A HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Lake County Mail, Issue 29, 10 December 1947, Page 6

A HAPPY CHRISTMAS

Plum puddings, Santa Claus and all those delights of childhood seem to have been thrown over with the modem age of materialism. I can hear many people saying that they do not believe in Santa Claus, and psychologists tell us how wrong it is to bring children up with that idea. I have the temerity to deny their charges, for. the spirit of Santa Claus exists to-day as surely as it did when we were very young. He may not come down the chimney in ,a red dressing gown nor ride over the roofs with his reindeer, but he conies wherever there is a Christian home and family. He comes to bring the spirit of Christmas to our loved ones —the spirit of Christ. The presents we receive from “ Santa Claus ” are the anonymous gifts of love. Christ gave Himself, He became man and dwelt amongst us, subjecting Himself to the limitations of human life. Such great giving is a sign of love moved by self-sacrifice. Our presents are a sign of our love through self-sacrifice, and in that way they are a part of Christ’s love. In some churches at Christmas time there are sets of figures, representing the Holy Family with angels round about, and the shepherds. There people kneel not in idolatrous worship of the plaster figures, but to the Love that is represented there. In many of these churches too, the congregation are invited and encouraged, especially the children to bring presents for their less fortunate brothers and sisters in hospitals and orphanages, those who have no one to love them as their fathers and mothers ought to. Family Festival Christmas is the family festival, because God became a member of a human family on that day. In the old country, where Christmas occurs during the winter, the family gathers round the fire, and there is some ex.euse for heavy meals of heating foods. Where, as in New Zealand it occurs in summer time there is inclined to be a picnic spirit abroad, which is inclined to bring about a disintegration of the family festival, where relatives and friends do not visit others of theirfamily, but in selfishness go their own sweet way. But, in which ever way you celebrate Christmas it can be a happy one if Christ is put first. Christmas without Christ is meaningless. In a larger way the congregation of the church, which is the family of God, meet or should meet together round the local Bethlehem. There was no room in the inn for Mary and Joseph—let it not be said of us, that there is no room for Christ in our lives. A Happy and Holy Christmas to you all, but the Happiness and Holiness depends on you and your reception of Christ into your heart! “ 0 Come let us adore Him, 0 Come let us adore Him, 0 Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.” PHILIP C. WILLIAMS.