Tied with ribbon

“My agent says I’m a PR dream: a Muslim who celebrates Christmas”.

Nadiya Hussain, Great British Bake-Off winner, enjoys a big family celebration for her birthday on the 25th December, writes Tony Turnbull in the Times today, but will also find time for a personal Christmas tradition:

“Every year, I always make things like biscotti, florentines or shortbread as gifts. I’ve got a rule that if I can see your front door from my house, you’ll be getting a little bag of chocolate biscuits, biscotti or shortbread, wrapped in cellophane and tied with ribbon. It’s not so much about celebrating Christmas as being mindful that some people don’t have family and friends, perhaps, and want nothing more than a friendly chat.”

Jesus of Nazareth and other big hearted, big minded teachers in every nation and age have shown that it’s little “rules” like Nadiya’s that are the building blocks of the uni-verse, the one-world.

“If I can see your front door” … or any neighbour’s, or a whole street of homes, or a town, village, country, continent, globe – or international space station and beyond: if I can see you – there’ll always and everywhere be something to celebrate. Connection, giftedness, humanity, relatedness – “tied with ribbon”.