“Suffer the little children to come unto” … the Christmas crib. Whether you call it Christmas (“Chrissy “, for some Australians !), Xmas, Yuletide or the Festive Season (to include Hannukah), even atheists should tolerate and enjoy the trappings of a timeless, touching tradition rather than scoff at it. It’s quaint and even heart-warming, when we see our children and grandchildren enjoy it so much. Let the Killjoys and Scrooges sulk in their solitude, while we soak in the sentiment of Christmases past, present and future.
The tiny tots, and even their pre-adolescent siblings, have never heard of virgins, but they know a Mummy when they see one. They know all about angels and believe they have one of their own. They may have seen a stable but never one with a baby in it sleeping on straw. They love animals, at least the non-scary ones. Older children may wonder why those three kings are offering the baby expensive-looking presents He is too young to appreciate. It never occurs to them to wonder whether all this ever really happened . . . once upon a time. Nor should it, at least at this time of year, occur to us. My Christmas wish is that parents will, when the time is right, tell their kids the truth about both Santa and Jesus.
Merry Christmas to all my readers, faith-full or faith-less.
RIDENDA RELIGIO
Blind Faith: Blind Folly 
Bah Humbug indeed! It is that time of year again when we celebrate – what exactly – actually the birth of a child. Worth rejoicing over at any time you might say. But this child was different – and so was his mum. Well his mum was very much like the rest of us except , yes really, except that she was conceived immaculately (not miraculously mind you). Her parents were motivated one presumes by the usual passions that motivate normal human beings and she, the mother of the baby whose birth we celebrate at this time of year, was the result – just like any of us you might think. But no! Not like all the rest of us at all – she was conceived without original sin. What that means exactly and the implications of that significant difference are not quite clear to me – and I suspect many others also – a bit like the Trinity which is a mystery and hence inexplicable, despite the efforts of many including Thomas Aquinas to explain it. But back to the IC (Immaculate Conception) – the exception that proves the rule presumably. How do they know these things? Ours not to reason why!
Well all religions have their fair share of fantasy stories. Muslims believe that their prophet Mohammed went to heaven on his horse. I’m not sure if I could buy that one even if I was a Muslim. Christians believe that the baby whose birth we are celebrating at this time of year was a real baby boy , just like all the other little baby boys that were born then, before and since – except, yes here we go again – except that he was God – or should I say He always was, always is and always will be God, eternally omnipotently, omnisciently and omnipresently (and that’s just for starters). Something to really celebrate you might say.
And so I say to all Frank’s readers – Eat, Drink and Be Merry – for ’tis Christmas.
Bah Humbug indeed!
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And a Happy Christmas to you and yours, Thom.
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