Daily Mail, December 24 2001

This is a Christmas of special significance. It is a Christmas of affirmation and defiance. For the western values it celebrates are under siege, both from within and from without.

From outside, they are menaced by the horrifying threat of terrorism, whether carried by boat across the Channel or on a plane from Paris to Miami. From inside, they are being undermined by the relentless assault on Christianity, family and nation.

Outside, the world is disfigured by hatred and suffering, violence and intolerance. But ultimately, what everyone most deeply desires is the same from Godalming to Gaza — love, companionship and the safe and secure upbringing of their children. Home and family are our havens in a heartless world, and Christmas restates their importance in a way that reaches out to everyone.

The Victorians understood this very well; which is why they made so much of Christmas. For just like us, the Victorians were deeply troubled by an age in which old certainties had vanished and where public ethics appeared to have been replaced by greed, rapacity and squalor. Home and the deep peace of the family were thus sanctified as the refuge from and antidote to a threatening public world.

Unfortunately for us, that refuge has been progressively undermined. Family life is increasingly fractured. Christmas indeed can be an ordeal, particularly for fragmented families where children are exchanged between households like the very packages under the tree.

But the enormous efforts made by such families to put rancour aside and to be together for this day at least testifies to the yearning everyone has for the togetherness of family life and to the importance of making contact, however painful or poignant.

Yet at a time when communication has never been easier, making emotional contact is becoming harder. More and more are living solitary lives as relationships founder. Most people possess a mobile phone, yet few families still eat together round a dining table. Millions tap out daily messages into the electronic ether, but have less and less time to spend talking or listening to their loved ones.

Moreover, having allowed Sundays to be all but washed away beneath the tide of consumerism, we have unbalanced our lives. It’s important for our emotional and spiritual health regularly to mark a distinction between materialism and the deeper values of life.

Christianity, Judaism and Islam all set great store by the weekly day of rest, through which people acknowledge that everyday concerns are not the be-all and end-all of existence.

That’s why it’s so regrettable that more and more shops are opening on Christmas day itself. For the whole point of Christmas is that a line is drawn under the world of everyday.

For a brief period, the country has a common purpose. Most people will be doing much the same thing: being woken at four in the morning by hyper-excited children, giving and receiving presents, eating and drinking to excess, dozing in a stupor in front of the telly.

It is a day in a bubble, when vanishing values are rediscovered. For many, the carols and nativity story are their sole yearly contact with Christianity. People resurrect their social conscience by bringing Christmas lunch to the lonely or destitute.

Even the BBC briefly remembers its purpose as a great cultural unifier. Instead of its usual fare of tacky, talentless turn-offs, for a short interlude we get treated to films we actually want to watch, quality arts programmes and classic comedy.

Above all, it is meant to be a day of enjoyment through eating and drinking, which is why the Puritans tried to abolish it. As George Orwell wrote, the whole experience of Christmas, including the repentance afterwards, makes a break in one’s mental routine comparable to a weekend abroad.

Yet it is fashionable to denigrate Christmas. The high priests of our culture of negativity complain that Christmas is a pain or a bore. It is said to be too commercialised and that the religious element has been lost altogether. Yet at the same time it is said that the Christian story it commemorates is irrelevant or insulting in our multi-cultural society.

To all of which one feels like saying, oh do just put a sock in it (or possibly a whole Christmas stocking).

Yes, the climate of ’shop till you drop’ at Christmas is preposterous. But like it or not, we are a consumer culture and we express ourselves through what we buy. So buying presents for other people is an expression of love and friendship.

The Church of England threw a bit of a tantrum when Marks and Spencer asked celebrities to sum up what Christmas meant and none of them mentioned religion. But what does the church expect when it spends most of the year trying its hardest not to mention God and behaving instead like a bunch of superannuated social workers?

The secularism before which the church is on its knees is much over-stated. Even among those who profess no religion, there is very often a yearning for spirituality, for comfort and reassurance that there is point to existence, a feeling accentuated in times of crisis such as after the terrible events of September 11.

The fact is that Christmas does still have a religious meaning for most people. Despite the influence of secularism, the United Kingdom is still recognisably Christian.

Three quarters of those questioned in a recent poll identified themselves as such. Britain is not a multi-cultural country, and it is only fitting that Christmas should be its national festival.

Far from minorities being offended, they should acknowledge that the institutions and values which make Britain so desirable to live in are rooted in Christianity.

The symbol of that is the monarchy; which is why the Queen broadcasts to the nation in the middle of Christmas afternoon. It doesn’t matter that people fall asleep during her little homily or even switch channels. The broadcast reaffirms the unity of the nation, at a time when the very idea of nation and all the values that it embodies are under threat.

Other institutions which unify the country, such as Parliament, the health service or the BBC, are in decline. Multi-culturalism is driving people apart by destroying our attachment to the nation’s past. Fashionable historians tell us that Britain is an artificial construction and that its values are to be despised.

And the ideal of home, the aspiration of millions of people for stability and orderliness and for the ties of trust and loyalty that bind us to each other, has been under assault from family-wreckers for decades.

All this adds up to a profound sickness of the west which its enemies are intent on exploiting.

So let us show that we are not faint-hearted. It’s time to enjoy ourselves, to be convivial and hospitable, to unwind and gather strength and replenishment for the many challenges ahead. Happy Christmas.