KEY POINTS:
What is a defining characteristic of Christmas in a secular world? Increasingly it can be summed up in one word: hospitality. Not simply "celebration" or "holiday". Not "presents". No longer, for most, the word "Christ". Hospitality encompasses some aspects of all of those things, and more.
Throughout the country and in many parts of the world, tomorrow is a day on which people gather, extending open arms to family, neighbours, workmates, friends and tourists like on no other. It comes at the end of a month in which employers, clubs, groups of friends - any association of people, really - have stopped and invited each other in for Christmas parties and dinners. Christmas Day by its very nature brings people together but, for the most part, it also inspires a warmth of welcome and inclusion that eludes us for most other big festivals.
Our collective hospitality still has its limitations. There will, sadly, be those left alone tomorrow through the isolation of age or infirmity or family separation. Support for those less fortunate is a theme that is becoming much more prominent in the December activities of schools, firms and churches. That means many of the old and frail, ill and lonely, do find that on Christmas Day a little magic occurs. Exclusion can become inclusion, at times with people they hardly know. It probably is the least that we can all do, but the evident hospitality of this day is not something to be undervalued.
The original Christmas story is one of exclusion and desperation turned to joy and welcome. Joseph and Mary, who was about to give birth, could find no accommodation in Bethlehem after a strenuous journey. The phrase "No room in the inn" has become a part of the vernacular but it was their reality. The barest hospitality was offered: a stable. Jesus was born, and the family surrounded soon after by the attentions of local shepherds, with three "wise men" or "kings" bringing gifts later.
Tonight and tomorrow that story will be told in churches around the country. Those weatherboard or brick edifices dotted through our suburbs and towns, proudly bearing a cross on high, ought always to come alive at this time. Many do. Their crowds are unsurpassed over the rest of the year. There is a welcome and hospitality towards neighbourhoods, the curious and the lapsed that is too seldom emphasised. Numbers attending midnight services are reportedly rising this decade; those timed for children in the early evening or quiet of Christmas morning apparently vibrant. The churches seek, as one thoughtful priest has put it, to encourage people to extend their Christmas hospitality, to being hospitable towards the baby Jesus and his message.
For those for whom a tolling bell or distant carol carries no meaning, the day still dawns with purpose. This is our Thanksgiving Day, minus the big American Football game televised live after lunch. Everything has built to this peak. Bedrooms are full. Travellers have arrived from around the country and the globe. Food and drink are stockpiled. Presents are just piled, each carrying something more than its dollar value into the imminent hubbub of children, family and friends. And if someone suggests another name be added to that gathering, or that a gift be delivered or a visit made to someone less fortunate, there is a default towards generosity and inclusion; it being better to give than to receive.
This rare day of societal hospitality may not always make us merrier, as we share the chicken, the beer or the bubbles, but it can make for a happier Christmas, all round.
