Let It Slow: An Advent Calendar with a Difference
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About this ebook
Stephen Cottrell
Stephen Cottrell is the Bishop of Reading in the Church of England. He has written or contributed to Reflections for Daily Prayer, the Emmaus discipleship course, Traveling Well, and Praying Through Life.
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Let It Slow - Stephen Cottrell
1 December
Groan. It’s the first day of December. I’ve got about a hundred Christmas cards to write (and several ghastly round robin letters to read). The kids are opening their chocolate Advent calendars and I’ve just got this poxy book. What’s this all about?
The four stages of Christmas are:
1. You believe in Father Christmas.
2. You don’t believe in Father Christmas.
3. You are Father Christmas.
4. You look like Father Christmas.
I think I’m between stages three and four. I give a lot of presents. I’m getting older. I remember the magic of believing in Father Christmas – of waking up on Christmas morning with presents at the foot of my bed. I remember the sober realities of not believing, of horizons narrowing to what is before me.
And now with Christmas just around the corner (and all those cards still to write), I’m surrounded by escalating busyness and can feel my stress level starting to rise. ‘Is there something else to believe in?’ is the question so many people are asking. I think the answer is yes, but there is lots of sorting out to do along the way.
• Write a Christmas wish list – not things you want to consume or purchase, but things to believe in, things to hope for.
• Prune your Christmas card list.
• At least make sure you buy charity cards.
• Don’t write ’Must see you this year’ on your cards unless you actually mean it. And if you don’t mean it, why are you sending this card at all?
• Help save the planet by sending email cards, and include a note about which charity the money saved has been donated to.
• And with all the time you’ve saved, put your feet up for an hour!
Why is Christmas like a day at the office? You do all the work and the fat guy with the suit gets all the credit.
OGDEN NASH
2 December
Twenty-three shopping days to go. And all the family coming to stay. And all expecting a present. Where am I going to find the time, let alone the money?
It has been said that Christmas begins sometime around the first of December with an office party and ends when you finally realize what you spent – on 5 April the next year. It is certainly the great consumer festival. Tills bleep and hum in a feeding frenzy of spending, and shops that are usually lean and quiet spring into action hoping that a fat December will keep them going for the rest of the year, though most of us shop online nowadays, so even the high street get