I have been following this Advent Calendar challenge to name the Christmas tune hidden in Lego, and of course radios and shops have been going through the classic Christmas songs - good and bad.
'I'm dreaming of a white Christmas'
'All I want for Christmas is you'
'Last Christmas I gave you my heart'
'So here it is Merry Christmas'
A good proportion are about relationships and things going well or not and then of course there is 'Blue Christmas'. Through the Ship of Fools discussion boards I have discovered that some churches offer a 'Blue Christmas service', some hold it on 21st Dec and call it a 'Longest Night service'. The idea is to offer a space in the midst of hype and celebration for those who will find it a hard time for whatever reason. A time to be reassured that even in the darkest longest night God is with us. It is a bit late to plan it in for this year, but it seems like something the church should be offering, even for the one or two, to offer a space and sanctuary in a tinsel tossed world.
Events in Sandy Hook School in Connecticut may highlight it, but every year there are people coming to terms with empty seats at the Christmas table - like the family of the woman I will lead a funeral for early in the new year.
And yet there is a wonder at Christmas, for the last couple of years I have acquired a new singing toy in time for carol or Christmas day services. This year it is a penguin singing 'Winter wonderland' - cue for me to prepare my Christmas services around the theme of wonder, the wonder of a God who was and is prepared to muck in with the messiness of human life.
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