Christmas is Coming!

But the Old Man is not getting fat!

Some people say that Christmas seems to appear on the horizon earlier each year. I think that this year I would definitely agree with them!

However, officially we shouldn't start preparing for Christmas until this coming Sunday - which is Advent Sunday. It's the start of the Christian Year, so it could also be called New Year's Day - but that would just confuse everyone!

Despite this coming Sunday being the official start of Christmas preparations, last Sunday has a traditional name of Stir-up Sunday - because for many people it was the day that they made their Christmas puddings, which involved a lot of stirring!

And in the shops we have been seeing messages about the approach of Christmas for weeks, if not months! I wonder if this year there will be some must-have product that will have everyone searching the shops for right up to the last minute.

For me, Christmas appeared earlier than usual this year. Since I first arrived at Abercorn and Winchburgh in September the service plans have been showing Christmas in the distance. And as the weeks have gone by we have been adding in the detail.

Church services, school services, Christmas lunches and dinners - the diary is getting quite full. And I rather suspect that by the end of it all the Old Man will be getting rather fat after all!

If we are to start celebrating Christmas from the beginning of Advent, then we just have to start preparing for Advent in plenty of time. So for some of us, Christmas begins to approach quite early on.

Some people seem to think that Christmas is so much bother, and so little to celebrate, that they leave all their preparations until the last minute, the big day is more of a damp squib, and as soon as it's over they want to head back to work and forget all about it. They get irritated at the endless Christmas Carols, and the continual shaking of the charity cans, and the unavoidable Christmas images in all the shops.

For me, I like Christmas. I have enjoyed thinking about it early. I am looking forward to selecting Carols for our services, and then to singing about, and celebrating Christmas, for as long as I can get away with it!

In some ways I wish that New Years Day was farther away from Christmas Day. Then we could celebrate Christmas for longer. After all there are supposed to be Twelve Days of Christmas - but these days we are lucky if we get Seven never mind Twelve.

Today we began the process of choosing this year's Christmas Hymns and Carols. By my count I reckon that we will have about 23 different Christmas services during the 26 days of Advent - nearly one every day, although on some days we will have several events, such as on December 21st when we will have four services through the day.

So I think we'll be singing some of the old favourites many times during the next month. It's not Advent yet - but I can hardly wait for the starting gun!