Now that the year has drawn to a close with Christmas just a week away, take this time to totally relax and have some time off.  It’s a good time of year to recharge your batteries, join in the Christmas cheer (just don’t over do it!) and catch up on much needed rest.

Why not start with the story of the birth of Christ, seeing as that’s what Christmas is all about? It’s a great story and helps us to realize that material possessions don’t matter.  Birth can happen in the simplest of settings, wherever it is intended. It is a time to honour the divine in each of us and to realize that birth is a very spiritual event. To read some of the biblical stories around the birth of Christ, go to:
http://christianity.about.com/od/biblestorysummaries/p/christmasstory.htm

For some great reading, see the birth stories located on the Soulbirth website.  Visit: http://www.soulbirth.com/birth_stories.26.html

The word Christmas comes from Cristes maesse, or “Christ’s Mass.” It is the time when Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus.

As it does not say in the Bible, no-one knows when Jesus was born, neither which day nor even year. One reason for this is that at the time Jesus was born people used the Roman calendar which was different to ours. It is now believed that Jesus was born between 7BC and 4BC.

Around 350 years after Jesus birth, Pope Julius 1 chose 25 December as the date of the Nativity. This date seemed to be a good choice because many people had from early times celebrated other winter festivals around this time. There was the Roman Saurnalia where Saturn, the god of Harvest, was honoured by merrymaking. In Northern Europe, Yule, giant logs were trimmed with ribbons and green plants and burned in honour of the gods who it was hoped would make the sun shine more brightly.

Both of these festivals were around the time of the winter solstice which is the day in Northern parts of the world that is the shortest of the year. With our modern instruments we now know this to happen on 21 December.

Christmas Day is a public holiday in Christian countries. Festivities include the exchanging of presents. To children this is probably the most exciting day of the year when if they have been good they can open the gifts left by Santa Claus.

For more stories and Christmas activities follow this link:
http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Christmas/ChristmasDay.aspx