The offical online newsletter of the Parish of St. Brelade, Jersey
Portlet Beach
Christmas 2007
News Stories
Merry Christmas from team
Precinct complaints
St. Aubins Day Change
Christmas? Bah-humbug!
Vive Le Jumelage!
‘Pressies’ temps passé
Warren Farm – a year on
A Green Christmas?
Not on your sausage!
Battle of Flowers Assoc.
Walk on the widld side!
Letters to Editor
Happy Chanukah
Mont Nicolle great time!
New Adventure in Faith
Christams Services
St. Aubin Improvements
£8k for Children in Need
In the Frame
Ending on a sweet note!
Christmas? Bah-humbug!!
As I get older, I fear I’m getting more like Scrooge.

By Rev Mark Bond

One of my favourite movies is ‘Scrooge’ – the musical version of the story ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens. I tend to watch it when I’m feeling jaded with the world or my faith in the goodness of human nature has been worn down. For me it’s the feel-good factor of a man turning his life around which lifts my spirit, and the hope of the Crachitt family for Tiny Tim’s improved health always gets to me and makes me snivel – which in turn makes me feel better!
Although a wicked miser of the most cruel and joyless kind, there are parts of Scrooge’s character with which I can identify. His work ethic, his desire not to be a burden and his head for business are usually traits we admire in our society. Also, the fact that he is clearly a victim of his experiences (from childhood onwards) means that he is not wholly responsible for his situation, that is, an emotional self-sufficiency resulting in an almost total isolation from other human beings – the ultimate lonely man. It is, of course this part of him which needs redeeming, and so, through the ghosts of Christmas and the human relationships around him, he finds a way back from the de-humanised world of his ‘Counting House’ to the true spirit of a Merry Christmas in the love of family and friends.
As I get older, I fear I’m getting more like Scrooge. I know that being a ‘Grumpy Old Man’ is just a part of being 53 years old, but I want to resist the urge to be grumpy about all aspects of Christmas, when I know that it’s just a few things which wind me up.
Beyond my control is the fact that Christmas seems to get started sooner each year. As I’m thinking about autumn; All Saints, All Souls and Remembrance, to name some of the special services we do in October and November, Argos, Woolworth and co. begin to build up anxious fears of not being ready for the Festive Season. It is this incessant urging to buy more, consume more, before it’s too late, which really gets me going. Maybe you too have nightmares about it being Christmas Day and no turkey or sprouts prepared or presents bought? I get grumpy and resistant to all things ‘Christmassy’ when it begins so early and I’m made to feel inadequate long before I’ve had a chance to fail!
One of the good things about being a clergyman is that the Church’s calendar can restore, for me, the balance in this Christmas assault. The thing which helps me to deal with my ‘Christmas Grumps’ is the season of Advent, which begins, this year, on 2nd December. Here, we have four Sundays of preparation, four Sundays of quiet reflection amongst the hurly- burly of endless shopping, Christmas dinners, parties and celebrations, to remember what we’re really celebrating in our inherited Christian tradition.
I find that the balance restored by taking the right amount of time out from the ‘Consumer Christmas’ and replacing it with the ‘Contemplative Christmas’ helps me to arrive at Christmas Day with joy and peace rather than ‘the Grumps’ and that awful sense of anti-climax which is the experience of many. So rather than meeting Christmas with the "Bah-Humbug!" of Scrooge, I can genuinely greet it and all those I meet, with the words of Tiny Tim; "God bless us, everyone!"

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