squeezed in terms of its consumer power. Sounds rather familiar of course to anyone in the UK, but this sort of discussion, replete with references to social exclusion and so on, is less common in Mallorca where the safety-nets of more or less guaranteed summer employment and state assistance in the winter mask societal divisions. But these safety-nets have been pulled away from under many, and, against a background of the corruption cases, one does see concern as to an increase in tensions - a fear I have referred to before.

The language used is the same as it is in English, except of course it's Spanish - "riesgo de exclusión social" (risk of social exclusion) - as it is for other aspects of social and economic life. There are, apparently, signs of "retoños verdes" (green shoots) and economic recovery. The phrase has been used on more than one occasion by more than one politician over the last few days. The Spanish president, Zapatero, believes that recovery is "imminent". For the economy, arguably the worst affected in Europe by recession, this would come as something of a relief, if it were believable, that is. The property market, an indicator of how things are, continues to be in a bad way, and few regions of Spain are worse off than the Balearics; a fall of 31% in terms of transactions was recorded in October, compared with the same month last year.

Given the economic circumstances, it is unsurprising that families should be looking to cut their Christmas budgets, but they will still be able to enjoy all the jollities of a Mallorca Christmas period. In Alcúdia, they have produced a small catalogue of what is happening over Christmas and New Year. This town hall is really rather admirable in its information provision, albeit that it is of course all in Catalan. Religious services, New Year's Eve events, Three Kings; they're all listed and times given. And if you don't do the Catalan, it's in English - on the WHAT'S ON BLOG. So Christmas is not cancelled, even if there's less dosh sloshing around.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Elastica. Today's title - easy stuff, which actor playing which role and in which film uttered the words "cancel Christmas"?

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