All I want for Christmas

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Christmas 2012
 
One of the things that always marked out Christmas for me growing up was Mum going out to buy the bumper edition of the Radio times. It was the only time of the year that we would get it. My brother and I would drawl over it and look at what was going to be on that Christmas on TV. We would wait in anticipation for the explosive Easterners or Only fools and Horses special. We would also have that special Christmas movies some like Star Wars and the Great escape came as regularly as a reminisce from your granddad about what Christmas was like in “His day.”  With the smell of Roast potatoes and the eating of Brussels sprouts this is what we mainly remember and makes Christmas.
And yet for a vast majority of people this is the memory of Christmas. It is all that happens just on that one day every year. On Boxing Day the question is asked “Did you have a good Christmas?” We know that Christmas goes on for a while longer yet. In fact the last day the Christmas season does not finish till the feast of the presentation of the Lord.
This joyful presence of Jesus peace and good will to all people should happen all year round. It should not be something that we just do at Christmas that we in fact do all year round. The spirit of Christmas should last all year around not just over the Christmas period. That phrase we often use “Well it is Christmas” is something that we use as an excuse. We should actually say “Well it is because I am Christian:” Which means it happens all year round.
This year especially with the Olympics we have heard about the legacy and we saw the spirit of this nation, that togetherness that common promise and hope for the future. May be we can have our own legacy here in Bognor Regis. Maybe our legacy this Christmas is to bring Christ into our streets here on Bognor, through the way we treat each other by the way we help those in needs, challenge prejudice and live in peace.
Let our Christmas this year not be remembered for yet another repeat of The Great Escape or some secret being exposed on Eastenders or even the return of the Brussels sprouts but that we in our own small way changed ourselves and live the spirit of Christmas all the time.  

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