Making the most of Christmas

Here we go again. The adverts have been on telly since September and the shop windows are stuffed with lights and trees and enticing presents. We can't escape it. Christmas time is here again.

Whatever we make of Christmas, however much we despair at the materialism of it all, it remains to be said that at least this country still celebrates what is a uniquely Christian festival. Its meaning may be covered up with tinsel and a false white beard, but at least it is one of the times in the year when the whole nation is taken up with something that, when unwrapped, has the gospel at its centre.

The question is, will we make the most of it? Will we seek to point our friends to the Christ of Christmas? Or will we, like them, get swept along by the shopping, the cooking, the eating, and the visiting that Christmas has come to mean?

What follows are a few suggestions on using the evangelistic opportunities Christmas brings. They are not all my own - they have been gleaned from a variety of people to whom I am most grateful.

1. Make use of the Christmas carol service

I am always amazed how enthusiastically even the most hardened non-Christian reacts when asked to a church carol service. Maybe it's because, once they've left school, people don't get the chance to sing carols anymore. Maybe they are attracted by the thought of candles and cribs and warm fuzzy feelings. Whatever the reason, I have found that people will usually say 'yes' when asked to come - and if they can't make it, actually sound genuinely disappointed. The carol service, if nothing else, is often valuable as a first step with friends, getting them to hear something of the gospel, with a view to inviting them to something else in the future.

After you have been to the service it is a good idea to ask people back to your home - let them know beforehand that they are invited. You can offer mince pies and coffee or mulled wine. Or go the whole hog and serve a hot meal - it doesn't have to be Christmas dinner!

How you decide to chat about the service and the talk you've just heard depends on exactly who's there. If this is the first time your friends have ever been in church you may think it best to keep things light and just ask them how they found it. However, you could push things further, asking what they made of the talk, if they agreed/disagreed, whether they had ever thought about Jesus before. It's worth thinking through too how many people you invite. Aware that it is very easy to get people along to a carol service, my husband and I used to ask as many friends as possible. We invited a few Christian friends along too in order for them to be able to talk to people. However, one year so many non-Christians came that when we all came back to ours, we were completely outnumbered. Within an hour all the guests were shouting over the top of each other, criticising the talk and getting more irate by the minute. It was not a great evening.

2. Choose your cards and presents with care

Most of us will send people cards and buy some gifts this Christmas. The question is, what card should we send and which present should we buy? On the card front, the cheap option is a bumper pack from Woolies. The other, more useful option is to seek to send a card that might provoke people to think about the Christ that Christmas is all about. Each year The Good Book Company (www.thegoodbook.co.uk) produces cards that are both fun and provocative. Or, if you are creatively inclined, you could make your own - people will often take more time to read something that you have produced yourself. Or you could buy ready-made cards and insert something of your own inside them: each Christmas my mother writes a poem about the Lord Jesus and sticks it into each card she sends.

As for presents, it's worth asking yourself if you could give someone a book or a tape that will get them thinking about the gospel. Now you may not want to do this indiscriminately - your 14-year-old nephew may not thank you for it if you present him with a set of taped sermons rather than the latest CD he really wanted. However, you could think about buying people two things ù a book or tape in addition to the present they are expecting. There is some great stuff available. Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ (Zondervan Publishing House, ISBN 0 310 22655 4) is a brilliant book to give away. Again, The Good Book Company has produced some fantastic material aimed at non-Christians. For tapes, make use of your own church tape library and send someone a sermon you have heard yourself. Or check out www.shmedia.org.uk. They will be making some suggestions on their website as to suitable tapes to give to non-Christian friends this Christmas.

3. Make the most of Christmas culture

Christmas is a time packed with an assortment of cultural events: concerts, school nativity plays, pantomimes and more. Ask yourself how you can use them to point people to Jesus. You could invite some parents round for drinks after the school nativity play. When everyone has finished cooing over how pretty the angel looked and how sweet the shepherds were, ask what they really make of the Jesus story. Why do we remember the birth of this man? Why was he so important?
Or invite a friend along to something like The Messiah. You could use it as a springboard to talk about salvation history. It's harder for culture snobs to dismiss the Bible when it is associated with such a posh cultural event!

4. Consider how you chat about Christmas

Even if you don't go to a carol service and fail to buy any cards or presents, you will inevitably be drawn into talking about Christmas as the number of shopping days diminishes. Think about some questions you would like to raise this year. Why not ask people whether they like Christmas, what they think it should all be about. Or you could say to someone, 'I wonder what God makes of the way we celebrate Christmas?'

This year, before we are swamped by buying the turkey and dressing the tree, let's pray and think through how we can make the most of Christmas, how we can point our friends to the real point of Christmas - that God came to this earth as a man in order to die for us. If they grasp that, it will be the best Christmas they will ever have.

Making the most of Christmas

1. Make use of the Christmas carol service

2. Choose your cards and presents with care

3. Make the most of Christmas culture

4. Consider how you chat about Christmas

Elisa Beynon

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