Christmas Facts and Figures 2007

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Political Correctness & Christmas

The Backlash - Christian-Muslim Forum Letter  

The Christian-Muslim Forum, set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote to all local authorities in December 2006 in an attempt to remind them that Christmas does not cause ‘offence’ to minority faiths, whereas banning it will offend almost everybody.    The chairman of the Forum, the Bishop of Bolton, the Rt Rev David Gillet, and its vice-chair, Dr Ataullah Siddiqui said: “As Muslims and Christians together, we are whole-heartedly committed to the retention of specific religious recognition for Christian festivals. The desire to secularise religious festivals is in itself offensive to both our communities.  We believe that the only beneficiaries of eroding the residual Christian presence in public life are those committed to a totally non-religious standpoint.   We believe that any attempt to privatise and hide the celebrations of religious festivals promotes frustration, alienation, and even anger within religious communities.  Such negative approaches devalue religion and undermine the positive contributions that faith communities bring to society.”
The letter also warned that those who used religious pluralism as an excuse to de-Christianise British society were “unthinkingly becoming recruiting agents for the extreme right.”
Dr Siddiqui is head of the Islamic Foundation of Leicester and the Islamic College, the Markfield Institute of Higher Education, an Islamic college.  He was appointed in 2006 as a Government adviser on providing information on Islam to students following concern that propaganda in universities was leading them into extremism.
Reported in the Church Times, 8 December 2006. 

Other reported comments following a debate in the Daily Telegraph

“I would hope that councils, parliaments, and other public bodies will no longer feel they have to contort their language to avoid mention of the word ‘Christmas’.  I am certain that there never was a real risk of alienating or marginalising those of other faiths, as was often claimed.” Cardinal Keith O’Brian, head of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland.   “I’ve never met a Christian who isn’t delighted to recognise Yom Kippur, nor Eid, nor Diwali.  Nor have I met a Muslim who denies my right to celebrate the birth of Christ.”
Jack Straw, then leader of the Commons, writing in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph  

“Like the vast majority of people, I’m sick and tired of this sort of mad political correctness that says you can’t put up decorations for Christmas or you can’t call Christmas ‘Christmas’”
John Reid, the then Home Secretary, on GMTV’s Sunday Programme. 

“We are a Sikh family and love Christmas.  My message to Christian leaders is to stop apologising and restore confidence in the church.”
An email printed on the letters page.  

“I have had a number of discussions with Muslims about the way we in Britain seem to want to denounce Christianity.  I can assure you they find it crazy and also quite alarming.”
Another Telegraph reader  

All the above were reported in the Daily Telegraph 9 December 2006 

The Atheist & Secularist Alliance

"There is a worrying trend where illiberal atheists have combined with aggressive secularists to create a ludicrous situation where those who don’t believe in God have decided that a Christian festival is offending other faiths.  The aggressive secularists pervert and abuse any notion of diversity for the sake of promoting a narrow agenda.  Meanwhile, those faith communities who have stated categorically they are not offended by Christmas, know that if Christmas falls, they will be next."
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu quoted in the Observer, 10 December 2006.  

India and the Celebration of Christmas

I work for an Indian company in the Midlands…most of the staff are of Indian origin. Yesterday the Christmas tree and decorations went up in the reception area… and in the departments.  In Indian cities, Christmas trees and lights will celebrate the birth of Jesus.  Christmas Day and Good Friday are national holidays in India.  We will all share Christmas greetings with one another, together with the message of “Peace and goodwill to all”, not “happy holidays”.
Letter in the Daily Telegraph, 7 December 2006  

Mary in the Koran

Following the ban at a Burnley Primary School on the use of the term “Virgin Mary” in its Christmas cards,  Anjum Anwar, who heads Lancashire’s Forum of Faiths, said: “This is absurd and offensive.  The Virgin Mary is covered extensively in a chapter of the Koran and Muslims believe Jesus, praise be upon him, was born from an immaculate conception.  The Virgin Mary is considered a role model.  Muslims don’t want to see Christmas diluted.  The intentions may well be good but it is a Christian festival and should be celebrated accordingly.
Quoted in the local press, 21 December 2007  

Christmas is back in the US shops

Wal-Mart and Macy’s have both announced that its customers would be wished “Merry Christmas” and there would be Christmas-themed window decorations following the outcry at the banning of Christmas greetings and the removal of any specific references to Christmas of previous years.
Reported in the Church of England Newspaper, 24 November 2006    

No room at the card shop?

