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It's Christmas season and I'm excited to get back on track with writing another article. This is a season of love, happiness, sharing and caring. And lots and lots of renewed hope for the New Year. Hang in there, we have got this!

So... what do you think this month's theme is going to be? Any guesses? No? Not even a wild one? That's strange. Hint: Think apocalypse merged with the spirit of goodness. Without further fuss, we have A Very Merry Dystopian Christmas coming up.

See... I know you'd love it!

I admit that combining the themes of dystopia and Christmas is something I've never done before. I think maybe I can write a Christmas based theme which actually revolves around dystopia. It can be world where Christmas means something completely different than it does to us. A world where people are expected to give gifts, but there's a price to be paid to receive these gifts. It'd be interesting to explore the idea of Santa Claus striking terror into people's hearts.

Softly falling snow, carolers and heartwarming Christmas stories are just some of the things you definitely won't spot at dystopian Christmas--the alternative holiday celebrations that's currently bringing merry havoc in the season.

Scrunching their nose at traditional idea of Christmas, imagine a future in which, by 2040, rampant consumerism and environmental neglect have turned Earth into a garbage-strewn wasteland. From this stinking pothole is conceptualized space for the immersive exploration of the grungier side of Christmas.

I'd like to quote Robert Charles Wilson from Julian: A Christmas Story

"And so we rode out that Christmas morning from the ruins in which the Tipmen had discovered 'The History of Mankind in Space,' which still resided in my back-satchel, vagrant memory of a half-forgotten past."

The dystopian Merry Christmas can incorporate a theocratic neo-Victorian century or encompass climate change. It can comprise the extinction of oil and the chaos caused by it so much to have a technological retrogradation. Moreover, it can consist of the social order is structured by a hierarchy with feudalistic contracts and property-based representation in the senate and a hereditary line of succession to the highest post like president.

One adherence to the conventional Christmas theme is to bring movies along for the ride. Having said that, as with the rest of the experience, things are a little off-kilter once more. Instead of The Holiday, Love Actually, and Elf, you'll find Aliens, Gremlins, The Nightmare Before Christmas, and plenty more...

This is it for now. Wish all of you happy, blessed holidays and a fantastic New Year! ❤ Stay safe, stay protected.

Cheers, Nab =]