Should students be burdened by work over Christmas?Flickr: Lizzie Erwood

Rosie Best

A cat can have kittens in the oven, but that doesn’t make them biscuits. Likewise, you can call our holiday a vacation, but that doesn’t mean we will or should treat it like one.

Central to this war of words is a preoccupation with work. While ‘holiday’ implies a relaxed break at the end of term – see Cliff Richard’s ‘Summer Holiday’ or Madonna’s ‘Holiday’, the word ‘vacation’ instead suggests that we are simply vacating the city of Cambridge, taking the ruthless Cambridge work ethic with us. Calling it a ‘vacation’ also reminds us that we will inevitably be returning to Cambridge – just in case you find yourself a bit too relaxed during the break.

“To release the pressure, we need a holiday”: Madonna wisely associates a holiday with necessary relaxation. However, this relaxation doesn’t entail laziness but rather a balance between work and play which is more 50/50 than the usual 90/10. Picture this: your family is gathered in the living room on Christmas day, gleefully admiring this year’s gift haul, when A Christmas Carol comes on the TV. You start and look guiltily around, wondering if someone has caught you enjoying yourself instead of reading that third Dickens novel you were set. Perhaps if our tutors and supervisors advocated a holiday rather than merely a vacation we would be able to avoid more of these truly heart-breaking scenes of holiday spirit destroyed.

The passive-aggressive insistence that “it’s a vacation, not a holiday” is, frankly, insulting. No-one at Cambridge is unfamiliar with the idea of work nor with the concept of working outside of term time; would any of us be here if we were? After a term (or rather a week) at Cambridge, anyone can see that coasting just isn’t a feasible option and reminding us of our obligation to work over the holidays is simply unnecessary. O Cambridge, ye of little faith.

Thus I conclude my argument by returning to my earlier metaphor. Trying to enforce the word ‘vacation’ on a student population who already refer to the ‘holiday’ is indeed much like handing me a kitten and calling it a biscuit. Not only is it actually a kitten but why, when kittens bring so much more joy than biscuits, would you pretend otherwise? Happy holidays everyone!

Lana Crowe

“‘Twas the night before Christmas, when not yet in bed, Cambridge students were fretting over books unread. ‘Tis the season for writing Part I’s dissertation: After all, it’s not a holiday; ‘tis but a vacation.”

Having work over the vacation will not dampen my Christmas cheer. I’ll still participate in all of my festive traditions. I could be spotted meandering down Oxford St., gazing in wonder at the window displays… just with a volume of Early Modern court satires tucked in among my shopping. Working could prove a fantastic distraction when counting down the sleeps between the end of term and the big day.

The reason why we’re given so much to do over the breaks is because our terms are so short. Nine eight-week terms, over a standard three-year BA, amounts to only seventy-two weeks: hardly enough time to elicit one of the world’s most well-respected degrees. Your three years as a university student is not long in the grand scheme of your life. Look at this time as an investment, one which you will be gaining interest on for evermore. It’s like that long Christmas Eve night, when you know that your presents are waiting for you under the tree – you just can’t open them yet.

The only feasible alternative to having work over the holidays is to stay in Cambridge, October through June. If during term is the only appropriate time for work, then term-time would simply become all the time. At least at home I don’t have to go to Sainsbury’s, be in charge of money, or live in a subterranean grotto-like room. And I’ll get a more nutritious diet than Christmas tree-shaped tortilla chips and a tin of mackerel I bought last April.

When returning home, spare a thought for those less fortunate than us: some universities continue lectures until December 22nd. Fill your break with festive beverages, party food and Wham, and power through studying in the holiday spirit. The Christmas vacation: because bi-weekly essays, thousands of pages of reading, lectures, supervisions and general Cambridge Scrooge-ness does not mean you deserve a break. Happy vacation everybody!