Today I've been doing Christmas prep stuff. It's been nice. I started the day with a little shopping trip to buy a massive ham for Boxing Day, and marzipan and icing for the Christmas cake. Then it was back home to do some tidying up followed by hanging out for a bit with my sister, nephew and niece which is always a lot of fun. Then I put the marzipan on the cake and the ham in a pan of water to soak (I don't really understand why - I'm just following orders) and cracked on with some present wrapping.
But amongst all that I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that while all that was lovely and a great way to get ready for some quality time for family and friends, it didn't really have much to do with actual Christmas, a feeling that was confirmed to some extent by watching the first episode of The Nativity tonight.
Now I think there's huge value, in a world of family breakdown and the fragmentation of society, to set aside time when we're actively encouraged to take time out and invest in relationships and I totally get that in many ways it's precisely those things that ultimately reflect the whole point of God sending Jesus as a baby in the first place.
So why are Christians so bad at making the two add up? How can we embrace all that's good about the relational, creative, beautiful elements of Christmas and harness them to point people to the source of those relationships?
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