Dear Friends,
Christmas means different things to different people. Young children look forward to receiving presents. There is the stocking at the end of the bed or near the fireplace on Christmas morning and the parcels around the Christmas tree. Then there are the parties and other celebrations.
   We all like to receive presents and also there is the importance of thinking what gifts we can buy for relatives and friends.
   And not only presents. Our Christmas cards mean a great deal, because they come from family and friends and people all over whose paths at one time or another have crossed with ours. There may be messages from those we have not seen for a long time, or from whom we do not hear at any other time. At Christmas these give us a warmth that lies in the depth of the love or concern of those who care for us - important particularly for those for whom Christmas may not be such a happy time. And we reciprocate those feelings in the cards we send.
   And as Christmas comes to mean that to us, so does the religious meaning of the festival grow more important, deeper and more central. The Birth of Jesus has become the central thing about Christmas Day and we wonder at the love of the God who could come into our world with all its harshness, cruelty and irresponsibility and make himself known to us in the shape of a man to walk with us in our ordinary lives, share our joys and sorrows, our cares and concerns.