Christmas and children

“It’s for the children” How many times do we hear that when it comes to Christmas? When did it become about the children and why?


We put up Christmas decorations, cover our houses with lights, erect and decorate Christmas trees and exchange presents and when we are asked why we reply, “For the children, they love it” or variations on that theme. Yet I still ask the question. Why?

Think about it. The Nativity Story is not exactly child friendly. A young unmarried pregnant girl enduring a long arduous journey, forced to have her baby in a squalid stable because there was no place else for them to go and to cap it all off the young family then had to flee for their lives because the evil king had given an order to his soldiers to kill all boys under the age of three. As I said what part of that story strikes you as being child friendly? If we were to bring that story up to date and try and tell it Key Stage 1 children there would be a public outcry.

Now don’t get me wrong I am not saying we should not think about the children or that we should try and exclude them but the problem is when you start emphasising the children you start alienating the adult by concentrating on the children adults begin to think they have, ‘outgrown’ Christmas and the Christmas message. Christmas is for everyone, young and old alike.

The truth is the trimmings and trappings of Christmas that make it ‘child friendly’ have little or nothing to do with the Nativity; Santa Claus, reindeer, toys girls dressed as angels. At some point of reference changed from the Christ Child in a manger to something less important. In our attempt to get the message across we have lost sight of the message and focused on the means to getting the message across.

I am quite sure that you all know the legend of why we have tinsel ate Christmas. The Holy Family whilst fleeing from Herod hid in a cave and a spider spun a web over the mouth of the cave. In the morning the web was covered in morning dew that glistened in the early morning sun the soldiers who were searching saw the web, assumed that it had been there for a while and as it was not broken walked past without searching the cave. The problem is it would seem that tinsel is still ‘hiding’ the Christ Child for many people.

To slightly change the words of one of my favourite hymns,

“I’m coming back to the Heart of Christmas and it’s all bout YOU Jesus”


If we can get back to the heart of Christmas we will discover that it is for the children but NOT just for the children. Enjoy Christmas this year, after all…”Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of god like a little child will never enter it.” Mark 10:15