Earlier on this week I was watching a programme on the TV called Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas. I don’t know if anyone else here saw it, but what the programme was about was the way in which what we now regard as Christmas traditions and the way we now celebrate Christmas were, to a large extent, invented by the Victorians. The Charles Dickens connection in the programme, was to suggest that one of the major influences on the way the Victorians came to think Christmas ought to be celebrated, was Dickens’ book, A Christmas Carol.
As the programme said, and as anyone who’s ever read the book will know, concern for the plight of the poor and needy, and the necessity of caring for them by doing something to improve their situation is very much at the heart of A Christmas Carol and it was very much at the heart of Christmas for the Victorians too. But whilst that concern for the poor is very much what we might call a Christian virtue, what the programme made clear was that, on the whole, the way the Victorians celebrated Christmas, what have become our Christmas traditions, actually have very little to do with Christmas as a Christian festival. There’s much more in A Christmas Carol, for example, about eating, drinking and making merry at Christmas than there is about celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ at Christmas.
If we think about our Christmas traditions, I think it’s quite obvious that the programme’s makers had a point. Much, in fact most, of what we regard as Christian traditions don’t really have very much, if anything at all, to do with the birth of Jesus Christ do they? And that’s a situation that seems to become more marked as the years go by. At one time, for example, it would have been quite common to hear Christmas carols playing in shopping centres and stores at this time of year but that’s not the case now is it? This year, I’ve not done any Christmas shopping on-line, I’ve done it all in shops and I can’t recall a single instance of hearing Christmas carols being played anywhere I’ve been. Instead, what’s been played are things such as White Christmas, Merry Xmas Everybody, I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day, and such like.
But then, these days, most people regard songs like this as traditional Christmas songs. Anyone who has music channels on their TV will probably have noticed that, for the past few months now, there have been lots of Christmas music programmes on. Things with titles like, The 50 Greatest Christmas Songs Ever, 25 Christmas Classics, and so on. But all of these great Christmas songs and classics have been taken from pop music over the years, there’s hardly a traditional Christmas carol to be heard in any of them. But apart from the odd one or two that do have some Christian content, what do the vast majority of these songs actually have to do with Christmas as the celebration of the birth of Jesus? They might be very festive with their lyrics about stockings and cards and presents, about Santa and reindeer, sleighs and sleighbells, about snow and snowmen, Christmas trees, parties and so on, but what do any of those things actually have to do with the Incarnation of God’s Son, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ? Very little, if anything at all, I would say. But there is one song that’s been featured on a lot of these programmes, usually towards the top end of these top 50s or 25s or whatever the number’s been, a song that, on the face of it, has nothing to do with Christmas except that it’s set on Christmas Eve, a song that isn’t even very festive, but a song that I think does have something very meaningful to say about Christmas and what Christmas is really all about.
The song is called Fairytale of New York. I’m sure those of you who know that song will be surprised by that choice. I’m also sure that some of you who don’t know the song will be too because you may have heard it mentioned this year when the BBC caused some commotion about it by deciding to only play an edited version of the song because they have decided that the original lyrics are too offensive to be heard in these days of political correctness. But it’s actually those original lyrics, set as they are against the backdrop of Christmas that, in my opinion, make the song so much closer to the true meaning of Christmas than so many other so called Christmas classics.
Fairytale of New York is a song about two people who meet on Christmas Eve, that’s the Christmas setting. It’s a song about a relationship that’s gone wrong. It’s a song that speaks about alcohol and drug abuse. It speaks about people who are in prison and in the depths of despair. It’s a song in which people speak about each other in very derogatory ways, and this is why the BBC have decided not to play the original version of the song. It’s a song in which, amongst other things people call each other, bums and punks, scumbags, maggots and cheap, lousy savoury ducks. (Let the reader understand, as it says in the Scriptures!). It’s a song about broken dreams and lost hopes, about the ugliness and bitterness that life can bring, and the hopelessness and helplessness that people can feel and experience as they go through life. And throughout all this brokenness and ugliness and bitterness and hopelessness and helplessness of life that the people in the song are experiencing, the bells ring out for Christmas Day. And if we take a step back from the way Christmas is usually described in songs, where everything is wonderful and jolly and bright and all is joy and happiness, and think a little more deeply about that image from Fairytale of New York, of the bells ringing out for Christmas amidst the problems and troubles of life, isn’t that closer to the reality of Christmas? Isn’t that what Christmas is really all about, rather than the festive traditions we wrap it up in?
What Christmas is really all about is God entering into the harsh reality of human life at a definite and definitive moment in human history. It’s about God coming into the world so that the brokenness and bitterness of the world can be healed, so that the ugliness of the world can be changed into something more beautiful, it’s about God coming into the world to bring help to the helpless and hope to those without hope. It’s about God coming into the world so that all the brokenness and ugliness and bitterness and helplessness and hopelessness of human life and of individual human lives can be transformed and lifted up to heaven through the Incarnation of God’s Son, the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, Christmas is very much about the bells ringing out in celebration of Christmas Day amidst the reality, and sometimes very harsh reality, of human life.
In the programme Charles Dickens and the Invention of Christmas, Dickens, and the Victorians generally were credited with saving Christmas because, it was said, until they began to celebrate it in the way they did, Christmas was in danger of dying out. I assume by that, it was the festive celebration of Christmas that was in danger, not the Church’s celebration of Christmas as a Christian festival. That may well be true, and I’m sure the Victorians meant well. But what we’ve inherited from them is a celebration that’s become, and is increasingly becoming, devoid of real meaning.
The image of Christmas we’re given in what people now seem to regard as traditional Christmas songs is of a festive occasion that’s all about eating, drinking and making merry. An occasion that’s all about decorating our homes with trees, baubles and lights. An occasion that’s all about Santa and reindeer, sleighs and sleighbells and presents. An occasion on which everything wonderful and everyone is happy. That might be a very jolly image, but it’s not real is it, because real life isn’t like that. And if we take the birth of Jesus Christ out of Christmas, then what’s it all for and about?
So, whilst it might not be a traditional image of Christmas, and it’s certainly not a particularly nice or comfortable image of Christmas, the image we get from Fairytale of New York is a much more valuable one to us because it reminds us of what Christmas is really all about, the bells ringing out for Christmas amidst the harsh reality of human life. And if some people think that’s offensive, I wonder if they’ve ever stopped to consider how offensive our traditional way of celebrating Christmas might be to some people? How offensive the amount we eat and drink, or perhaps particularly how much food we waste at Christmas might be to those who are starving? How offensive the amount we spend on decorating our homes for Christmas might be to those who have no homes to decorate? How offensive the amount we spend on presents might be to those who have nothing to give? How offensive saying everything is wonderful and everyone is happy might be to those who have lost all hope and are in the depths of despair?
But today is Christmas and it is a time of celebration, so I don’t want to be too downbeat. So let’s celebrate Christmas and enjoy our traditional way of doing that. But let’s also remember that there’s much more to Christmas than our traditions and traditional ways of celebrating it. Let’s remember what Christmas is really all about and make sure the bells do ring out in celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ amidst all the festivities and traditions of Christmas. And let’s remember too, why the Son of God came to earth and do all we can to make sure that those Christmas bells ring out in the lives of all people, and especially in the lives of those who need to hear them most, and not just on Christmas Day, but every day.
Amen.
The Propers for The Nativity of the Lord 24th December 2020 (Midnight Mass) can be found here.
The Propers for The Nativity of the Lord 25th December, 2020 (Christmas Day) can be found here.
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 