Here in this small book is an excellent piece of apologetics which aims to establish that what the Bible teaches on the birth of Jesus is not a fairy story or fantasy along the lines of Santa Claus. McLaughlin accepts that for many people some of the claims surrounding the Christmas story may seem incredible, providing ammunition for sceptics of the Bible or of God himself.

World’s most famous story

The author tackles this via four questions which, in the subtitle, she asserts are those that everyone should ask about the world’s most famous story.

These four questions are:

• Was Jesus even a real person?
• Can we take the Gospels seriously?
• How can you believe in a Virgin Birth?
• Why does it matter?

As part of her arguments, the author references historical documents outside of the Bible, and explores what scientists have said – both those who are believers and those who are not. She assembles the main facts from many sources, and presents the deeper truths about Christmas with great clarity of thought and expression.

The author references historical documents outside of the Bible, and explores what scientists have said...

McLaughlin does point out that “not everything you may have heard about Christmas comes from the Bible” (p.15), but to sort out ‘the tinsel from the truth’ is not the main point of the book. Rather she sets out to assert the believability of what the Bible does proclaim to be the truth of the coming of Jesus into our world.

Focusing on the Scriptures

The author accepts that over time Christmas has “grown to include all sorts of extra details in our popular imagination” (p.16), including a snowy winter’s day and a grumpy innkeeper, but she mainly wants to turn our attention to the actual scriptures found in Matthew and Luke, as well as the opening of John.

McLaughlin hopes that her little book will help the reader think more about “the man who landed in our world 2000 years ago” and persuade us “that he’s more important than you thought”, especially regarding the “unbelievable claim that he’d come to save the world” (p.9).

It may be small but it packs a real punch.

This is a very readable book. I chose to buy it to help with preparing advent services in December and was not disappointed. It may be small but it packs a real punch, mainly because it is packed with all you need to know on this topic.

It will hopefully settle any doubts you may have and also enable you to talk sensibly to others. It would be good to give to an unbeliever, perhaps instead of, or as well as, a Christmas card. The book could easily slip into a moderately sized envelope.

‘Is Christmas Unbelievable?’ (64pp) is published by The Good Book Company (RRP £2.99), and is available through ICM, for instance, for £1.99.