The Joy of Christmas

Our Christmas tree with lots of exciting presents for our families!

I found it hard to get into the spirit of the season this year. I think there are a number of reasons as to why, from my cold knocking the stuffing out of me for several days, to the usual SAD symptoms, to the overwhelming amount of good news from many friends which for some reason has left me feeling like I have nothing interesting to share. It's silly really, I am incredibly happy for all of my friends, why wouldn't I be? And yet combined with my winter depression my emotions seem to have gone into some kind of meltdown.

It was only on the Sunday before Christmas that I finally began to feel festive. Our church held its annual traditional carol service in the afternoon, followed by a contemporary Christmas service in the evening. I was giving one of the readings at the traditional service, and my husband was operating the digi-projector for the hymns. For the traditional service the church is lit by candles and the fairy lights around the tree. The choir and the orchestra were dressed in red and black, and the church was adorned in beautiful red flowers and holly leaves.

The church was packed, the choir sang beautifully, and the sermon was both thought-provoking and inspiring. Finally, it felt like Christmas.

My husband and I then popped home for a quick cup of tea before heading back for the contemporary service. We usually attend the evening service weekly anyway so this was like our usual Sunday service only with a Christmas theme running throughout. The worship was fantastic, and another awesome sermon was given. A special part of the service was when we each went up during the worship to light a small candle on one of the Advent candles at the front, and then returned to our seats to sing, pray, and focus on the little light of the candle flame alight in the pot in our hands, a reminder that Jesus Christ is the Light of the World, and that it is His coming to save mankind that is the reason why we celebrate Christmas.

I love the giving and receiving of gifts, the decorating, the parties, and especially the quality time spent with family and friends throughout the festive period, but for me Christmas is not Christmas without taking time to truly focus on and celebrate the coming of Christ into this world.

And it was after that Sunday that I felt ready to celebrate properly. Our decorations in the house seemed to finally come to life. Although I had enjoyed putting them up, I didn't really appreciate them until I was in a jollier mood. The tree is an old one of my parents that is still surviving, and the Nativity set is made up of a little figures that my brothers and I all received in our stockings many years ago. Our house this year is a happier one, and the decorations fit perfectly into our small and cosy living room.

Earlier in the month my husband and I had started working on hampers for our families as presents. It was fun making the different items, and perhaps the only thing I was excited about at the beginning of December. Each hamper contained a jar of piccalilli, a jar of roasted pepper and tomato chutney, a jar of pumpkin and orange spiced jam, two bottles of our pear cider, two bottles of our home brewed beer, a bag of ginger cookies in Christmas shapes (lots of crazy looking snowmen and odd shaped stars!), and a small box of raspberry liqueur truffles. We only added one thing that we didn't make ourselves, some clementines to fill in any gaps left in each box.

From top left clockwise - a surprise Christmas bouquet from hubby, key players in the Nativity, cool decorations from Created, and one of the hampers packed and ready to go!

On Christmas Eve we headed up to my husband's family's, and then on Boxing Day we went down to mine, before returning to our little home yesterday evening. We've had a lovely relaxing time and have seen lots of friends and relatives in just a few days. It's been a whirlwind but good fun.

Now Christmas Day and Boxing Day have been and gone, the presents have been unwrapped, and the turkey has been consumed, but there are still plenty of friends to catch up with and the New Year to welcome in before it is time to return to work.

It's not always easy to be jolly at Christmas. Sometimes that's because really rubbish stuff happens (as it did for my family a number of years ago now), or sometimes you just feel sad and wish it would all just go away. That is why it is so important to me that I do not lose the focus of what Christmas is all about. The reading I gave at the traditional carol service sums it up for me. This is what Christmas, and indeed my life, is all about:

Christ Jesus 

who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself and became obedient to death - 

even death on a cross!

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the Glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5-11