December 1988

Christmas comes around every year and brings different things to different people. To some it is time to reflect on achievements attained during the year that is coming to a close: to others it is time to make plans for the coming new year. To others yet it is a time for uninhibited festivity and merrymaking, the time for a hoot.

I think these are all good things about Christmas. It is good for us to reflect; it’s good for us to plan and it’s good for us to have a good time and yet, I often think that many of us waste our Christamses by forgetting the real meaning and intensions of this happy time.

As a littly of course I have vivid recollections that it meant lovely toys and food and drink and a smattering of more mundane things like new clothes and such. As time passed Christmas become even better with holidays that seemed to last about six months. Certainly they were long enough to almost forget that school even existed. Teens years of course bring those wonderfully social years when we discover the opposite sex and tend to mellow a little in our demands and look more for fellowship and friendship around Christmas.

There comes a sudden realisation sometime though that those years are not as long as they use to be; the holidays are shorter too and life in general becomes a little harder. It is at this time that we are usually blessed with parenthood which tends to give Christmas a bit of a shot in the arm as we try to make our children’s Christmases as memorable as our own at their age.

It is as they grew into parents themselves that I have developed a strong feeling about the original meaning of this wonderful occasion. I start to think very deeply about what I want for my children and for theirs. And for all of the generations to come after me and mine and I start to get a little depressed that I have waited too long to do much about changing things.

So all I can do again this Christmas is gather my clan about me, have a great time as usual and wish them what I wish them a little hard each year; what I wish I had been preaching more fervently along time ago. And what I now wish you all on behalf of the Society.

PEACE ON EARTH AND GOOD WILL TOWARDS ALL MANKIND