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The Bishop of Sodor and Man, Robert Paterson, believes people have become embarrassed about being identified with Christianity.
Here he asks 'Whatever happened to Christmas?'

Where is Christ this Christmas?

IF you've bought Christmas cards this year, you must have noticed that it's getting very difficult to buy ones with any real connection with Christmas — apart from the word Christmas, of course.

It's almost as though we're all really ashamed to send cards with any reminder of the birth of Jesus Christ.

If you want to see just how worried people can be about pictures of the first Christmas on greetings cards, look at the cards sent by politicians and people who sell things.

They're a good test of what's happening in society because politicians need votes, and salespeople need sales, so wise politicians and canny retailers send cards that carry the subtle message 'I care about you' and carefully avoid anything that could offend.

So religious symbols are avoided: Christmas trees, holly, mistletoe, decorations, Santa Claus, Victorian winter scenes — all of these are cool — but the birth of Jesus Christ is too hot! (No doubt there are exceptions to this but the fact that these are exceptions proves the rule.)

A few years ago, a practising Jew wrote to The Times newspaper: 'I am distressed and saddened by the public treatment of Christmas as a winter jollification rather than a religious celebration.'

The writer thought that street lights called festive decorations and removing religious symbols was a symptom of a misguided, patronising and hurtful deference to religious minorities.

That may have been true in 1993 but in 2009 we've simply become embarrassed about being identified with Christianity. What would other people think if we took Jesus Christ seriously?

I hope I don't sound like a misery-guts — Bah, humbug! and all that — because I really do want everyone to have a great Christmas and to enjoy it. Fun is good for us and joy is a sign of genuine faith.

Jesus Christ once described his life among us as the way to live life to the full. A miserable faith or one that's always looking backwards falls well below what Jesus came to bring to humanity.

Of course, we need to be reminded that pain doesn't stop for a week just because most of us will be on holiday.

People will be sick at Christmas, people will be homeless, people will be lonely, people will be at war, people will be starving, people will be bereaved and people will be angry at Christmas, just like any other time of the year.

The birth of Jesus was a poverty-stricken business in a politically volatile state.

What Christmas can do for those of us who'll enjoy the festival more is to remind us to share some of the joy and to change our ways so that we become more generous people in the future: generous with our concern, our money, our time and (if we do) with our prayer.

Christians should be people of generous joy, people who have something different, something special which can be put down to faith – and not just at Christmas.

If the only way to identify a Christian is that he or she goes to church on Sunday, then it's not surprising that people get embarrassed about Christianity!

This festival is still a great celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, even if we don't like saying it. The clue is in the title — Christmas — and the answer may be in a church or chapel near you.

Nollick Ghennal, as shee as boggey erriu.

Happy Christmas, and peace and joy be with you.

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Muriel Garland is chairman of the Isle of Man Freethinkers – a group for atheists, agnostics and humanists which meets monthly. Here she gives a humanist's view of Christmas

It has reverted to pagan Saturnalia

IF you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, walking down Strand Street amid Christmas frenzy without buying anything, you're either a man who leaves all the seasonal preparations to his wife, or an atheist like me.

I'm not sure when Christmas became three months of consumerism, but a recent invitation to have my hearing tested in order to help me 'celebrate Christmas to the full' finally convinced me it had got out of hand.

Once Christmas was a special time in December when Christians celebrated the birthday of Jesus, sending cards with pictures of a child in a manger or hillside shepherds gazing at a star.

Nowadays it's mostly doggerel and feeble jokes. Santa has taken over from Jesus as the central figure.

Anything from soap to spanners can be marketed for Christmas by adding a robin or sprig of holly to the price tag and every shop cashes in on the act.

There have been several tipping points in my journey from celebrating Christmas as a child to trying to get it out of my system as an adult.

It's like when I gave up smoking some years ago. It took a long time to get all thoughts of cigarettes out of my mind.

First to go was the Christmas card list. Some people hung on in there although I had no communication with them for the rest of the year.

And a card was not needed for family and friends I saw often. At first I started sending neutral cards with robins and puddings and no mention of Christmas. But this was fudging. If I wasn't a Christian I needn't send any cards.

I could write a proper letter to friends I hadn't seen during the past year and give close friends and family my good wishes when I saw them.

The next tipping point came when I was teaching in a special school.

My head of department cast a young Muslim girl as the Virgin Mary because she had dark hair and would sit still throughout the performance.

What on earth would her parents think when they came to see her in the Nativity Play?

One gain from the National Curriculum was that it put a stop to those weeks of rehearsal and ensured we taught some useful science and history instead.

Some people enjoy the music of Christmas, and there is indeed emotional appeal in the Festival of Carols from King's College, but today's Christmas music has no connection with Christianity.

The decline set in with White Christmas and Little Donkey, proceeding via I Wish it Could Be Christmas Every Day and Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Slade's Merry Christmas Everybody.

Santa and stockings and reindeers and snow get a mention but Jesus is out of the picture. Christmas has reverted to Saturnalia, the pagan mid-winter feast of singing, eating, and drinking.

Like others at this season, atheists meet friends and family over a meal and drinks to enjoy each other's company.

We are not killjoys but fail to see how many of the activities that now take place at Christmas time have any connection with a god made divine and coming to live on earth.

Many human beings are attracted to the supernatural and accordingly there are dozens of religions.

That a prophet called Jesus is said to have taught we should be kind to each other sounds very worthwhile.

Atheists believe you can be good without god and we might be better off without Christmas diverting us for three months from what needs to be done in the world.

www.isleofmanfreethinkers.org