A serum that strengthens souls from a famous carol...

The gifts are cumulative over the course of the 12 days, so the true love sends 364 of them. In total, the singer gets 12 partridges, 22 turtle doves, 30 French hens, 36 calling birds, 40 gold rings, 42 geese, 42 swans, 40 maids, 36 ladies, 30 lords, 22 pipers, and 12 drummers. But what’s the best gift you could give, this Christmas? I’ve thought this through …

First of all, the poultry would go to the local butcher who also manages his family farm, and I’d take the swans to the boating lake. They’d all fly away together, along with the 36 calling birds. The lords, the ladies, the pipers, and the drummers I’d drop at the railway station so they could make their way back to the sender. Along with a thank you note for the 40 gold rings that I got a good price for.

This set me wondering what the best Christmas gift could really be. What would bless people most of all? Something that would last for ever, even though it might need topping up from time to time? I’d like to put drops of the essence of the sentiment in one line of the carol, ‘O Holy Night’ into tiny scent bottles, and send one to everyone I know. I’d put an extra amount in the ones for those over sixty.

It’s the fragrance from the words in the last line,

‘O Holy night! The stars are brightly shining
It is the night of our dear Savior's birth
Long lay the world in sin and error pining
‘Til He appeared and the soul felt its worth …’

‘Til He appeared, and the soul felt its worth.’ When I first saw it, I was so struck by the words I couldn’t move on. As a counsellor, I know that what really messes up people’s lives is the deep-seated belief that they are worthless; a belief ground into them by terrible backgrounds with trauma like bullying at school or the emotional abandonment of uncaring parents. With older people it’s often the accumulated drip-feed of a lifetime absorbing ageism.

Of course, I can’t distil the words and bottle them, but I can recommend something that will have the same effect. Going through the three sessions of the Christmas edition of our Brain and Soul Boosting (BSB) helps them relate to you and others in ways that reflects their value. It’s just three sessions that follow the arc of the Christmas story. This can be done with a small group, say, just two of you, or a family or church group. A you need is a well-lit, warm room, a table to sit around, pens and paper, materials for handiwork, some Christmas cards to write to others, and time to be unhurried so you can enjoy the session (usually an hour).

The Christmas BSB invites them to share their thoughts and their memories and affirms their values. (It’s actually a psychosocial intervention to lift well-being, but you don’t need to mention that!) We have feedback from pastoral leaders and others saying how participants love the sessions. Group leaders in Northampton have been running the general BSB’s for over 12 years. You can download it, free of charge, HERE.

Presbyterian pastor Kenneth Kovacs writes in a blog that ‘this phrase, indeed this entire carol, offers a message, an understanding of Christ’s nativity not found in other Christmas carols. ‘Jesus’ birth demonstrates definitively for the world that the soul has found its worth, that with ‘His birth the soul felt, knew, acknowledged, accepted its worth, its value. …’ He adds, ‘But I know too many Christians who never heard this message, never heard this Gospel word, who never heard from a pulpit or learned in Sunday School or experienced in their churchgoing one’s inherent worth and value as children of God.’

That’s why older people need an extra drop, because much church teaching in their day was only about their sinfulness and need of Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross. It’s absolutely true, of course, but they didn’t hear enough about God’s love. I’ve been in a service where the preacher’s closing sentence was, ‘God is angry with you.’ But this Christmas time, you can reinforce the worth of your precious older friends and family with our Christmas Brain and Soul Boosting Workbook.

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