Christmas television adverts have become something of a national sport. Competition seems to run wild to see which can score the most hits on YouTube, and which has the most endearing storyline. Each one is a mini-drama designed to get under our skin and into our wallets.
Some of the adverts unashamedly tug on our heartstrings, like John Lewis’s offering from 2011 featuring a little boy who just can’t wait for Christmas to come. He wakes on Christmas morning to leap from his bed. He then dashes, somewhat surprisingly, past the large pile of presents. Instead he treads carefully into his parents’ bedroom to deliver the present that he has been waiting for so long to give them. The message is clear: the best thing about Christmas is giving presents to the people whom we love. And we wouldn’t disagree.
The John Lewis Christmas advert last year was also heart-warming. It showed a lonesome man sitting on a bench on the moon, who was noticed by a little girl looking out from her bedroom window through a telescope. For Christmas he was amazed to receive a telescope attached to some helium balloons from the girl. The reminder to show people that they are loved is also very helpful. The storyline, however, was a bit far-fetched.
And yet I wonder how believable the advert that told the real Christmas story would be?
The creator of the universe, God himself, being born as a human baby to a very ordinary couple. His first visitors included a bunch of unwashed livestock handlers and several camel-riding academics who definitely didn’t consult the John Lewis gift catalogue. Doesn’t sound very plausible does it? And yet that is the wondrous event that we will be celebrating as excitedly as ever at any and all of our Christmas events and services across the parish.
We would love to have your company, and hope very much that you will come to join the party.
Ian Rumsey, Vicar of Bowdon