Christmas has been in our eyes and ears and pocket books since the day after Thanksgiving. So I thought to go into the labyrinth of the invention of Christmas and many of its current ramifications in the next few postings. It is a fascinating example of how a story continually told over many years becomes its own evidence. This is Part 1.

Recently I’ve been receiving queries about the discovery of what is alleged to be the tomb of Jesus et al in Jerusalem. Since one of the people involved was also concerned in the production of the movie Titanic it’s clear that there will be tremendous publicity about it whatever the merits of the case.

Since I have already done four decades of work on the topic of Jesus I am posting a slightly modified extract from the first letter I wrote to my stepson Bill in the early 80’s after he asked me who I thought Jesus really was. The letter writing took two years and eventually resulted in the book Who was Jesus Really, after being published in sections for local pagan audiences. Press the My Books button further down on the right to find out how to get hold of the whole thing.