Dave Nelson, Kendal
For me it has to be Midnight Mass! I try to avoid singing carols during Advent Then in a burst of music I can celebrate the Incarnation of God!

Catherine Holland, Wetheral
Christmas kicks in for me when we have an afternoon in school each year with children making up shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child and making 100 plus Christmas cards for Crisis at Christmas to be delivered to the guests on Christmas morning. This may happen on a miserable November afternoon but the spirit of Christmas has begun.

James Hull, Preston
For years I have I intended to spend some time on Christmas Day helping with the soup kitchen run by the Methodists on Lune Street. Last Christmas Day I finally went accompanied by my brother. It was a lesson to see that in the place where the homeless live there was a great sense of kindness among those who have so little in life. There was no misery or despair, but joy and generosity.

Paul Addison, Lytham
Christmas starts for me when I begin reading Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol to my English class at college, just as a certain teacher who is now the editor of The Voice used to do for us many years ago at Upholland College - God Bless us, everyone!

Kathleen E Brown, Preston.
I never feel like Christmas until Mass on Christmas Eve. Then Christmas really starts.

Barbara Radway, Poulton
For me Christmas starts when I am on my way to Midnight Mass, preferably walking. There is a feeling of everything suddenly slotting into place and, whatever the state of my life, a feeling of peace and calm. I can distance myself from the commercialism and materialism and experience the true meaning of Christmas.

Fr Steve Pearson – St. Bernadette’s - Blackpool
NOW it's Christmas...recognised when all the Christmas Masses have been celebrated...the shops are closed...the meal is humming along...the precious company for the festive season is at ease...And the Word was made Flesh...recognised and celebrated.

John Wilson (Our Lady's Carlisle )
At some time in the early evening when one has heard from or been with all one's children (six, plus spouses) and all one's siblings(five, plus spouses), one has a sense of Holy Family and wholly family and one can say, “Thank you God.”

Sister Eileen HCJ
On Christmas Day the younger members of our family, which included me, played Ping-Pong on the dining room table prior to preparing for a late dinner. About four p.m. our well-loved Parish Priest Monsignor Flynn called to greet us. When he had departed, it was all hands on deck. We never persuaded him to join the Ping-Pong tournament.

Tony Parrini, St Augustine’s, Carlisle
It was Christmas 1988 and I was still in the RAF at Carlisle. Many of us had been involved in the Lockerbie Disaster and had had a few miserable days on site. I recall all the visiting RAF Personnel involved, dressed as they were, having a Christmas Night Dinner together in the Officers Mess at RAF Carlisle - the Mess Staff and Officers from the unit working voluntarily with their families to serve 100 or so men and women away from home at short notice. An evening of very mixed emotions - some in tears, some quiet, some boisterous, all trying to help each other through a difficult time. A Christmas I won't forget.

Raju Thomas Kuzhively. MS, FRCS, Carlisle
I am from the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church of Kerala, South India. My Christmas “memory” needs some background. Our tradition out there has been to undertake strict Lenten-like fasting before Christmas. One of the two difficult things for the hero in my story had been to give up eating meat and, worse still alcohol. Some desperate souls in my neighbourhood have been known to wait at home until the midnight bell, and then dig in with a vengeance to break their “Lent.” The hero of my Christmas story could not wait even that long. He gave in, got very drunk and was absolutely reeling when he arrived for midnight Mass. When it was time for kissing the Holy Infant the devout middle aged ladies thronged around the crib. My hero folded his dhoti (long white cloth to cover the legs) as if for a fight and uttered, “let me see if I can kiss the xxxxing thing.” The way was cleared and the “Convert” paid homage, to the amazement and shock of many!

Doreen Maynard-Prendergast, St Joseph's Seascale
Sadly, the moment which for many years made me feel "this is Christmas" no longer occurs in my Church or in the nearest other Church to me - that is, Midnight Mass. The Christmas morning service does not feel like the Real Thing to me. It seems to be just a ritual before the real Christmas business of opening presents and stuffing ourselves, takes place. I feel that amid the "celebrations" we have lost Jesus.

Tricia Blackledge, Blackpool.
For many of us, all we have left are Christmas Memories. Once, my Christmas moments were phoning home. No mobiles then, just the phone booked in advance. Now all I have left are memories and they are great. Peace be with you.

Rev Nick Donnelly, St. Mary’s Barrow in Furness
Having a newborn baby in the house can make Christmas very special. My youngest brother was born 10 weeks premature. He weighed about the same as a 2lb bag of sugar. Each foot was the size of my thumbnail. I was fifteen, and seriously into astronomy. I spent hours studying the night sky. I remember holding my tiny baby brother and being struck by the thought, ‘The creator of this vast, incredible universe became a baby! God was this tiny! His fingernails were this minute! God was this human!’

Gilbert Conner, Preston
I suppose it dates back to childhood, as one lay in bed wondering what Father Christmas would bring this year, One matures and wonders at what the Father Christmas has really done by sending his Son to become one of us.