23 December

Christmas is sometimes described as being too materialistic. But gift-giving is a fundamental character in the Christian story. In fact the whole Christmas story is about materialism, about not just gifts, but about the material embodiment of God, in human form. Jesus. Michael Tournier, the late French novelist, made the beautiful observation that the world would be a far happier place if we focused on our material well-being, and ditched all of the horrible idealisms which cause our fights and wars. Most of the world would love the luxury of being able to feign disdain for material goods.