Stakeholder

I remember reading a story about a father not being able to provide for his family one Christmas. He became quite angry and frustrated. His youngest daughter however brought very expensive gold wrapping paper to cover a shoebox and placed it under the Christmas tree with ‘Dad’ written on the top. The father thought the wrapping paper was an unnecessary extravagance and chastised her. On Christmas morning opening the shoebox he discovered it was empty. He was furious with his daughter and accused her of playing a cruel joke and of his wasting money on the expensive wrapping.  Crying the child explained that she had blown kisses into the shoebox until it was full. The father broke down begging his daughter for forgiveness. Sometime later the young girl was tragically killed in a car accident and her ever so remorseful father kept her little Christmas shoebox all his life. Every so often if he felt discouraged or in despair he would open the box and taking out one of those imaginary kisses he would remember the unconditional love once put there by his young daughter. Its doubtful if the story is true but amongst all the glitter and consumerism of Christmas, it serves as a useful reminder of what should be truly important to us.

Many people find Christmas difficult, especially those who are facing it alone through bereavement or estrangement with their families. Jolly Christmas cards adorned with picture perfect families seem to mock the pain of those struggling to cope alone.  As we fill our shopping trolleys in wasteful extravagance its worth stopping to ask where the ‘Christ’ is in our Christmas?

This week saw the premature death of the writer and commentator Christopher Hitchens. He was truly a thought provoking man who stoically faced and lost his battle with cancer. He was also a particularly articulate God denier. A friend of his who was a Pastor said of his passing ‘He knows the Truth now’. One does not have to be an altar hugger to know how lonely a life without God could be.  For some at Christmas it’s only the God part that will see them through. The comfort eating of puff pastry mince pies, lashings of cranberry and brandy laden puddings will have a more lasting impact on the gut than the soul.

Yet it’s pointless to turn into a bible bashing Christmas Grinch. Christmas is a happy and celebratory time. A walk around the Belfast Continental market is an explosive smell-a-vision of food and colour with hundreds of happy and smiling people milling about stalls selling everything from beanie hats to paella.  I like Christmas because people are much friendlier than at the rest of the year.  Christmas even brings the best out in those lack lustre supermarket till operators who for the holiday season at least seem genuinely interested in customers.

Even after all these years, I still love Christmas with a child like sense of expectation and wonderment. I don’t agree that Christmas is only for children. Come to Newry to see how my father and aunt keep the fun in Christmas with their dazzling array of snow capped china villages, dancing musical Santa’s, multitude of snow-globes and light-up Disney characters and yet the youngest of my siblings is thirty seven and lives elsewhere with his family!  If there is a condition for it-my aunt is almost certainly a Christmas ornamentalholic.

Something for which there is an officially recognised condition is CLS- better known as Christmas Light Syndrome.  Albert Sadacca is the man to blame for starting it all across the pond in 1917 when he first used Christmas lights but the condition of CLS quickly spread throughout the USA before catching on in Britain and Ireland faster than a bout of swine flu. But not even the tackiness of over-sized plastic lit up snowmen or polar bears can dampen my enthusiasm for Christmas and my goodwill towards all men can even include politicians, estate agents and bookmakers.

Politicians, however, should take the grace that Christmas affords and use it all year round. Too much of what passes for politics its petty point scoring against each other and the media. Politicians are increasingly disengaged from the matters, which concern the public, and they blame public apathy on the media. The media is only a mirror, which reflects political actions or more often inaction- warts and all. Stormont is hardly a shoebox filled with unconditional love but it could be full of unlimited promise.