Christmas may be curtailed, but what if there were no Christmas?

I had to ring my mobile service provider the other day and was kept waiting for a minute or six during which the sound of Wizzard echoed down the line with 'I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day'.

Perish the thought, I uttered. A three-six-five of excess and over-jolification. And imagine what it would do to the national grid, with all those houses lit up like Santa’s grotto every single day of the year.

But it got me thinking: what if there was no Christmas Day? What if the pandemic means we end up with a watered down version?

This day among days has not always been easy. Oliver Cromwell and his not-so-merry band of Puritans banned Christmas Day between 1647 and 1660. It didn’t even earn its pride of place on December 25 until 1752 when the Christian calendar changed in line with the Pagan winter solstice.

When our ancestors were still in their caves, they celebrated the solstice as a way of giving thanks for that year’s harvest and looked to Nature to bestow more bounty on them in the coming season. Without Christmas Day where would we make time to count our blessings, to take stock, to renew, to regroup, and to look forward?

If we had no Christmas we would not have the wonderful work that is A Christmas Carol and there would be no need for those trusted recipes for Christmas cake and mince pies.

This year a Nativity play performed by doe-eyed infants is missing, so too infectious carol singing, and perhaps kissing one too many under the mistletoe. But we’ll have stockings hanging by the hearth and Bing Crosby’s White Christmas, the viewing of It’s A Wonderful Life for the umpteenth time but, regrettably, no panic or shouts of “Look out behind you ...” at the Christmas panto.

The pandemic has out paid to a lot.

But, imagine a world where, for just one day of the year we would not strive towards Peace on Earth and Goodwill to All Men. Were there never a Christmas Day, would the much-written about truce between Germans and Allied troops during World War One have taken place?

Christmas, for those of us who are lucky, is a time for giving, a time for receiving well-wishes, and a time for a little gastronomic indulgence. No Christmas and we would not have the joy of the lighted candle in the window, or the anticipation of opening up presents and yet another pair of knitted socks from your favourite aunt.

And the excitement and wide-eyed wonderment of a child at Christmas as, Teddy to hand, they clamber the stairs to bed to await the coming of Santa Claus. And, the wonder of it all again next morning when Father Christmas has proved true to his word.

Imagine what the year would be like without all that?

And what of the Empty Chair? The Empty Chair that last year seated someone close, someone loved, someone cared about, who, alas, this year is no longer with us. And there will be so many, many empty chairs this Christmas.

There are times, admittedly, when the whole thing can seem crass and commercial – and unfair to those less well-off, living in the most trying of pandemic-induced circumstances.

But somewhere amid all the consumerism there is something mystical and enchanting about Christmas. That moment, that person, that event, feeling or discovery – that rebirth of something essentially good in all of us: our very own reason to celebrate Christmas whether it be the smile of the child or the twinkle in the eye of an old-timer, whose wink tells you this is the best Christmas of all.

Trying to find for yourself the true meaning of Christmas, whether religious or secular, is like the Three Wise Men who, after consulting the stars, set out on a long journey in search of something – though they weren’t sure what. TS Eliot describes their sceptical and difficult trek in his marvellous poem ‘Journey Of The Magi’ and reminds us that Christmas was not given to them on a plate. They had to go looking for it, as we do, and in conditions not always helpful. As the first line of the poem recalls: “A cold coming we had of it ....”

Covid-19 will see many spending Christmas in abject circumstances whether they be social or economic. Or those forced to face being relatively alone over the festive holiday.

At the heart of the Christian Christmas is the outcast couple. Mary and Joseph, who, after public shame and rejection, faced the humiliation of their child being born in an outhouse. Yet it was here in the stable that the angels, shepherds and wise man choose to gather and celebrate. Joy to the world.

This Christmas, look at those who can, by way of your bubble, gather in your abode and delight in them being there. That is the real joy of Christmas.

- You can read Paul Hopkins' column every week in the Meath Chronicle