Has the build up started too early? Is it all just too commercial? Who is to blame? Is it Boots, Woolworths and the other retailers. Should Christmas stock be out in October? Is it fair on parents and children? Is it causing yuletide fatigue?

Is Christmas being sucked dry of its meaning? It has become something of an annual debate that appears set to run and run. And whilst the debate rages about whether we are losing the meaning of Christmas with the emphasis on commerce and retail success, the Post Office issue Christmas stamps removed of all religious symbolism - no baby Jesus, no pregnant mother, no manger, no star, no shepherds, no wise men, not even a donkey in sight.

It's not difficult to imagine a time when a small bemused child turns in the middle of unwrapping a present he has extracted from a bulging sack and asks his parents on the 25th of December 'Why all the fuss about Christmas?' 'Mum, Dad, why all the presents?' 'Why the family meal?' 'Why the agony of choking down the brussel sprouts?' (Though that's probably a fair question at any time of year!)

What would your answer be if that was your small child? What's all the fuss about Christmas?

Luke was a doctor who met a man called Paul, he spent time with Paul and met a wide array of people. Towards the end of his life he wrote a book called the Gospel of Luke. In it he undertakes to "compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us..."

Luke's gospel perhaps tells us more than any other book why all the fuss about Christmas. It is an event that centres around the birth of the Son of God. God coming in human form, come as "a Saviour who is Christ the Lord." Come to bring "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to all men."

It is an event that is trumpeted by the gospel writers as great news (gospel), and Luke devotes the rest of his gospel to explaining why. To showing us why we need Christmas, to showing us what all the fuss is really about. And it all centres not on a jolly man in a Red suit, or brussel sprouts, or re-runs of Escape to Victory, but on what is missing from those stamps - a baby born in a stable, God made man come to be our saviour to bring us peace with God.

How would you answer that small child's question? Why not read Luke's gospel and see what he says the answer is, if you haven't got a copy and want one contact us and we will send you one. Or even better why not attend a carol service at a church near you this Christmas and join with others to see what all the fuss is about?

Christianity & Culture