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Christmas Day
25th December 2011
Doing Christmas
One of the things most children notice as they grow older is that they don't get quite so many presents. This is partly because it is easy to buy a young child a gift: a toy or a book for instance, because they have yet to develop their own particular tastes, and enjoy most new gifts. What the parents have to do over the first 12 or so years is to decide which toys and books should be passed on when grown out of, and which should be kept in case the child will one day want them for their own children. The day comes of course, as I have discovered, when you can't do this any longer because they have firm opinions of their own, and indeed reasonable rights over their own property.
One of my son's books that I did keep and store for the future is Doing Christmas by Sarah Garland. It is one of a set of books including such titles as Going shopping and Doing the garden. The books are clearly aimed at young readers because they consist of a single sentence on each page and a nice colourful illustration.
Having been a teacher, I know that most things can be presented to people at any age provided they are presented in an accessible way. Doing Christmas is certainly a great introduction to Christmas traditions, and it is does something more too, which I will explain. The characters in the story are a Mum, a daughter aged about 4, a son aged about 18 months, and a visiting Granny, a big rangy dog and a serious looking ginger and white cat. No names and, also, no Dad. Their home looks cluttered and comfortable. Mum has red hair which she seems to cut herself any old how; she wears jeans, a shirt, and a big shapeless green jumper; and she knits. Her daughter has similar hair and clothes. Christmas is depicted as being about: lights going up in the street; shopping; boiling the pudding; digging up the tree; and generally getting ready. Christmas Day arrives and Mum, daughter, son, and pets are sitting around in their nightclothes playing with modest presents. Then there is a loud vrooming sound and Granny appears in her shiny red sports car. This granny is slim, made up with short black styled hair, a neat jacket, tight flowery leggings, black heeled boots and dangly earrings. She has brought interesting presents - a brush and comb for Mum, for instance; a dress for the rather tomboy granddaughter; and a hat for her grandson. Mum has knitted her a blue and white scarf. She entertains the children with stories while Mum cooks; they eat lunch - Mum gets a bit tipsy - they go out for a walk; Granny goes home as the children doze off; and then the family relax. Mum watching her daughter and son groom the cat and the dog with her new brush and comb. The last scene shows the family out in the street again and the workmen taking down the lights.
The book summarises the things that happen at Christmas, but it also says something else. It says, "If your Dad doesn't appear at Christmas - that's okay". "If your Mum is a homebody with no interest in fashion and grooming, that's okay". "If your gran is a trendy lady in a sports car, that's okay". "If your family doesn't go in for expensive gifts - that's okay". To those of us brought up on Janet and John and their immaculate parents, it is a reminder that children's books are changing in order to reflect change and diversity in our society. The adult reading this book with the child might be thinking about the story behind the story: how Mum comes to be on her own with her children and how it is that Mum and her own mother are so different; and how, being so different, they get on.
The story also makes no mention of that other story behind the story. Doing Christmas is a fair description of what most of us get through at this time of year, all with our own routines, and our "must have done this by that date" traditions. For most people, the Christmas story #45; the Christ Mass story, the story of the Christ of God taking form among us in the world, will be there somewhere. Perhaps Sarah Garland felt that the diversity of her readership meant it was best left out; but she could have referred to it in a single card, or an image in a shop window, or even reference to a Nativity Play which most young children experience sooner or later. That I feel is a shame because, as the title infers, Christmas just becomes something we do because we do it; its original reason is lost.
It is also a fact of course that the Christmas story itself, however many theological works and sermons it may inspire, is also very simple and is simply and beautifully told. The visit of the angel, the unexpected pregnancy, the journey to Bethlehem, the birth in the stable, the angel, the shepherd, the Kings, are all very easily conveyed whatever our age, in nativity and crib services, like the one we held yesterday. The story of the love of God revealed to the world in an act of commitment so intimate and personal and yet so public and universal, can also be spread over a few pages with a single sentence and an illustration. For any church, it is also very important that every year there are people who feel that visiting the church to share in that story is a significant part of "Doing Christmas".
And unlike this book Doing Christmas where there is another story we adults can only guess at, the Nativity has no hidden story - the other story is our story, the story we, the reader, or the onlooker, bring. The story of our lives and the life of our family, community, nation and world. Like the shepherds and the Kings, we too are invited every year to visit the stable and meet the child and to remember that we have nothing to give him except our hearts - our lives and all that is meaningful and dear to us.
Like the characters in Doing Christmas, we have seen watched the street decorations go up, done the shopping, got the tree and the food, prepared the home, welcomed the visitors. But our Doing of Christmas today involves a pause for reflection, for prayer, for carols, for receiving the Lord in the bread and wine or blessing, and for going in these ways to the crib at that first Christmas, and witnessing what happens every year and is always happening: Jesus coming into the world to be with us and to be one of us.
As in the story the decorations will come down, the visitors will go, the presents will be absorbed into our daily lives which will go back to normal. But every year the crib reminds us that God is always offering his love to us and is ready to receive us and to go with us and our world in this coming year, whatever this year may bring.
Amen
Updated 28 Dec 11
© PCC St Martin's and St Paul's Canterbury 2008 - 2011
