I suppose I have to admit that what I am proposing is one of my own obsessions : but I’m not sure that makes it any less appropriate as an act of witness.
Simply : ensure that the only images you make use of on the Christmass cards you buy and send are those of the Nativity of Our Lord.
No robins, or stagecoaches, or churches covered in snow . . . no Christmass trees, or improbably angelic choirboys, or Doves of Peace . . . just Our Lord, and Our Lady, and probably S. Joseph . . . possibly with a Shepherd or two, and various animals about the place; possibly some angels . . . but no Kings, because it’s not appropriate to anticipate the Epiphany.
I’ve bought my Christmass cards on this principle this for years now; and although I have to admit to sending some ‘Virgin & Child’ cards last year which had a couple of other saints on them (alright : S. Dominic and S. Thomas Aquinas), even that’s an image which is at least fairly obviously related to the Incarnation.
- and that’s my point. Christmass is about the Incarnation; the moment when Our Blessed Lord started on the pathway which was destined to lead to our Redemption . . . and yet for so many people there seems to be to very little about Him in any part of their celebrations. At least, if Catholics (and hopefully other Christians too) made a determined effort to boycott any Christmass cards which did not show the Incarnation, we would be doing a little something to remind people just what it’s really all about . . . which would, in its own little way, be another act of witness.
(And yes, I know that I’ve spelt Christmass in the antique way : but I’m just trying to remind you that it’s Christ’s Mass that we’re talking about, and not just any old occasion . . . because to listen to people nowadays, you’d think that there was a significant spelling mistake in the Bible, and that what was actually written about it was ‘And out of the people shall come forth a great profit’ !)
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