Christmas #AtoZChallenge

In my 2013 A to Z post I wrote:

Christmas is when the coming of Christ to a cradle is commemorated.

A to Z Challenge 2023 participant badge

Since then I have devoted a whole A to Z challenge to the theme of Christmas.

We don’t know exactly when Jesus Christ was born, but Christians celebrate his birth in December (or January for the Eastern Orthodox Church). The story of the birth of Christ may be found in Luke’s Gospel Luke 2:1-20

It doesn’t take long to read Luke’s version of the story. We are in Holy Week (the week before Easter) as this post is published. Without Christmas, Easter would not be celebrated.

Excitement at Xmas #AtoZChallenge

This year my A to Z challenge is about Christmas, a major festival in the Christian Church. Another major festival is Easter, which I wrote about for the A to Z Challenge in 2020.

Well, here we are at one of the most difficult letters in the A to Z challenge. It is almost impossible not to cheat for X. In an earlier challenge I cheated by using X to represent the Greek letter Chi, Χ. Chi is the first letter of the Greek word  Xristos.

This time I am using a word beginning with EX as well as an abbreviated form of Christmas. Xmas is another way of writing Christmas. The X represents the Greek letter Chi. It is an shortened form of Christ.

Excitement is definitely part of Xmas. Children who hang up a stocking for Santa Claus (or Father Christmas) to fill are often too excited to sleep at first. Then they wake early in the morning eager to discover what has been stuffed into their stockings.

Was Mary excited when she heard the news from the angel that she was to be the mother of the Messiah? She must have experienced many emotions. The shepherds were probably excited when they found the baby just as the angels had said. The magi (or wise men) are the subject of a wonderful poem, Journey of the Magi by TS Eliot. The feelings he describes them having do not include excitement.

I am sure there was rejoicing in heaven when the saviour of the world was born in Bethlehem. That is not much different from excitement.

A carol, which conveys some of the excitement of Christmas, is Come and join the celebration it’s a very special day.

While this year’s A to Z badges by Anjela Curtis honour the late Jeremy Hawkins, I hope that my posts about Christmas honour Jesus Christ, ‘who was and is and is to come’. Revelation 1:4

Unwrapping #AtoZChallenge

This year my A to Z challenge is about Christmas, a major festival in the Christian Church. Another major festival is Easter, which I wrote about for the A to Z Challenge in 2020.

Do you like unwrapping gifts? Or perhaps you prefer wrapping them to give to someone special.

I have begun to unwrap the Christmas story in this A to Z Challenge. There are five more posts to come.

Christmas is a time when many people give and receive presents. Unfortunately some of the wrapping paper available for sale in the western world is not environmentally friendly. Paper requires trees to be grown and harvested. Pulp from trees is one of the raw materials from which paper is made. Much paper can be recycled, but there is a problem with wrapping paper. Some of it is decorated with aluminium foil. This sort cannot be recycled as it is too difficult to separate the foil from the paper. As a result our local council will not accept any wrapping paper for recycling.

Instead people are encouraged to find other ways of wrapping presents. Fabric bags or squares may be reused. Brown paper may be recycled. Perhaps brown paper could be brightened up with coloured string (re-usable) or ribbon. Rosettes and reels of plastic ribbon are sold in many stationery shops. These are not recyclable. Perhaps we should all think carefully about what we give for Christmas presents and how we present them (if you’ll excuse the pun).

Back to the Christmas story. When we read the gospel stories in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2 as well as St John the Evangelist’s wonderful opening passage (John 1:1-18) we begin to perceive the wonder and excitement. A Bible with cross-references (or indeed a website such a Bible Gateway) allows us to look back to prophecies about the Messiah’s birth. We can see that this was something God planned and revealed to prophets hundreds of years before it happened.

Unwrapping reveals what is inside. As a new-born baby Jesus was wrapped in strips of cloth, known as swaddling bands. After his death he was wrapped in strips of cloth, known as grave-clothes. Those were left neatly in the tomb when he was raised from the dead. Luke 24:1-12.

A carol which asks what we can give the Christ-child is Christina Rosetti’s In the bleak midwinter It also mentions the animals traditionally associated with the stable where Jesus was born.

While this year’s A to Z badges by Anjela Curtis honour the late Jeremy Hawkins, I hope that my posts about Christmas honour Jesus Christ, ‘who was and is and is to come’. Revelation 1:4

I am also linking this post to WordPress’s new monthly challenge #WordPrompt for which the word is Green.