On-line Christmas 2011

This page is taken, with permission, from the
LIBRARIANS’ CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP E-NEWSLETTER, No. 43, Copyright Librarians' Christian Fellowship, December 2011.
 

ON-LINE CHRISTMAS
What percentage of the population agrees or disagrees with the statement “Christmas should be re-named to reflect our multi-cultural society?” (Daily Mail survey carried out in 2010) How many out of a sample of five thousand three hundred and sixty three Christmas cards examined in major supermarkets had religious themes? How much per head do British residents expect to spend on Christmas in 2011? What percentage of the population expects to have to borrow money to pay for their Christmas presents this year?

No doubt answers to the above questions can be found in a variety of published and on-line sources. However, for a handy summary of Christmas Quotes, Surveys and Statistics, visit the resources pages of the Evangelical Alliance at http://www.eauk.org/resources/info

I have been carrying out some work for the Alliance's Information Department over the past few weeks and have been helping to update some of the information contained on their Christmas web pages. I am told that these pages are especially popular with preachers and ministers seeking relevant facts and figures for their Christmas sermons.

The Evangelical Alliance is also sponsoring Natwivity, the Christmas story told on Facebook and Twitter, for the second year running. 10,000 followers were reported to have signed up ahead of the launch on 1 December 2011.

Natwivity tells the Christmas story in an up-to-date format for the digital age. Followers can catch up with the story as it unfolds through tweeted comments and hear the thoughts of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, and other characters in the story. You can follow Natwivity at @natwivity, or www.facebook.com/natwivity

Ship of Fools, the Christian satirical web site, have also launched their own interactive version of the Nativity story on the best known social networking sites.  Although Roll on Christmas has a serious purpose it is said to owe as much to the Marx Brothers as it does to St. Matthew's Gospel and the project was recently launched in London by the stand-up comedian (and Christian) Milton Jones. For information on how this unconventional version of the Christmas story works, plus links to the relevant Facebook and Twitter pages, visit the Ship of Fools site at http://www.ship-of-fools.com and click on  Gold, Frankincense ... and Toilet Rolls.

The Bible Society are the co-sponsors of Roll on Christmas but are also providing on-line access to more familiar versions of the Nativity story on their Christmas Unwrapped web pages at http://www.christmasunwrapped.org.uk which provide the full texts of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ as recorded in the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke.

For a wide range of articles on Christmas past and present, covering both sacred and secular aspects of the festival, visit the Christmas Archives at http://www.christmasarchives.org. Articles included on this entertaining and informative web site cover such diverse topics as Jane Austen's Christmas, Polish Christmas Carols and Customs, the Chronological History of the Christmas Tree, and the Holy Family in Egypt.