Campaigners against the arms trade are recruiting Christmas characters to embarrass organisers of a family exhibition who are also backing death-dealing weapons exports. They are invoking the real 'reason for the season'.

Animal gifts are a real hit, but giving a baby buffalo is not just cute - it’s also a powerful weapon in the fight against poverty.Visit Christian Aid's Present Aid site here

Traditional categories of right and left don't always work when applied to faith, says Giles Fraser. Yet there is no comfort for the 'religious right' in the Christmas Gospel, which is about giving not consuming and love not power-mongering.

The Christmas message is that God in Jesus commits to transforming human ordinariness, not to fantasies about a super-hero figure or military conquerer, the President of the Methodist Conference has said in his seasonal message.

In spite of its many weals and woes, life has meaning and purpose expressed through our experience of love and creativity. That is the message of Christmas to humanity, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams says.

Christmas is offensive, and always will be, says Jonathan Bartley. It legitimates the undermining of those in authority. But it is also about looking after not just those who are “deserving” of love, but those who appear disreputable and unworthy.

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, the senior figure in the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, has called for a more welcoming approach to migrants in British national life.

Whether we love or hate Christmas, we know all about it. But the same may not be true of the coming of Jesus, says Simon Barrow. In Christ, God radically disrupts religious 'business as usual'.