Christmas for everyone and anyone

Christmas is for everyone. Today it’s Christmas Eve, and all over the world people are preparing for this universal holiday. Thousands (millions?) of Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu and Jewish people buy gifts, decorate trees and gather with families.

I find that so interesting. What is it about this festival that has made it gone viral? Most people celebrate in a secular fashion — not in church — but it has an obvious, built-in Christian story. It has pagan roots but is clearly a Christian festival. I can’t think of any other religious event that is celebrated worldwide, unless you count Hallowe’en. In New Zealand we certainly don’t close the shops for Hannukah or Eid Al-Adha or Diwali.

As a vicar’s kid who has strayed from the congregation, I still try to translate the words of carols and nativity readings into thoughts I can fully accept. And the Christmas story can be enjoyed as a story for everyone, including agnostics, atheists and Anglicans.

Here’s what I think about the Christmas story in a very short podcast episode. It’s easy to feel included in the global Christmas celebration, if you do a tiny cognitive somersault.

Happy holidays, everyone — yes, including you!

• What being a vicar’s kid taught me, by Lauren Seager Smith
• Older stories about being a vicar’s kid, from The Guardian