It’s that merry season of good tidings and cheer, when ye olde carolling chestnuts deck our halls with boughs of holly on a cold and frosty morning.
Here’s a yule log-tide plea to keep Christ central among all the celebrations and carol medleys that make up the bulk of our Christmas invitation services. I managed to miss Jesus out from the first sentence of this article completely, but I still reckon it brought out that Chrissy tingle.
Christmas music
I’m at that stage in the year when I’m looking for carols and musical items for Christmas, and it’s as tricky as ever. There are plenty of carols that sound lovely, and do the shiver-up-the-back candle-lit oooooooooh effect. Creating the effect isn’t the problem — that’s the easy bit. All you need is candles (unless you’ve issues with health and safety), the play-over to Hark the Herald and a couple of sprigs of holly. The hard bit, and most important bit, is choosing songs with theology that we pray will grow in people’s hearts once the effect has worn off with the New Year hangover. We want guests to go away with as rich an understanding as possible of what Christ came to earth to do. It’s part of making the most of every opportunity, and what an opportunity Christmas is. Therefore, it’s worth working hard to find carols that are clear about Christ — his purpose for coming to earth, and his glorious character — God in human form.
