This was first aired as the Sunday Morning Thought on Rutland and Stamford Sound on Sunday 26th November 2023. Listen and read below.

Do you find that you are getting busier at this time of the year? I do. Even now in November, it feels as if the rush to Christmas is already coming into play. I know for me that November has probably been my busiest month. It’s though I’ve been sucked into the Christmas busyness early. I’ve got a meeting here, then I rush to the desk to do some work, then head off to another meeting, then nip into the shops, then hop on Zoom. It’s just one thing after another. Then there is the Christmas stuff to get ready. Buying presents, writing cards, planning Christmas dinner, getting the decorations up, and of course, getting the right tree. It can feel all consuming. And as we get into December it’s only going to get worse.

I often ask myself if the Christmas season is supposed to be like this? Isn’t Christmas supposed to be a happy and joyous occasion? But the closer we get, the more stressed I feel. It’s not even December!

I think what the first Christmas was like, and as I look back 2000 years ago, I see a very different picture. There were no decorations, or Christmas dinner. It was a very quiet occasion. There was a young couple, tucked in a stable with a few animals, perhaps like the back of a Rutland farm. And it was there that a little baby boy was born. It wasn’t about all the busyness. It was about the simple gift of God born to us as a child.

If you are stressed about the coming busyness of Christmas, remember that at its heart, it’s about a birth. A birth so simple and everyday, but gave light to the whole world.