Some simpering bishops are urging their clergy to make sure that carol services do not interfere with the ship of football. That leads to an obvious conclusion: Christmas is too important to be left to the Church of England.
The vulgarities of commercialisation are distressing, but survivable. Last year, one friend became fed up with his brats’ lust for presents and upbraided them: ‘If this goes on, you’ll be given nothing but bibles and prayer books.’ He remembered his father saying the same to him. No doubt his grandparents delivered similar thunderbolts in their day.
Thus life rolls on. Even amid the transfiguring and transcending grandeur of the Christmas message, when a manger in Bethlehem becomes the still point in the turning world for all eternity, there is an enchantment in the littlies’ delight in their stockings. It is possible to move onwards and upwards, from Christmas cake and a glass of port for Santa Claus, to the wafer and the wine of redemption.
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