Last year I was given a Christmas Anthology compiled, and partly written, by Alan Titchmarsh – Fill my Stocking. It’s a delightful jumble of the traditional, the funny, the heart-warming, the thought-provoking – something for everyone. And that’s what we need at Christmas, isn’t it? Because people’s views of the ‘festive’ season, their feelings about it, vary so much. Some people love it – the glitz, the glitter on the floor mingling with the pine needles, the trees, the decorated shops and lights in the streets. Others see it as an orgy of cooking, eating and drinking, of parties, dressing up and entertaining friends and families. And for some it really isn’t festive at all but a bit of an ordeal – yes we love to have the family but what can we feed them, how can we entertain them, how many beds do we have, and so on. For others it’s a quiet day in with the TV, old favourites, Christmas specials, an extra nice meal perhaps but none of the frenzied entertaining going on around them. And then there are those who hate it – who don’t want to be alone but have no choice – and worst of all those who have no home let alone a family, who are excluded from even the most basic enjoyment of warmth and food, who don’t even have the family of the church to help them survive. No other festival evokes quite such a range of responses as Christmas, or is hung about with quite so many conflicting emotions. Or requires QUITE so much preparation. Putting together the parish magazine mid-November I find myself pestering the Clergy, the Sunday School, the Nursery, the Flower Team – What are you doing? Where’s the crib going? What are the children doing? Can you help? What candles do I need? And why can’t it wait till December!!?
The advantage of belonging to a church, of course, is that you don’t have to feel alone. There’s always somewhere to go on Christmas Day and even if you can’t get to your parish church because there’s no transport, you can go somewhere else . Retirement rendering me instantly too lazy to walk up the hill to Christmas services, I’ve attended local churches and found it just as easy to feel part of something greater than presents and trees and food and fripperies, to experience the real meaning behind it all. No wonder atheists hate Christmas.
So what are we doing to make your Christmas both enjoyable and painless?
By the time you read this the Christmas Market will be over and I hope you’ll have bought all your gifts, food, cards but if not then the Church Christmas Cards will be available after services and there’ll be a final chance to stock up on Traidcraft goods on 5th. The church cards benefit the Church Fabric Fund and cost only £3 for 10 – a very competitive price. We have CDs of our Choir and some of a Mozart Requiem which we’re selling for the Disasters Emergency Committee Pakistan Flood Appeal. So many months on the people are still suffering and now they have cholera to contend with as well as homelessness and hunger.
There’s a series of Advent Meditations on Wdnesday evenings at 8pm in the Chapel. These will provide a quiet space away from all the things that crowd in upon us at this time of year – and we hope to have another of Alf Lohr’s wonderful paintings to aid our thoughts.
The month is awash with Carol Services and Concerts – the local schools, the Friends of the Royal Free Hospital, the Junior Choir at Burgh House, UCS, SHHS, Devonshire House, Hampstead Parochial, St Christopher’s – culminating in our own magnificent Carol Service on 18th and more child-friendly Crib Service at 5.30pm on Christmas Eve. Other events for children include decoration-making on Saturday 18th [while the church is being cleaned and decorated] and a day of activities on Tuesday 21st. You can find out more about both these further on in this issue. And, looking ahead to January our series of Wednesday lunchtime events begins on 5th and for Epiphany [Thursday 6th ] there are some very special activities planned which will finish with an Epiphany service and Children’s procession at 6pm.
Details of the Christmas services are in the diary section and on cards around the church. And on that subject please help circulate news of our services to homes in the parish by taking a bundle of cards and delivering them locally.
In a letter to a friend Evelyn Underhill wrote:
I hope your Christmas has had a little touch of Eternity in among the rush and patter and all. It always seems such a mixture of this world and the next – but that after all is the idea!
I think that just about sums it up for all of us.
December
Judy East