Christmas with its wonderful stories is coming to a close. There are some, a few, who realize and recognize that Christmas goes to Epiphany, 5 January, but for most people Christmas ends when all the wrappings are picked up off the living room floor and before the Christmas tree is taken down. 

Christmas for me is the songs, the music and the Masses, and the dear old stories from Luke and Matthew, crowned by John's prologue.

What I don't appreciate is the approach of the brand of literalists who try to create the facts they apparently need to make a story "true." Saying that Mary was actually seduced by a passing Roman soldier is one such, and the most absurd of all, if for no other reason than that there's no basis for it except someone need to explain to themself how the story of the virgin birth could possibly be true in a historic sense. .