A big part of what makes Christmas special is quite simple, by Rt Rev Dr Shaw Paterson

Is it the perfect present you are after, or spending time with your nearest and dearest? Have you been busy all Advent with baking and making? Are you now ready for that glorious feast? Perhaps you’re the one who needs a bright Christmas jumper, or maybe you love the decorations? Or the music? Or the films? Or all of it!

These things are, in themselves, lovely and enjoyable, especially at this dark and cold time of year. The Christmassy feeling of something warm and comforting is important to hold on to.

However, I will just gently share that for me the perfect Christmas is linked to the candles we light on the four Sundays of Advent, for hope, love, joy and peace are intrinsically linked to the birth of the baby. It is through Jesus’s life, teaching, death and resurrection that we can know that the darkness does not last forever.

In the Moderator’s Christmas greeting this year, I used the phrase, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). This is why for 2,000 years Christians from all over the world have come together to celebrate.

Working on Christmas Day

The way we celebrate Christmas has changed over the years. Christmas Day was not a holiday. Indeed, I remember my father going out to work on Christmas Day. It has, in historical terms, been a fairly recent innovation that Christmas has become widely observed as a holiday festival. One of the consequences of this, however, is that there is so much focus on enjoying time off from work and school and so much obsession with making a perfect Christmas, that it might become easy to forget those for whom time off, or the chance to enjoy the season, is not possible.

If you are taking time off this Christmas, remember those who continue to work. Those keeping our communities safe or offering care and support to the most vulnerable: hospital staff, home carers, prison officers, police officers, ambulance crews, those who work with homeless people, or people seeking asylum.

In the Church of Scotland, we particularly remember and hold in our hearts the staff of CrossReach, the Church’s social care agency. In our residential and community-based services, there will be staff working around the clock over the Christmas period caring for and supporting others, and helping them to enjoy Christmas in the way that suits them best.

The carers and the cared for

One of the issues I have been raising with political leaders during my year as Moderator is the call for Fair Pay in Social Care, supported by the Church of Scotland, Roman Catholic Church in Scotland and a range of other church and faith groups. We have argued that all social care staff should be valued by receiving a fair wage for the incredible job which they do, supporting others to live life to the full.

If you are hoping to enjoy a perfect Christmas at home with family this year, do remember those who will be caring for the most vulnerable.

We also remember those being cared for. As we look beyond our own image of a perfect Christmas, we recognise that, for many, their Christmas may be far closer to that first one. At a time of military occupation, a child was born in a stable, where poor shepherd folk were the first to be told the Good News that this boy would one day become the saviour and redeemer of all humankind. Where wise men from distant lands travelled to worship him. Where the babe and his family fled from a massacre to seek refuge in another country.

The reality for those in hospital, prison, asylum hotels, or living on the streets is a long way from the picture-perfect Christmas we have been presented in adverts and online.

Being a Good Samaritan

This is also true for those requiring the support provided by foodbanks. Speaking to the volunteers who provide this essential service, their anxiety for the coming week, closely followed by Hogmanay and New Year, is concerning. At this time of year, many are away or concerned about their own finances after the festive excess. Yet, the need does not go away.

It can be daunting when we see images of empty shelves and hear of what is needed. So much so that it can be tempting to walk on by on the other side. However, just as the Good Samaritan gives a practical example of caring for one’s neighbour, we can get involved and provide practical (as well as prayerful) support.

At the General Assembly, I spoke about the support churches give to foodbanks. At the Church of Scotland Guild’s annual gathering, I mentioned that if everyone present took a tin of something to church each Sunday that would provide 26,000 tins a year. If every church and faith community member did likewise that would run into the tens of millions of tins containing foodstuffs that would help re-stock foodbanks across the country.

When extrapolating those figures to include the majority of the adult population, we can begin to envisage an extraordinary force generated by people and communities working together to care for our neighbours.

Caring, whether that’s through work, volunteering or simply reaching out to support others, is, for me, a big part of making Christmas special. May I wish you, and especially all those who are working and volunteering over the next few days, a wonderful (if not perfect), real Christmas filled with Hope, Love, Joy and Peace.

The Rt Rev Dr Shaw Paterson is Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland