The President of The Methodist Conference Rev Graham Carter recently noted in his Christmas message that efforts to replace Christmas with non-religious holiday events are either seeking "to enforce a kind of sameness or are afraid of religion".

He added that fears about Christmas offending people of other faiths are misplaced.

"Genuinely religious people of all faiths are happy about celebrating Christmas, seeing it not as divisive but enriching the field of faith.

"Over the centuries, Christianity has shown a remarkable ability to use existing festivals and imbue them with deeper meaning. The Church took over a Roman celebration to celebrate the birth of Christ in mid-winter, and in Britain we still use the pagan name for Easter. Now that some people want to go back and de-Christianise Christmas, to secularise it or re-institute pagan ceremonies, we ought to be more particular about making sure ours is a truly Christian celebration."

The Methodist President says the good news of Christmas is that "ordinary people are counted special" in God's eyes.

"Well-being and good life do not depend on status or wealth or possessions. This means all of human life is valuable and the charitable acts so popular at Christmas are not just out of the kindness of people's hearts, but express the reality of how things are supposed to be.

"Winterval and Winterfest give rise to selfish indulgence. Christmas celebrates the good life for all."