Mark's Notebook


	One of the nice parts about heading toward middle age is that you can find all your favorite music in the bargain bin. - Ken Floyd

What is Christmas all about?

The Independent

Wednesday 22 December 2004, 4:30 pm
Keywords: Christian Topics , News Articles

London's Oxford Street is the scene of an annual Christmas shopping frenzy. Can spirituality have any place here? Surprisingly, Clare Dwyer Hogg and Andy Sewell find God is alive and well in the thronging heart of consumerism.

I think Christmas has totally and utterly lost its way. Jesus' message was, "Feed the needy, don't be greedy." I don't really believe in giving presents, I think we should look after the needs of the world first, instead of buying someone a gift for Ł200, say, who doesn't need it. Let's think about the kids who are starving.
Christmas for me is about magic, snow, happiness, peace and family. The commercialisation is part of it too, to be honest. I like to give and receive presents. It's part of the occasion.
I'm not sure why Christmas is celebrated in Christianity, but anything to do with religion is good because all religions want to be peaceful. God is all-forgiving, merciful, all-compassionate. Christianity and Islam are different only because we believe Jesus was a prophet and they believe he was the Son of God. Politicians don't understand this.
People are always thinking about what they're going to buy and what they're going to do, but that's not my idea of Christmas at all. For me, it's just about being a normal everyday Christian.
Christmas is a marketing strategy to sell useless products. I'm allergic to it.
Every day should be Christmas, if you want to surprise your friends, why not?
Christmas is a time to be around your family. And to get presents as well, which is good.
I always really, really look forward to Christmas because it's a great family occasion. We have four children, three of them are very young and they get really excited about it. I think consumerism can get out of hand, though, so we try to be pretty careful about that. In fact, sometimes we even keep presents back from the children - we have very indulgent relatives. We don't want the children to develop acquisitive personalities. Two or three nice presents is more than enough, I think.
Christmas is a big, money-spinning idea. The flavour has gone.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=593107