Advent Challenge Day 9

This challenge is now complete, please feel free to browse all of the 

completed tasks via the Advent Challenge tab.

Yesterday I had to watch a Christmas film for the task, and the film I chose to watch was Elf. For those who have not seen this film It is a comedy about a human baby who stows away in Santa's sack and is raised by elves in the North Pole. When Buddy grows up and discovers he is a human he sets off on a quest to New York to meet his real dad.

This film is very funny and the reason I chose to watch it is that I had never seen the film in full. I had once watched part of it on a lunch break a few years ago but had never seen the beginning or the end. I had no other reasoning to watch it and struggled to think on how I could link it to the Advent Challenge except for the fact it was a secular Christmas film.

However near the end of the film Santa's sleigh crashes in New York and Buddy has to fix the engine that makes the sleigh fly in the absence of belief. As Buddy is trying to fix the engine his younger brother Michael tries to bolster belief in Santa by reading out the nice list and what people want for Christmas on the news. When this does not raise enough belief the girl Buddy has fallen for, Jovie (a Gimbles elf) begins to sing as she remembers Buddy saying "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is to sing out loud for all to hear". When they do this and everyone near Central Park and others around New York begin singing there is enough belief and therefore power for the sleigh to fly and Santa to complete his work for the night.

Now this idea at the end of belief was something that I thought would link in very well with what I wanted to say about Christmas today. There are many people out there who celebrate Christmas but who do not believe in Jesus or God. They love the celebrations, the excuses to go out and part, the huge commercialism of the season and most of all people love Christmas gifts. But a lot of people do not celebrate the little child who was born over two thousand years ago who was foretold in the Old Testament, heralded by angles, worshipped by shepherds and wise men and who eventually grew up and gave His life so that we all might have eternal life.

There is a sound bite that has been used in Christian circles for a number of years that says, "Jesus is the reason for the season". It is a short phrase that reminds us why we even have Christmas. Sure there are other cultures and religions that celebrate a festival at mid-winter but who cares, that has no bearing on the Christmas season, it would be just as important at any other time of year. We need to remind people about Jesus and why His birth is the amazing thing that it is. Because of that I have decided that the task for today should be task number 6. Tells someone about the true meaning of Christmas. I think that it is a quite natural follow on from this task given what I feel I gained from completing the watch a Christmas film task. Check back tomorrow to see how I do in telling someone about the true meaning of Christmas. Untill then guys, have a great day, and Merry Christmas.