What does Christmas mean to me?

I think it’s actually really important to ask this question as we prepare for Christmas in our different ways.

Things are usually very busy, we get swept along by the demands of, what we must get, what we need to get in and get ready before the day; and then it’s gone, we get over Christmas, get ready for new year and get on with our lives.

I was in Potton market square for the turning on of the Christmas lights.

I was asked by one person, was I ready for my busy time of year? I was a little confused, and then I twigged what they meant Because Christmas, is the only Christian festival that the country really celebrates, others think it’s the only time that Christians are really active.

I know most people really look forward to Christmas, there has always been a mid-winter festival of some sort in this country, something to brighten the drab winter days, something to look forward to in the cold dreary months, and a festival to mark the point in the year that the days begin to get longer again.. It will be interesting if our country goes full circle and Christmas is re-badged as ‘winterfest’ in the future.

I have a badge, I sometimes wear at Christmas: you may have seen the sort of thing I mean; it says ‘Jesus is the reason for the season’.

The way many people celebrate Christmas has more to do with our Pagan traditions, with lights, evergreens and food and drink which can seem to more important than the birth of Jesus himself

But back to the question, as a Christian, What does Christmas mean to me? Well that has changed for me over the years.

• As a small boy, it was about what would I get,
• As a father of small children, it was more about what should I give? And what joy would it bring?

More recently I have really been able to focus on what I believe to be the true meaning of Christmas. The fact that the all knowing creator of the universe set aside his all his power and glory and was born on earth.

Now some people struggle with the idea of God, especially when he is reduced from someone who is every where; to something that is infinitesimally small. But is it really any more remarkable than the miracle of any child’s birth? Well, yes of course it is; but you know what I mean? The whole thing makes the mind boggle. Especially when you think God came down to earth in the form of a baby, and was born in a town full of people who were to busy doing their own thing to notice one more baby being born.

Some things haven’t really changed have they?

But they can if we accept what Jesus did for us, firstly being born as a baby and then growing up and dieing for us, instead of us, so that if we believe in him we can rise again as he did.

By the way I’ve got another Christmas badge is says, ‘Wise Men still seek him’.

I hope you get what you’re hoping for this Christmas.

My present arrived over 2,000 years ago in the form of a tiny baby that they called Jesus and I rely on him every day and he’s still the best thing that’s ever happened to me.

What does Christmas mean to you?

Happy Christmas