Dear Friends,

As I write this in mid-November, Christmas is already in full swing in shops and advertisements everywhere.  The radio launched into adverts for Christmas food and gifts the moment the reveille finished sounding on Remembrance Day and the shops started rather earlier!

There seems to be a Christmas obsession with stuff.  Shops are filled with Christmas furnishings as well as decorations, there are Christmas pyjamas and jumpers and food is no longer just food, but Christmas food.  The big supermarkets compete with each other to produce ever more dramatic Christmas ads and we are told we ‘must’ have this or we are entitled to that ‘because it’s Christmas’.

How far away this all is from the original Christmas story, where Mary and Joseph found themselves with nothing, not even a room, and Jesus was born and placed in a manger borrowed from the animals.  Friends and family were far away, or pretending that this scandalous couple and their baby did not exist and the only visitors were unruly strangers from the hills and slightly bungling foreign scholars.  At the centre of this story is the greatest gift of all to the world – God in human form, Immanuel.

The birth of Jesus is an event worth celebrating and one that should bring people together and remind us that there is light and hope in this troubled world.  However, the constant pressure from advertising and commerce to create the ‘perfect’ Christmas is a dangerous and harmful distraction leading to stress, debt and conflict as we fail to match up to the glowing pictures on our screens. 

This year, let’s try to shed some of the ‘stuff’ that clutters the Christmas message.  Give excess Christmas decorations to those in housing projects who have none, instead of buying crackers, look at Transform Trade’s ideas for discussion starters to encourage conversation and donate surplus food or gifts to Storehouse or the Salvation Army to share the joy.

At Christmas we remember how God emptied Godself to take the form of a helpless babe, let’s clear away the clutter to recapture the true wonder of Christmas.

God bless you this Advent and Christmastide.

Ruth.

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