Today’s reading is one of the Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus. Our reader today is from Year 7, one of the youngest members of the school community.

Today’s reading is from War Game by Michael Foreman. It is a moving and compelling story that takes four friends from the fields of Suffolk, to France in the midst of the First World War. Faced with the enemy and the appalling conditions in the trenches, their excitement and enthusiasm for the cause begins to fail. Then, one Christmas Day, an extraordinary thing happens. One by one, soldiers from both sides cautiously emerge from their trenches. For a few hours they put aside the war that has made them enemies, and play an historic game of football in No Man’s Land.

Today’s reading is Christmas Presents by Eric James. The young narrator of this poem is critical of the way adults give and receive presents at Christmas, and rightly so!

Today’s reading is from The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. Eleven year old Will Stanton, a seventh son of a seventh son, learns that he is an Old One, destined to wield the powers of The Light in an ancient struggle with The Dark. For the Stanton children the days before Christmas are full of excitement and anticipation, but outside, the forces of evilare gathering …

Today’s reading is from The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding by Agatha Christie. The Christmas dinner is almost finished and Peverall the old retainer staggers in with the enormous pudding. But Poirot has been forewarned. Is this magnificent dessert about to threaten the wellbeing of the famous Belgian detective?

Today’s reading comes from A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas. The narrator recalls a humorous but potentially catastrophic domestic drama from a child’s point of view. The Librarians particularly applaud Mrs Protheroe’s practical suggestion to the firemen. She is a woman after our own hearts! 

Today’s reading is taken from The Diary of a Nobody by George and Weedon Grossmith. This diary extract, like yesterday’s, is full of irony about which the protagonist is completely unaware.  Yet the diary writer is at heart a decent soul for whom the reader feels great affection.

Today’s reading is from The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole aged  13 ^3/4 by Sue Townsend.  Adrian is one of life’s losers but he himself is a gentle character who is always willing to see the best in people. The disasters of this Christmas celebration may be exaggerated but then again, they may not.

Today’s reading is Ballad of the Breadman by Charles Causley, a Cornish poet and writer. His work appears to be simple, direct and accessible to the reader. Causley’s poems frequently show the influence of Christianity and many are set in his native Cornwall. This poem tells the story of the birth, life and death of Jesus, but placed in a modern setting.

Today’s reading is from A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It seems as if no Christmas celebration would be complete without some reference to this book. We owe many of our notions of just what Christmas should be like to Dickens who was instrumental in restoring Christmas to being a time of celebration. He used this story of redemption partly to show to his fellow Victorians the desperate state of the poor.

There have been many film versions of this story, too many to mention.  In our family it has become a tradition to watch our favourite – the Muppet Christmas Carol and, for us, Tiny Tim will forever be a small green frog…