Narnia: Always Winter, Never Christmas Series

There’s the Grinch… that familiar villain of Christmas. That was one of my favourite shows as a kid. Hey, what am I saying? It’s still one of my favourites! Who here has ever seen “How the Grinch stole Christmas”? Sure, just about everyone!

Well then, you know that this Grinch hated Christmas, and so he decided he would ruin it for everyone. He thought if he stole all the toys and all the decorations and all the Christmas goodies, that Christmas would disappear. He’s a mean one, that Mr. Grinch. Here… sing the song with me…

You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch. You really are a heel.

You’re as cuddly as a cactus, You’re as charming as an eel.

Mr. Grinch.

You’re a bad banana with a greasy black peel.

You’re a monster, Mr. Grinch. Your heart’s an empty hole.

Your brain is full of spiders, You’ve got garlic in your soul.

Mr. Grinch.

I wouldn’t touch you, with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

You’re a vile one, Mr. Grinch. You have termites in your smile.

You have all the tender sweetness of a seasick crocodile.

Mr. Grinch.

Given the choice between the two of you I’d take the seasick crocodile.

You’re a foul one, Mr. Grinch. You’re a nasty, wasty skunk.

Your heart is full of unwashed socks, Your soul is full of gunk.

Mr. Grinch.

The three words that best describe you, are, and I quote: "Stink. Stank. Stunk."

You’re a rotter, Mr. Grinch. You’re the king of sinful sots.

Your heart’s a dead tomato splot With moldy purple spots,

Mr. Grinch.

Your soul is an appalling dump heap overflowing

with the most disgraceful assortment of deplorable rubbish imaginable,

Mangled up in tangled up knots.

You nauseate me, Mr. Grinch. With a nauseaus super-naus.

You’re a crooked jerky jockey And you drive a crooked horse.

Mr. Grinch.

You’re a three decker saurkraut and toadstool sandwich With arsenic sauce.

Copyright © 1957, Dr. Seuss.

That Dr. Seuss sure had a way with words, eh? Of course, the Grinch’s plan to steal Christmas didn’t quite work and he didn’t ruin Christmas and Christmas went on despite all his efforts. But what if he had succeeded? What if someone could really steal Christmas?

Last week, we began our series on “Finding God in Narnia.” And we talked briefly about how in “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” there are four siblings who all wind up in another land… the Land of Narnia. Narnia, of course, is populated by all sorts of talking animals and other kinds of mythical and mystical creatures… everything except humans. And at the time the children enter Narnia, they discover the land is under the rule of the White Witch, Jadis, and she has placed a curse on the land. This is how Lucy described the curse to her brothers and sister…

“She has made an enchantment over the whole country so that it is always winter here and never Christmas.”

~ Lucy, to her siblings in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

You can understand the “always winter” part, can’t you? Here in PEI it certainly seems like that sometimes. Our winters last a looooong time, but at least there’s Christmas. Christmas almost makes winter worth having.

Well, in Narnia, this White Witch had been reigning for one hundred years, and during that entire time Narnia was a land where it was always winter but never Christmas. It was a bleak, cold, and gray land. The White Witch was the Grinch… she had indeed stolen Christmas.

So that got me to thinking… what if it really were always winter, never Christmas? How would things be different? Let me give you four ways. The first one’s mot all that important, the next two are a bit more significant, and the fourth one is crucial for every person everywhere. Okay? Now, the first is pretty obvious…

What if that first Christmas had never happened?

1. Our Christmas traditions would not exist.

What would that mean for us? Well, think about it…

• December 25 would just be another day on the calendar.

• Students would have no December break from school.

• There’d be no family gatherings for the holidays, no carols to sing, no gifts to give.

• There’d be no market for artificial trees or strings of lights.

• No decorations.

• Our economy would grind to a halt.

• There’d be no first-telling, let alone retellings, of Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol”.

• There’d be no annual airings of “The Sound of Music,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” or Charlie Brown Christmas specials.

• No Santa Claus… no elves at the North Pole.

• No Dasher! no, Dancer! No Prancer or Vixen!

• No, Comet! No Cupid! No Donder nor Blitzen!

• There’d certainly be no Rudolph.