Alexander McCall Smith's Yuletide Festivities

Let’s defend the idea of Christmas; let’s luxuriate in it, whatever our religious position may be. Those for whom it is a religious festival should be encouraged to celebrate it as such; those for whom there is no longer any religious significance in the day and the season, or for whom that significance never existed, let them celebrate it too in their way. But let us oppose to the last the suggestion we should be embarrassed about celebrating our most important festival.  

 

The idea of Christmas is entirely positive, whatever way we look at it. For Christians of every sort, it is the foundation stone of their faith. For others in traditionally Christian countries, it is the symbol of some pretty important values. Christmas stands for kindness and love; it stands for goodwill and peace; it stands for all those finer values that sometimes seem to be in short supply in a conflict-ridden world. And if we tend to forget this, then we might remember the Christmas truces of the First World War when in the midst of the most dreadful carnage, common humanity asserted itself. Christmas as an idea is immensely powerful, immensely persuasive. 

 

In my home, we try to keep our Christmases as traditionally as possible. We begin the day with the exchange of presents about the tree. Our daughters, now grown-up, still get stockings filled with small gifts; they still find letters addressed to them from Santa Claus, left by the fireplace as evidence of his having visited. And these letters say the same thing they have always said, drawing attention to achievements and suggesting that there is still room for improvement. Nothing changes, and why should it? Change is unsettling, and if we can keep one part of our year the same, whatever may happen in our troubled world, then we feel safer, and less worried. And if we see in the doings of others – even the exchange of greetings or the giving of presents – signs of that love that can transform us all, then Christmas is working its annual miracle, as it always has, and as we hope it always will. 

 

The latest novel in Alexander McCall Smith’s Von Igelfeld series, Unusual Uses for Olive Oil, is out now