What are your favourite Christmas memories?

When I was seven years old, my family moved to the Panjabi town of Daska, not far from the Kashmiri border. The house we moved into was an old-style mission bungalow, with thick walls and flat mud roofs to keep out the summer heat. The further into the bungalow you went, the higher were the ceilings, and from the outside the roof had the appearance of a series of steps climbing towards the centre of the house.

The Muslims of Pakistan do not celebrate Christmas. On Christmas Eve, however, once darkness had fallen, a small number of us local Christian children would make our way up the outside stairs of the Daska bungalow, each clutching bundles of candles. We would place these along the edges of each level of the roof and then light them. I can still remember how their glow would surround us, and how, looking out across the dark rooftops, we would see similar glows appearing in the distance, lighting up the homes of the small number of fellow Christians in the neighbourhood. It was our way of letting the light of Christ shine out into the surrounding darkness.

You sometimes hear people moaning about Christmas in the west. “It’s too commercialised.” “It’s become all about presents and materialism.” “People are singing carols with no idea what they mean.” “We seem to have lost the true spirit of Christmas”.

All this, however, begs the question, “What was this ‘true spirit of Christmas’ in the first place?”  In 274 AD the Emperor Aurelian declared the 25^th December, which was the approximate time of the winter solstice, to be the ‘Festival of the Invincible Sun’. In 336 AD, however, the growing influence of Christians resulted in the focus of this festival being changed so that it now celebrated the birth of Christ. No one actually knows on which day Jesus was born, and over the years the tension has remained – is Christmas a pagan festival with a Christian overlay, or is it a Christian festival that has lost its meaning? 

To me, however, whatever the origins of the Festival on 25^th December, it is still a fantastic opportunity. Whatever Christmas might mean to others, it’s still a chance for Christians to celebrate what the birth of Jesus means to us.  And it’s also a chance for us to spread some of the light of his presence into a dark world.

So if, on Twelfth Night, you find yourself looking back and feeling that Christmas has lost its true spirit, you have only yourself to blame.  The fact is there will always be a tension when we celebrate Christmas – between the material and the spiritual, self-centeredness and self sacrifice, the light and the darkness. The only people who can make sure the true Spirit of Christmas is present for others to see and experience are those who follow Jesus.

Jesus said “Make your light shine, so that others will see the good that you do and will praise your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5.16)

May the Peace and the Joy of the Christ child fill your hearts and your homes.

With much love,

John