I’m a traditionalist. I put my Christmas decorations up on Christmas Eve whilst listening to 9 Lessons and Carols from King’s College Cambridge. It always begins with a solo from Once in Royal David’s City. I have a strong memory as a teenager being driven by my dad as we listened to the service on the car radio. British Christmases tend to be grey, bleak and dank –  we don’t do white Christmases as a rule but the sound of old religion on the radio brings something of light, peace and the majesty of Christmas. You know that Christmas has arrived and that there is no turning back, the whole world is caught up in its bright clear light in the darkness, in the voices of billions around the globe singing in praise of the Lord Jesus. I have set the commercial aspects to one side here, but do let Father Christmas through, I could do with another whisky!

The photograph shows the tiny Nativity that I put out this afternoon and which I shall take down on the twelfth night before the end of Christmas. The giving of presents has both spiritual and commercial elements – and yes, I do give presents but I could genuinely walk away from the whole shebang. Give me a good meal, the company of joyful friends, a gentle toast to the Christ Child and the sparkle of a light on a Christmas bauble and I am more than happy.

This year, I travelled to Assisi and discovered that it was St Francis back in the thirteenth century who first created the Nativity as a tableau that is now known around the world.

For those who are unfamiliar with Assisi, it is a hilltown in the centre of Italy where St Francis was born and died and where his mortal remains are held. I had been keen for decades to go there to walk in the footsteps of a man who wanted to bend us towards the simple life so that we might engage with the poorest amongst us. He was controversial, an extremist in many ways, a driven man whose life seems to have touched on insanity at certain points, but his call still echoes down the centuries.  Hundreds, even thousands come to the Basilica in Assisi, his final resting place – to stand in awe of a man who died 7 centuries ago but who is still revered today, that is Francis.

Personally, I was disappointed by Assisi. There are so many tourists like me and pilgrims too that it is just overcrowded, not only that but the crypt where Francis is buried has two massive churches built one on top of the other. No, it’s not for me all that veneration, but I did get to see what is considered to be Francis’s robe – very plain and rough, torn at the hems and stained at certain points. To me, it seems authentic, oh to touch the hem of his garment and have my cynical twenty first century soul healed!

In our world today, there is much uncertainty and we hear people in leadership roles either lying or simply not telling the whole story as if we are all a bunch of idiots or losers. St Francis was part of what we used to call an analogue world where people met one to one, where argument was based on reason and facts, and that those who led had an actual plan! Francis was a faithful, devout and principled man even if you don’t subscribe to the principles he espoused.

This Christmas let us be strong in defence of the weak and the vulnerable, be true to ourselves and search out the light of God within those around us and let us praise God. I wish you all a very peaceful and blessed Christmas.

This is a song from the 1980’s. San Damiano is the church very close to Assisi that Francis restored having received the message, ‘Rebuild my church!’