Doing Christmas properly

I’m a great believer in a traditional Christmas. One in which the Advent wreath comes from the woods, the he Christmas tree is as large as possible and the lights on it are real candles.

My enthusiasm for tradition has of course been helped this year by our snowfalls creating those traditional Christmas card scenes and giving me the ideal opportunity to snowball the choir. In short, I believe Christmas needs to be done properly.


Now I do realise that on closer inspection many of our most cherished traditions have more to do Victorian Britain than first century Bethlehem. And therein lies the danger. For in our enthusiasm, we can turn Christmas into an ideal of yesteryear. Worse still it can become a child’s fairytale that could never true in any age.

To avoid such traps, to do Christmas properly, we need to pay attention to the details of what we have just heard in our gospel reading. So- who have we met? A Roman Governor, worrying about the state of the public finances. An anxious father, trying to keep a roof over his families’ head. A pregnant teenager, wanting the best for her child. And shepherds, struggling through the night shift. And then finally, there is a child born into poverty and homelessness. These are real people, facing everyday experiences. This, it seems, is no Fairy tale...

But the real surprise in this story is not how human they all are but that one of them is so much more. The real miracle is that on this Holy night, God became human in Jesus Christ. That same God who created us to be in relationship with him, who saw us turn our back on him in the Garden of Eden and who sent the prophets to call us back to him. This God now sends his son to become one of us.

And in doing so all those divisions are overcome, all that separates us from God is wiped away and we are re-united with our creator and renewed in his image. On this Holy night God made his home among us that we might for ever dwell in him. And as he shares in the poverty of our flesh so we share in the riches of his divinity.

So on this Holy night come- join with the angels in their praise, the Shepherds in their worship and Mary as she treasures all these things. Because if we are really to do Christmas properly, we must share in this Holy Communion through which we are once again reunited with Christ. For all of this was made possible by the mystery of Christ’s incarnation wrought for us and for our salvation on this Holy night.

Amen.