While the Pope may have a vested interest in attempting to validate the historical accuracy of the stories of Jesus' birth, I think we misunderstand their intent by doing so.

If we are honest with ourselves, if given a choice between good news and bad news, we would want to hear the good news, but only if there is bad news to go with it.

My thoughts turn to God, who chose to live as a human being, beginning as a baby. God did not merely appear human or become similar to a human. God was human, stripped of divinity's power.

Christmas is indeed special -- for Christians, a celebration of the earthly birth of the Son of their God, the Christ child.

I've been struck by the ads and billboards atheists have purchased this year suggesting that Christmas is a myth. Struck. Not offended or angered. Just struck. And they may be right.

He told me not to be afraid, that I had found favor with God. "You will be with child," it said, "and give birth to a son. And you are to give him the name Jesus."

This Christmas, let everyone take a moment for the real story. Let us take stock of how we treat the young in the dawn of life, the poor in the pit of life, the elderly in the dusk of life.

What is more important to me than the mechanics of Jesus' birth is that he was an historical figure who came to be viewed as "the Christ," the Messiah.

To prepare for this festival for dreamers, I'm imagining those travelers who dared the darkness for the light of a star, and thinking of those other dreamers who have looked into the darkness, glimpsed the light and followed a star.

While Christians put decorations away, vacuum up the tinsel, and find places to put our new toys, I often wonder what it all means. After the pregnant longing, after the birth, how do we understand that God is with us?

I can't imagine a better way of celebrating the original Christmas event, or a better way of kicking off a new year, than by allowing our genuine and well-warranted joy to be interrupted by the suffering of our world, even for a moment.

How overwhelming the first Christmas must have been for Mary and Joseph. Few things can provoke such intense worry as a newborn child. But few things promise such unreasonable hope, such unexpected change and such unbounded joy.

The truth of Luke's story is that it is still being told in the events of our day, in the events of our headlines and the secrets of our hearts.

In a culture that has been termed not merely post-modern, but also "post-Christian", it might seem as though there are no claims left to make regarding the true meaning of Christmas.