Christmas: the season of stress

Our ‘To Do’ lists are too long, the time before Christmas too short, our debts too high, the advertisers too pushy, the family arrangements too complicated, the children too demanding.

Is it really worth it?

If you check out research tables of life events that cause special stress, you find ‘Christmas’ is one of the items.

When you add in worries about employment or lack of it, painful relationships or loneliness, it is no wonder that some people snap.

Yet it is supposed to be a holiday, a time for families to get together and enjoy each other ... and a very special Birthday.

The problem is that organising a super-break is not straightforward in our complicated world.

There are so many aspects to fit together, so many tricky relationships to worry us.

Yet one of the words traditionally associated with Christmas is ‘peace’.  To find such peace in the maelstrom of seasonal preparation can be something of great beauty.

It might be a snow scene (who knows?), a hushed moment in a nativity service, a time when the children are tucked up in bed with stockings waiting to be filled.

Or it might be something more profound.

Christians follow a Lord who said “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

That’s a Christmas present worth receiving.

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