Christmas is pretty ridiculous, when you think about it. The season brings out all kinds of things in people; lots of spending and eating and decorating and card-writing and many acts of generosity and kindness. All because it’s December? Or because it taps into our childhood memories and imaginations?

The grown men who are working on our house put a huge Father Christmas in the window even though the freezing conditions must have made work a bit less comfortable that day.

In Bath, I’d guess that close to 2,500 University students attended Christmas carol services this December.

Neighbours that we don’t know have invited us into their home for drinks.

As an experiment, I left a piece of sequined cloth on a table in the chaplaincy centre during Advent with a little note suggesting that people could use their fingers to draw or write a prayer on it. (If you haven’t come across this material on a cushion before, it is made up of tiny two-sided discs that can be pushed in different directions to create a simple image.)

I wasn’t sure that anyone would use it and had concluded that, although festively sparkling, it was probably too childish and illogical to appeal to people in a University setting. That was until I popped in when the Vegetarian Society were using the building and saw them beautifully and painstakingly creating a map of the world on the material. A prayer for peace.

Just a few days before, I joined some students who are part of a group called Just Love. They were sharing about some things that they had been involved in this term. Quite a few of them had been to training to become ‘dementia friendly’. In fact it was so good, that some of their friends wanted to take part so they ran the training again. They’d also spent a week ‘living below the poverty line’ spending a total of £5 for their food for the week and raising a substantial amount of money for those in need.

Ridiculous, isn’t it? Young adults taking time out of their studies to learn how to best relate to those with dementia? People choosing to live a life of poverty for a week?

I watched a fascinating performance last week (available on the iPlayer for those of you who have access to the BBC) of children doing a nativity play. The only difference was that this play took place in actual Bethlehem near the Israeli West Bank barrier underneath sniper watchtowers. Called ‘Alternativity’, it was the location that made the story especially poignant and the addition of artificial snow that showed what silly sentimentality we sometimes add to the simple story.

But the story itself is ridiculous and no amount of sugary carols or nostalgic cards can really disguise the ludicrous love of God for humanity, shown in a baby born in a barn. So I wish you a Christmas of ridiculous love and hope that the new year will bring us even more opportunity to explore what that means.