The Parish Magazine December 2024

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Three Christmas questions . . .
What do you do on
Christmas Eve?
Christmas Eve has its own customs,
the most popular of which is going to
Midnight Mass, or the Christ-Mas.
This is the only Mass of the year that
is allowed to start after sunset.
In Catholic countries such as
Spain, Italy and Poland, Midnight
Mass is the most important
church service of the entire
Christmas season, and many people
traditionally fast beforehand.
In other countries, such as
Belgium and Denmark, people dine
during the evening, and then go on
to the Midnight Service.
The British are behind some
countries when it comes to
exchanging presents: in Germany,
Sweden and Portugal the custom is
to exchange on Christmas Eve.
But the British are ahead of Serbia
and Slovakia, where the Christmas
tree is not even brought into the
house and decorated until Christmas
Eve.
Yule logs are not so popular since
the decline of the fireplace, but
traditionally it was lit on Christmas
Eve from a bit of the previous year’s
log, and then would be burned
non-stop until Twelfth Night (6th
January).
Tradition also decreed that
any greenery such as holly, ivy or
mistletoe must wait until Christmas
Eve until being brought inside.
OC Williams, Dreamstime.com
The Christmas
challenges . . .
Christmas is a great time of year,
but it’s not without its challenges!
After one family had put up 250,000
Christmas lights outside, they didn’t
dare boil a kettle for fear of blowing
the system!
The challenge of over-indulging
Many of us remember the episode of
the Vicar of Dibley, where she had to
consume four Christmas dinners!
Christmas is a time when we
usually eat and drink far too much
with the average person gaining six
pounds in weight.
But Christmas is not simply about
gaining weight, but losing what
weighs us down.
‘Cast all your anxiety on Him,
because He cares for you.’ (1 Peter 5:7).
Whatever your concerns or
worries this Christmas, bring them
to God.
The challenge of overspending
In the rush to buy Christmas cards, a
woman bought a pack of 50 identical
cards. Without reading the verse, she
hastily signed and sent them off, but
for one. A few days later she read the
message: ‘This card is just to say a little
gift is on the way.’
Christmas is not about getting
into debt, but God getting us out of
debt.
He spent exactly what was needed
on the first Christmas night: ‘You are
to give him the name Jesus, because
he will save his people from their sins.’
(Matthew 1:21).
The challenge is over too quickly
Christmas doesn’t last very long,
yet the effect of the first Christmas
is long-lasting. ‘For God so loved the
world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in Him shall not
perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16).
Jesus has come to bring us life in
all its fullness, both for now and all
eternity.
How do we face the challenges of
Christmas?
‘Yet what I can I give? I give my heart’.
The Parish Magazine — December 2024 17
Do you believe the
Christmas story?
The story is told of a farmer who
didn’t believe in Jesus. One cold,
snowy Christmas Eve his wife was
taking the children to a service at
their local church, but he refused to
go with them.
He said: ‘Why would God lower
himself to come to Earth as a man?
That’s ridiculous!’
So, they left him at home!
During the evening the winds grew
stronger, and the snow turned to a
blizzard.
He heard a series of loud thumps
on the window. In the field near his
house he saw a flock of wild geese.
They had been migrating
south when they got caught in the
snowstorm.
They were lost and stranded on
his farm, with no food or shelter.
The man wanted to help the geese
and so he opened the doors of the
barn, hoping they would go inside for
shelter.
But the geese didn’t do anything,
despite the man’s efforts to move
them.
He made a bread crumb trail
leading to the barn and tried to shoo
them toward the barn, but they only
got more scared and scattered.
Nothing he did could get them
to go into the barn: ‘Why don’t they
follow me?!’
Then he realised: ‘If only I were a
goose and become one of them, then I
could save them.’
Finally he understood the heart of
the Christmas message.
God has become one of us in
Jesus.
The eternal creator God has
entered time and space as a baby, to
show us who God is and how we can
know him.
This Christmas, let’s celebrate
again this amazing truth that we
have a God who knows and can meet
our needs in Jesus.
‘The virgin will conceive and give
birth to a son, and they will call Him
Immanuel, which means ‘God with us’’.
Matthew 1:23.
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