Christmas in America: One surprise gift was a Melbourne video produced by the North American Aerospace Defense Command Santa Tracking Project.

For me Christmas spreads across two days as Christmas day starts 19 hours earlier for my friends and family in Australia with messages and calls. May I wish all of you the joys of Christmas with the love of family and the laughter of good friends.

Here in San Francisco, Christmas decorations across public buildings, commercial enterprises and houses help to deliver Christmas cheer. Near our office, more than 17,000 lights trace the Embarcadero Center's towers. Union Street is delightful as are many precincts in the suburbs and surrounds. Most people know the Union Square Christmas tree donated by Macy's. This year it is said to be 80 feet high and it is very beautiful. This photo was taken on my ipad at night.

One Christmas Eve surprise was a Melbourne video produced by the North American Aerospace Defense Command Santa Tracking Project. It looks like our Melbourne messages have got through to the High Command. Have a look at this charming 46 second video:



President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama delivered a very nice Christmas message with a special tribute to the troops abroad and their families.

• THE PRESIDENT: Hi everyone. As you gather with family and friends this weekend, Michelle, Malia, Sasha and I – and of course Bo – want to wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.
• THE FIRST LADY: This is such a wonderful time of year. It’s a time to honor the story of love and redemption that began 2,000 years ago … a time to see the world through a child’s eyes and rediscover the magic all around us … and a time to give thanks for the gifts that bless us every single day.
  

The Queen of Australia, Queen Elizabeth, spoke of her experiences in Australia. "We've seen that it's in hardship that we often find strength from our families; it's in adversity that new friendships are sometimes formed; and it's in a crisis that communities break down barriers and bind together to help one another. Families, friends and communities often find a source of courage rising up from within. Indeed, sadly, it seems that it is tragedy that often draws out the most and the best from the human spirit. When Prince Philip and I visited Australia this year, we saw for ourselves the effects of natural disaster in some of the areas devastated by floods, where in January so many people lost their lives and their livelihoods. We were moved by the way families and local communities held together to support each other. Prince William travelled to New Zealand and Australia in the aftermath of earthquakes, cyclones and floods and saw how communities rose up to rescue the injured, comfort the bereaved and rebuild the cities and towns devastated by nature. "

The Australian Prime Minister's Christmas Message was short and light and reminded us to"express a particular Christmas wish to all those who have to work today to take care of us..."



As appropriate, the Pope's message and midnight mass homily received a lot of coverage on American television. For me the most interesting part were his comments on returning to simplicity using the example of the Mass celebrated by St Francis of Assisi. "Today Christmas has become a commercial celebration, whose bright lights hide the mystery of God’s humility, which in turn calls us to humility and simplicity. Let us ask the Lord to help us see through the superficial glitter of this season, and to discover behind it the child in the stable in Bethlehem, so as to find true joy and true light. Francis arranged for Mass to be celebrated on the manger that stood between the ox and the ass (cf. 1 Celano 85; Fonti 469). Later, an altar was built over this manger, so that where animals had once fed on hay, men could now receive the flesh of the spotless lamb Jesus Christ, for the salvation of soul and body, as Thomas of Celano tells us (cf. 1 Celano 87; Fonti 471). Francis himself, as a deacon, had sung the Christmas Gospel on the holy night in Greccio with resounding voice. Through the friars’ radiant Christmas singing, the whole celebration seemed to be a great outburst of joy (1 Celano 85.86; Fonti 469, 470). It was the encounter with God’s humility that caused this joy – his goodness creates the true feast. Today, anyone wishing to enter the Church of Jesus’ Nativity in Bethlehem will find that the doorway five and a half metres high, through which emperors and caliphs used to enter the building, is now largely walled up. Only a low opening of one and a half metres has remained. The intention was probably to provide the church with better protection from attack, but above all to prevent people from entering God’s house on horseback. Anyone wishing to enter the place of Jesus’ birth has to bend down. It seems to me that a deeper truth is revealed here, which should touch our hearts on this holy night: if we want to find the God who appeared as a child, then we must dismount from the high horse of our “enlightened” reason. We must set aside our false certainties, our intellectual pride, which prevents us from recognizing God’s closeness. We must follow the interior path of Saint Francis – the path leading to that ultimate outward and inward simplicity which enables the heart to see. We must bend down, spiritually we must as it were go on foot, in order to pass through the portal of faith and encounter the God who is so different from our prejudices and opinions – the God who conceals himself in the humility of a newborn baby. In this spirit let us celebrate the liturgy of the holy night, let us strip away our fixation on what is material, on what can be measured and grasped. Let us allow ourselves to be made simple by the God who reveals himself to the simple of heart."