A few years ago I remember a CBC reporter on TV interviewing a new Canadian, a non-Christian I am suspecting, buying her first Christmas tree.
When asked what she thought was the significance of the tree, she innocently wondered if the baby Jesus had been born under a tree. We may want to smile, but with the omnipresent nature of Christmas trees today, even in the chancels of churches, it is not difficult to think that there is some connection between the tree and the birth of Christ.
Actually the tree has pagan roots, as do so many other traditions associated with Christmas and other celebrations. One would have to search hard and long, I suspect, to find any Christian association with the tradition of mummering. (But I must say that in some of the pictures of the Magi they have some fancy costumes and there were children who might have thought they were mummers.) But surely it doesn't matter. It must be worthwhile to have such links to our traditions, even if some of them are pagan.
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