A Christmas message from the Dean of Wakefield, The Very Rev Simon Cowling

Christmas is upon us, with its attendant anxiety about ensuring we have completed our Christmas gift shopping (and our anxiety that people will like what we have bought!).

The origins of present giving at Christmas - and indeed the tradition of Father Christmas himself - are closely related to a saint whom we remembered earlier in December.

St Nicholas’s Day falls on December 6, and he is especially popular in Holland and Germany.

In Dutch his name is Sinterklaas, from which you can easily deduce where we get the name Santa Claus.

Nicholas was a bishop nearly seventeen hundred years ago in what is now Turkey. Not much is known about him, but after he died a story grew up that he had saved three girls who came from a very poor family.

They were heading for a precarious life full of danger, but Nicholas secretly dropped sacks of gold into their house on successive nights so that their father would have enough money for a dowry.

There is, of course, a direct link here with a much-loved Christmas tradition involving chimneys with which we are all familiar.

But I won’t spell it out here for the sake of our younger readers!

Christmas Day falls just after the shortest day of the year, and even on the brightest winter day it’s beginning to get dark by the middle of the afternoon.

Artificial lighting doesn’t always alleviate the prevailing feeling of gloom despite the Christmas street decorations and shop displays in our city and centres.

That’s what makes the annual gatherings of family and friends at this time of year so important.

Christmas is also a good time to give thanks for the many ties that bind us together both as individuals and communities across our wonderful city and district.

But not everyone has family or friends to share festivities with.

That’s why it is important to remember that there are many, some of whom will be known to us, who are in great need in all our neighbourhoods.

This Christmas we could do worse than follow the example of St Nicholas by seeking out those who need our help, practical or emotional: someone we know who has fallen on hard times, perhaps; someone who is lonely or who has lost a loved one; someone who is struggling with chronic illness.

Providing such practical or emotional help will not only brighten up their lives, but it will also make ours seem a lot less gloomy too and make our city and district a beacon of light in challenging times.

May God bless you and your families this Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the light of the world.