A survey by the Daily Mail of 5,500 cards in High Street shops, including WH Smith, Clinton Cards and Hallmark, found only 67 with pictures of the Bible story. Traditional nativity scenes appear on only one in 100.  Hundreds avoided any images linked to Christmas at all, including fir trees, baubles, snowmen or Santa Claus and inside many wished either Seasons Greetings, or had no message inside at all.
Reported in the Daily Mail 9 December 2006  
 

The Modern Celebration of Christmas 

The Stamp of approval

Despite the rise in email and texting, Royal Mail say more Christmas stamps are being sold than ever before. Following the secular Santa of 2006 and the expressions of regret from the Church of England and others, Royal Mail have announced they plan to alternate between Christian and secular themes.
Reported in the Church of England Newspaper 10 November 2006  

Presents Galore!

The average child in Britain will open 18 presents on Christmas morning, worth £330 according to a survey by Children’s Mutual, a leading Child Trust Fund provider. 

• Of the presents received, one in 10 will be broken by the New Year, only 40% will make it to March and just a quarter will be intact by next Christmas.
  

• In total around 46 million toys, worth £870m will be thrown away. 
  

Giving to Charity at Christmas

More than a third of those who were planning to donate money to charity last year, said they were planning to do so through a church or other place of worship.  A survey of 1007 adults for World Emergency Relief found that:

• 16% said they would be giving because it was the Christian thing to do at Christmas
• Nearly one-third said they would be giving directly to a church or faith-based charity.
• Around 35% planned to support charities because Christmas is too materialistic and they wanted to help someone less fortunate than themselves.
• People in Wales and the South West were most likely to give through a church collection (44%), and donors aged 65 and over were most likely to give to church or faith-based charities (39%).
  Reported in the Church Times 15 December 2006  
  

What Children think of Christmas

A poll for the BBC children’s TV programme Newsround found that of those surveyed:

• 44% of 7-11 year-olds regarded Christmas day as a celebration of the birth of Jesus - although in Northern Ireland the figure rose to 71%.
• Although 89% were excited, and 79% were happy about the holiday period, one in six said they felt sad, nervous or left out at Christmas.
• Perhaps not so surprisingly, one in four (24%) believed the season was about giving, rather than receiving, presents.
• Giving clearly matters, however, with almost two-thirds (63%) saving their pocket money to buy presents, adding up to an average piggy-bank of £34.  33% nationally and 45% in Scotland managed to save more than £50.

Newsround presenter Ellie Crisell said; ‘Christmas is exciting for children but it can also be stressful.  They worry about their families getting along, about buying the right present and, amid the festivities, feeling alone.’
Reported in the Daily Mail 19 December 2006
 

The Downside of Christmas  

Christmas pressures mean divorce in January

A study has shown that January 8th  is the busiest day of the year for divorce lawyers when up to one in five couples will enquire about divorce after the pressures of Christmas. The enforced intimacy of Christmas, coupled with the start of a new year is thought to be the main trigger. The other peak in the year is after the summer holidays. Adultery, lack of sex, abuse and boredom were the main causes of divorce enquiries. Studies show that fewer than 40% of those who divorce will be happier.
Reported in the Daily Telegraph 8 January 2007  

The cost of Christmas

The average Briton spends around £600 on presents alone at Christmas, much of that going on a credit card or loan.  Around 10,000 people were predicted to end up bankrupt and insolvent in the three months following Christmas due to their spending over Christmas and the New Year.  Recently, record levels of debt and those in serious financial trouble have been registered with 110,000 falling into insolvency in 2006, the first time the figure has topped 100,000.
Reported in the Daily Mail 3 January 2007 
 

• Those taking communion at Christmas was up by 4% to just over 1.2million.
•  There were also increases at parish level, with a third of dioceses across the North and South, in both urban and rural areas, seeing increases of 10% or more in attendance over the 24 hours of Christmas in 1005.
  
• Opinion polls showed that 43% of the population expected to attend a church service of some kind during the Christmas period in 2006 - up from 33% in 2001.

• 80% believed that celebrating the birth of Christ remains an important part of the occasion.
  
• 62% said it made them think of spiritual matters and 79% thought it made them think about what was “important”.
• 89% thought that Christmas is now too commercialised.
• 86% rated spending time with family and friends as the best thing about Christmas with only 7% quoting time off work, 3% food and drink and 2% presents.
• 43% cited financial pressures as the worst thing about Christmas.
  

Websites

www.whychristmas.com – all about Christmas
www.christmasincyberspace.com -  a directory of Christian sites on Christmas and Advent
http://christmas.howstuffworks.com/christmas1.htm - the answers to all the questions about why and how Christmas is celebrated today
www.sermons.org/illusmain - Christmas illustrations, stories and quotes
www.christiananswers.net/hope - an online evangelistic video

Listed by John Allen in Youthwork December 2006