I love Christmas. And for some reason, I’m looking forward to Christmas much more this year than before. I got very excited that the Food Network channel were showing Delia’s Christmas this weekend – an hour and a half of Christmas loveliness. I’ve got lots of presents already, my Christmas cake is made (well, I’ve done two actually, using different recipes, to decide which one I prefer) and I’m resisting the temptation to put up the Christmas tree (the infamous Eurovision tree) till closer to Christmas
Christmas is also a great time for storytelling. All the best TV programmes (and some of the rubbishy ones too) have Christmas specials, lots of amazing books are set at Christmas and the Christmas story itself is one that is told again and again. Christmas gives us lots of chances to be creative – my church, New Life North, is using The Polar Express as the theme for its December services and has done an amazing job decorating the church, creating an evocative environment to help people experience the story.
WordLive, Scripture Union’s online Bible reading guide is running a creative retelling of the Christmas story, and I had the pleasure of writing it. The team at WordLive have taken my script, recorded it with Russell Boulter (once a regular actor on The Bill) and sent it to an animator called Jon Birch, who has done a brilliant job of putting visuals to the audio track. You can catch it here.
Enjoy the experience of hearing and telling stories this Christmas. Enjoy the magic, enjoy the trappings, learn from the stories.
Jon Birch of Birch Animations and Eddie Nock of Scripture Union created the picture with this post.
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