Christmas Day 2025

We are celebrating this morning with a bit of festive silliness, including a chocolate filled retelling of the Christmas story and a twist on pictionary, as well as reflection and prayer.

Chocolate nativity

A long time ago, God made the world. In fact, God made the whole GALAXY.

Everything was going rather well until humans started to think they knew what they were doing without God. Life got a bit harder after that. God kept trying to help, but people kept making a FUDGE of things.

God decided that they only way to sort out this mess was to come and give being human a TWIRL, to show us what it looks like to be kinder and happier. 

And so an angel came to WISPA to Mary that God wanted her to have a special baby who would save the world.

Mary and her fiance Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem, but there was no spare bed for them, so they had to find room with the animals. At least with a cow nearby they could hope for some DAIRY MILK. And it was there that the baby Jesus was born. 

On the hills outside the town, some shepherds were looking up at the MILKY WAY when they saw a host of angels singing "glory to God" because the saviour of the world was lying in a manger. 

They might have thought their minds were playing TWIX, but they ran to find the baby and then went to tell everyone they knew.

Many miles away, some clever men saw something new in the sky. Was it a planet? Had they discovered MARS? No, it was a special star that told of the birth of a king.

So they packed up their BOUNTY and travelled to find him, and gave their gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

And that is the story of Christmas. It happened two thousand years ago, but Jesus still teaches us how to be kind and happy, and so there have been CELEBRATIONS ever since.

Reflection

Trees hanging with baubles and carefully wrapped presents and eating my body weight in carbohydrates and festooning the house with twinkling lights…for me these are all just as much a part of Christmas as the baby lying in the manger.

Perhaps that’s not what you expect to hear from a minister in church on Christmas Day, but the truth is that Christmas is a celebration, and these are all things that help me celebrate. But then it’s not just me and it’s not just Christmas. Decorations and gifts and food and lights are part of pretty much every celebration I can think of, in every tradition and every culture and every religion. I think there is something about these things that we are instinctively drawn to, something about them that brings us joy.

Or at least, they should bring us joy. I know Christmas can become very fraught, a seemingly endless to do list and a calendar that looks like a game of Tetris, but if those things no longer bring us joy then we are serving them instead of them serving us, and perhaps it’s time to let them go.

And of course Christmas can also be a time of sorrow, holding so many difficult memories that there doesn’t seem to be much room for joy, and there should be no guilt if we need to step away from the celebrations, only enough peace that joy may one day start to creep in.

Because if Christmas is about anything, it is about joy creeping in. When we read the Christmas story, it may seem that Jesus was heralded by a blaze of stars and angels, but only a handful of shepherds and a few wise men seemed to notice. God arrived in the everyday miracle of a newborn child, quietly entering our world with all the promise and possibility of new life.

And I think promise and possibility are good words for us, because Christmas isn’t just about this one day. In the first place, there are actually twelve days of Christmas in the church calendar, and we really should make the most of them. But also, Christmas was not just the beginning of a new life for Jesus, it was the beginning of a new life for all of us.

Five years ago, Eddie told me that Jesus came so that we could be kind and happy, and those words have rung in my head ever since. More than anything else I want to be kind and happy, and I believe that more than anything else God wants me to be kind and happy, and the life that began in that manger shows me how that might be possible.

In the way he hallowed our humanity by taking on our flesh, in the way he reached out to those the world saw as the lost and the least, in the way he preached a kingdom of justice and joy…I see a way for us all to be kind and happy, and that is definitely something to celebrate.

So may joy creep in this Christmas. May the decorations and the gifts and the food and the lights help us to celebrate the wonder of God born among us so that we might be kind and happy. And may we take the advice of the Muppets in the finest version of 'A Christmas Carol' and “make it last all year”.

Prayer

Christ, for whom there was no room to spare, give refuge to all who are homeless; in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Christ, who fled into Egypt, give comfort to all who are far from home; in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Christ, who fasted in the desert, give relief to all who are starving; in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Christ, who healed the sick, give respite to all who suffer; in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Christ, who embraced the outcast, give community to all who are lonely; in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Christ, who spoke of righteousness, give justice to all who are mistreated; in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Christ, who was rejected and killed, give strength to all who are persecuted; in your mercy, hear our prayer.

Christ, who rose from death and lives forevermore, hear our prayer, and make us one in heart and mind to serve you with joy for ever. Amen.

Blessing

May the blessing of joy abide within you,

may the blessing of peace rest upon you,

may the blessing of hope sustain you,

may the blessing of love embrace you...

this Christmas Day and always.