Why are there so many family reunions on Christmas Day?

       Many of our social and domestic customs are a natural recognition of the new order which the Babe of Bethlehem introduced into the world. There can surely be nothing worthy the name of a Christian celebration of the feast if it be not associated with the clearing off of old scores, the payment-as far as possible of our just debts, the forgiving of debtors who through honest poverty are unable to pay, and the laying aside of old grudges and quarrels. Yet it is to be feared that some of us have not quite outgrown the need of that lesson which Dickens taught in the immortal Christmas Carol of 1843. 

• The "change of heart" from A Christmas Carol Live...

       Then our family reunions tell very eloquently of the revelation of human brotherhood by Him who

"showed us the Father", and contracted a fraternal relationship with the whole human race. 

• John 14:8-21 and video demonstrating teachings of Christ that illustrate the family of God.

       And we feel, too, that Christmas is peculiarly the Christmas Lore Children's Day. One of our most genial humorists from the Victorian era has touched a true chord when, personifying the day as usual, he says: 

"Christmas comes, he comes, he comes, 

Ushered in with a rain of plums; 

Hollies in the windows greet him, 

Schools come driving post to meet him, 

Gifts precede him, bells proclaim him, 

Every voice delights to name him. 

"Curtains, those snug room-enfolders 

Hang upon his million shoulders; 

And he has a million eyes 

Of fire, and eats a million pies, 

And is very merry and wise- 

Very wise and very merry, 

And loves a kiss beneath the berry.

 "And he would have us, one and all, 

Awake at his benignant call, 

And all be wise, and all lay down 

Strife, and jealousy, and frown, 

And, like the sons of one great mother, 

Share and be blest with one another."