Saturday 25 December 2010

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, and remember, it's the spirituality and values of the event that are the most important aspects, not its literal truth.

What is true for me is that, in the peeling away of all the layers of history and pageantry and holy wars … and all the rest, peeling away until we’re back to the message Jesus brought, and seeing Jesus there with those he loved, the hungry, the poor, those in prison, the weak, those who were persecuted, and we catch sight of something of the hope they must have felt. Jesus burst into this world like a flash of hope. That is why we sing this month. That is why we light candles. This is what a Unitarian Universalist does with Christmas, does at Christmas. We sing. We light candles. We hope for a better world.

~ First UU, Concord


Unitarians were calling for the public observance of Christmas by about 1800. They did so in full knowledge that it was not a biblically sanctioned holiday, and that December 25 was probably not the day on which Jesus was born. They wished to celebrate the holiday not because God had ordered them to do so but because they themselves wished to.

~ Stephen Nissenbaum

Be ready at all times to give those you love the simply abundant gifts of Spirit. If you do, they’ll give you Christmas gifts you’ll never forget: happy smiles and contented hearts. And you won’t want to exchange them.

~ Meister Eckhart

“All religious stories are mythological stories, where asking ʻDid it happen?ʼ, ʻWhen did it happen?ʼ, or ʻWhere did it happen?ʼ, is completely irrelevant. They are stories to help you understand what life is all about”.

~ Father David Paterson of the Sea of Faith, speaking on Channel Fourʼs History of Christianity series.

Christmas is not so much a matter of explanation and interpretation, as it is a mood and a feeling. It is a time in the cycle of the year set apart by hope and fellowship and generosity. Christmas is the season of the heart.

~ Gordon B McKeenan


The Wicked Fairy At The Manger by U.A. Fanthorpe

My gift for the child:
No wife, kids, home;
No money sense. Unemployable.
Friends, yes. But the wrong sort –
The workshy, women, wimps,
Petty infringers of the law, persons
With notifiable diseases,
Poll tax collectors, tarts;
The bottom rung.
His end?
I think we’ll make it
Public, prolonged, painful.
Right, said the baby. That was roughly
What we had in mind.

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