A letter from Janice Swan,
Reader in the Parish

Dear Friends,

At the beginning of November standing at the supermarket checkout, someone said only 51 shopping days to Christmas A howl went up from those in the queue. Oh no, how awful, dreadful, what a pain! Another commented well at least the shops are open every day. Is this the sum total of our Christmas? We shop, we queue, get stressed, and spend more money than we would wish even in these credit crunch times. Is it just the little children that excitedly count the days as they open the doors of their Advent calendars?

With all the distractions of shopping, presents, cooking the feast, we are apt to forget what we are doing it all for, what we are celebrating. But do take an opportunity to find time in all the rush to be amazed once again at what God did that day in Bethlehem. The account of the birth of Jesus is so familiar to us, it could start like other stories we know well - Cinderella, Goldilocks and the three bears... 'Once upon a time'.... but this is not a fairy story. God coming to us as a baby is about a real human life lived at a particular point in time and in a particular place, not once upon a time but the real stuff of which our lives are made.

Amid the clattering of tills and Slade still belting out 'Merry Christmas', we remember a baby born in a place where animals were housed. He was laid in a manger. At this time of the year the word 'manger' sounds almost romantic - 'away in a manger' we sing. It's a feeding trough for cattle. God came from heaven and became man, and was laid in an animal feeding trough. Glory became humility in obscure, poverty stricken surroundings.

Tiny children unwrap a lovingly chosen gift - discard it and play instead with the box the gift came in - the outer wrappings. Let us, this Christmas, see beyond the glitz and wrappings of a commercial Christmas to the true and wonderful gift we have been given. Dare we even believe we have been given it? This gift to us - a baby who is our saviour and our God, brings us blessings, peace and joy. This is what we celebrate!

A happy and joyful Christmas to you all.

Janice Swan