'Jingle' is the jangle as we go all the way to the shops

Perhaps on the Gold Coast we were all a little too drained from the humidity to notice the wool being pulled over our eyes at Christmas, but it has really struck Ellie and I since we landed in the Laid of Ade. And nothing will make you think twice like a 30 foot high statue being erected in the city mall: (I think it looks much like East Berlin's 'Lenin' statue from the Wall era)

There is something surreal about Christmas time at the shops. While walking around in 38 degree weather, we are somehow drawn to festive images of snow, reindeer, and midgets with pointy ears! Perhaps we are intrigued by what we don't know?

In Myer, level 5, the 'Christmas floor', I was not surprised to find little motorised trains chugging around European looking landscapes. Decorations of pink poodles and creature's resembling the Phoenix from Harry Potter also appeared. This year someone has even had the bright idea of creating an upside down Christmas tree, which looks exactly as it sounds. Over the centre's music system, songs like 'Frosty the Snowman' and 'Rudolf the Rednose Reindeer' are played as hymns to the shoppers. It just left me confused. What has Christmas become?

Toward the back of the store, in a corner lit with fluorescent lights, without any grandeur like the electronic christmas displays, I remembered! I discovered these three wise men, and wondered if perhaps they were the only wisdom left for December 25th.

Ellie has long said that when kids come, she wants them to have a wiseman bring them gifts on December 25. I think this is a fantastic idea. Seeing this exquisite recreation of the Magi at Myer, I thought they would be a great addition to a Christmas scene in our home. Looking closer, I discovered each single wise man was $100. It was a sharp reminder that the best gift at Christmas was free.

Perhaps the commercial success of Santa and his Northern Pole lies in our natural intrigue to what we don't have. Perhaps Australians like the idea of snow and fireside chats with hot cocoa (really a hot chocolate or milo, but we get the same advertising as America and we again like the idea), and a jolly man with a bag of gifts that just keeps giving. It is an attraction to what we don't know.

But it seems what (and more importantly, 'who') we really don't know is Jesus. The one born beneath the Northern star. The one who came as an eternal gift to us all. Maybe we'll never see Don's Balls shadowed by a 30ft Jesus statue at Christmas time - and frankly, I think that would be weird. But maybe people could start buying 'Advent' Calendars instead of 'Christmas Countdown Calendars'? Maybe the Nativity will no longer be dubbed the 'traditional meaning of Christmas' and become 'the true meaning'.

Seems like Xmas has become much like the 'Generation X'. No longer is it abbreviated as per the Greek for 'Christ', but more like an algebraic equation - substitute what you will!

This year, I hope people don't substitute Christ for the fat red man.