I send you Christmas greetings and much happiness for the New Year. 2016 was a surprising year and one that will be mostly remembered for terrorism and Trump.

Let us then remember what Christmas stands for. The child of Christmas is God. Jesus was fully human, with all the needs and emotions that are common to us all. Yet He was also fully God–all wise and all powerful.

Colossians 1:15-20 says,

He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all creation. For. . . all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead; so that He Himself might come to have first place in everything. For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

It is unfortunate that YOUGOV’s recent survey revealed that 78% of people do not think ‘celebrating the birthday of Jesus Christ’ is an important part of Christmas. It came eleventh on a list of twelve things that people say is important about their Christmas. The only option in the list that was less popular was ‘attending a religious service’.

A massive 91% of us do celebrate Christmas in some form. So if Christmas is no longer about Christ for most people, what is it about?

There were only three things that most people said were important about Christmas: spending time with family (76%), giving presents to friends and family (63%), eating Christmas food and drinking Christmas drinks (57%). (In a cheering display of generosity, more people said that giving presents was important to them, compared to receiving them, at 39%.)

What people are celebrating in just under a week’s time is not the birth of a supernatural saviour, but more earthly, human things.

Andrew Copson

Shocking but true and we have allowed it to happen. Commercialism has run amuck and we are slaves to it.

I was struck with Christmas adverts being aired on both radio and television even before US Thanksgiving day. However, with Christmas only a few days away, some stations have yet to play one single Christmas Carol. And I don’t mean “Santa’s Got a Sunburn”!

With the terrible things going on in the world, isn’t time to go back and pray to God, join others and go to church this Christmas. Pray for peace and love. Do it. What have you got to lose? 90 minutes of your time. It could be the best 90 minutes you have spent this year.