CHRISTMAS is almost here, can't you tell? Jonathan Skinner, minister at Bath's Widcombe Baptist Church, reminds us of just why it can still be special.

He said: "Christmas evokes strange emotions it connects with memories and forgotten dreams buried deep within us.

There are those magic and almost mystical moments where, as we hear a carol sung on a dark street, something resonates in the depths of our psyche.

For a fleeting moment we feel as a child feels but then the mirage is gone.

Nevertheless, for most of us there is still something in Christmas which almost transports us into a wonderworld of make-believe.

Part of the dream of Christmas is that we want to believe the extraordinary in the midst of the ordinary but nostalgia doesn't deliver. So there, in a darkened corner, remains the image of what started it all: the nativity scene.

Although almost obliterated by the fizz of contemporary celebration, behind this peculiar scene of cattle, stable, shepherds and a baby, is a reality which can answer our strange yearnings when everything else has gone flat."