God Rest ye, Everyone!

Now to the Lord sing praises,

All you within this place,
And with true love and fellowship
Each other now embrace,
This holy tide of Christmas
All other doeth displace …

So goes an old carol that recognizes both our love for Christmas, and that Christmas is “tide”, or extended period ­— a “season” — to spend restfully savouring the warmth and pleasure of Christmas. Of course, as Christians, we don’t let the holy tide of Christmas displace *all* other “tides”. The resurrection of our Lord and Saviour that we observe at Easter touches profound depths of spirituality that even Christmas cannot rival. So, Eastertide comprises fifty days, whereas Christmastide is a mere twelve.

But twelve days of warmth, good food, and fellowship in the middle of a dark and cold winter, is nothing to sneeze at. We have to pity poor victims of consumer culture, who alot to themselves only the evening of December 24 and the morning and afternoon of December 25, into which to cram carol-singing, stocking-emptying, present-unwrapping, wassailing (for those who know what wassail is), a quick church-service (maybe), and a long and rich dinner. With such a tight schedule, the weeks leading up to Christmas can become a frenetic rush of shopping and baking, leaving would-be revellers without the energy with which to revel. Emmanuel — God With Us — invites you instead to enter into the Kairos of Christmas, the sacred liminal time outside the rhythms of the workaday world, a time rich in hospitality and generosity, rich in tradition, and above all rich in time: time to enjoy one another — and to enjoy God!