Happy Christmas
Regular readers know that I am very bad at getting Christmas cards out on time. This year I think I managed it with about 70% of UK friends, but zilch in the international list. I do love getting them, though. I’m always amazed at quite how many friends I have. I usually compensate with lots of letters in the New Year, and surprise presents at random moments. It’s the same with birthdays, I’m afraid.
When I was a child, we had a maiden aunt – a remarkable and wonderful woman, who always, absolutely dependably, forgot all our birthdays. But at some random time of year – May, or July, or November – a big parcel would arrive full of presents. They might say "Happy Birthday", or "Happy Christmas", regardless of the time of year. It seemed madly exciting to us to get a completely unexpected present just when life was going through a tedious moment. It was always books – she taught English literature and was absolutely up to date on the latest releases – and they were always wonderful…
the rest of this story appears in Beginnings and Endings
7 Responses to “Happy Christmas”
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author musician theologian
Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
In an increasingly secularised society few people have a good working knowledge of the Bible. Yet a great deal of our culture is built on stories or ideas that come from the Bible. Literature, art, music, language and even the fabric of our society - such as our justice system - are built on Christian concepts and biblical references. The Writing on the Wall provides a fascinating introduction to the Bible's best-known, and most influential, stories. Each chapter gives some background to the text of the Bible, and shows how the stories have become enmeshed in Western culture. Adam and Eve, the ten plagues of Egypt, The Prodigal Son and Mary Magdalene all feature - along with how the Bible has influenced everyone from Shakespeare to Monty Python, and Caravaggio to Banksy. 
Giving It Up explores the Lenten idea of 'giving up', taking it beyond the traditional idea of simply abstaining from something, and suggesting instead that what we need to give up is our existing ideas about God. With a daily readings for each day of Lent, from Ash Wednesday to Easter Sunday, it follows the heroes of the Bible who had to give up their own too-small ideas about God.
This is Maggi’s bestselling book of daily readings for each day of Advent, Christmas and Epiphany. Advent is the beginning of the Church year, and marks the anticipation of the coming Messiah. These readings explore how beginnings and endings in our own lives are illuminated by the different Gospel narratives of Christ's coming.
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oh everyone needs an aunty margaret – what whimsy! she’s an inspiration, thank you for sharing her with us.
merry christmas maggi!
My kind of aunt! Merry Christmas……..
What a wonderful memory!
I want to be like her too
What’s ‘on time’? A few years ago we decided to recognise Christmas as the 12 day feast it’s supposed to be and stopped worrying whether the cards arrived before Dec 25, the aim being to get them to arrive sometime during the 12 days. We told everyone in an enclosed note what we were doing and that it was part of de-stressing Christmas and told them they were welcome to do likewise.
What’s ‘on time’? A few years ago we decided to recognise Christmas as the 12 day feast it’s supposed to be and stopped worrying whether the cards arrived before Dec 25, the aim being to get them to arrive sometime during the 12 days. We told everyone in an enclosed note what we were doing and that it was part of de-stressing Christmas and told them they were welcome to do likewise.
what a fantastic memory – love it