The John Lennon Collection CD is playing softly this Crimbo morning - it'll be playing loudly later on this Christmas Day! cf
Reclaiming the Story of Christmas
Do we stand with the powerful and the haters, or with those seeking refuge from threats and war?
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It’s been one year since Donald Trump’s hate-filled Christmas rant. On the day of good cheer, he threatened Panama, Greenland, and Canada — then signed off by telling us all to go to hell.
The debased behaviour of the President should have had the American political and media establishment rise up in indignation for such an abuse of the tradition of a president’s Christmas message. Instead, there were crickets.
The silence said more about the United States coming into 2025 than it did about Donald Trump. It set the tone for a dark and dangerous year.
And perhaps because we have come through such a hard year, this Christmas is feeling different. For the first time in a long time, people are thinking of Christmas as something more than a massive push to buy and consume.
In 2025 we witnessed the horrific wars in Gaza and Ukraine. There was a seemingly endless march of hate across Europe and the United States against refugees and the vulnerable.
But it was also a year of incredible resistance and solidarity. And now, as we gather with loved ones, is it possible that the story of that first Christmas is coming into view with more clarity?
I was thinking about this as I saw the anger of MAGA officials over churches in the United States showing the baby Jesus with zip-tied hands and the holy family threatened not by Herod’s men but by ICE.
A similar anger was displayed by the Israeli government when it sent its army into Bethlehem last Christmas Day in response to the church that featured a Palestinian baby in a bombed-out creche.
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The real story of Christmas is of a poor refugee family on the run from state violence.
In that story, the most powerful man in the land was frightened by the prospect of a helpless child in a stable. It is incredible that two thousand years later, the child in the creche still has the power to challenge the most powerful.
This is not a question of whether one comes from the tradition or is a believer. It is about reclaiming a story that has universal significance.
This is something Billy Bragg totally gets. He is not the kind of guy I would expect to be singing a song called Put the Christ Back in Christmas but it is a powerful challenge to the extremist groups who are invoking Christianity as a reason to hate newcomers.
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What John Lennon did for the Christmas canon during the Vietnam War, Billy Bragg does in this age of monsters.
In haste to vilify you forget
Christ was a refugee
King Herod’s murderous orders caused
His family to flee
Into the land of Egypt
Where their safety did lie
Would you refuse to let him in
And send him back to die?
This year especially, the Christmas story challenges us to consider whether we stand with the powerful and the haters, or with those seeking refuge from threats and war.
I know which side I’m on.
Merry Christmas, fellow resisters. Look out for each other. We are kicking at the darkness. It will bleed daylight.
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