Christmas recarpeted

Christmas in Australia is quite different from elsewhere and many Europeans cannot believe there is so little effort and care. On the surface. Shops have lost their spirit and the general community can feel very lacking in the Christmas spirit. It's not compulsory. It became less important when people started working longer hours, when they changed shop trading hours, when we became aware many people do not celebrate or acknowledge Christmas as part of their cultural heritage. So confusion reigned, then it was dismissed as commercial clap trap. Christmas in Australia can be a very stressful time for families. The distances between homes can be huge and so some families are on the road all day. Even in air conditioned cars the heat can add to the pressure. Then there is the split between the Christmas purists and the relaxed approach. Some people spend the day at the beach playing cricket or volleyball, catching the waves. Some put on the full traditional meal of turkey and pudding which can make tempers soar with the temperatures. We have reclaimed Christmas as a time to gather with friends and family but basically you have to belong to the group or you feel cut off from Christmas. The upsurge in church goers has put some of the religious spirit back into Christmas and our churches are making an effort to gather the lost souls around town to help them feel wanted at Christmas. When I was reading this article, the first few paragraphs reminded me of a time with my daughter when she was 4. We were looking at the nativity scene in a shop window and naming the cast:

Who's that?
Joseph
Who's that?
The three wise men
Who's that?
A shepherd
That's the little baby Jesus, Mummy, but who's that lady?
The Madonna.
Madonna? That's not Madonna , Mummy, you're silly. She doesn't dress like that and have a little baby Jesus...

At which point the two old ladies next to me burst into chuckles and looked at this media minded little girl. " I suppose the wee ones do get confused these days, " said one of them. The other nodded.


The religious amnesia evident in Australia at Christmas is not only sad, it's dangerous, writes Muriel Porter.

Friends of mine recently took their young son to see the Myer Christmas windows. He was engrossed by them, carefully following the story of The Polar Express - a story he knows well - from scene to scene. Then he came to the window depicting Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus. The nativity tableau was quite new to him. "So what's the story here then?" he asked his parents.

Similar anecdotes could be told around the country, and not just about schoolchildren. My friends' son belongs to the second generation at least that has almost entirely missed out on learning the basic stories of the Christian faith, the religion that shaped Western civilisation.

There are many reasons for this significant shift; the rapid decline in church-going over the past 40 years is only the most obvious. As church connection has waned, our culture has just as rapidly become secularised. Misguided attempts to avoid possible offence to other world faiths by stopping traditional Christian observances in schools and kindergartens is the result of that secularisation, not its cause.

The rest can be found here.