I’m sure we all want a happy Christmas, but given the pressures and challenges many of us face (health, financial pressures and family strife), we all know it can prove an elusive dream.

If we could only find a way of guaranteeing we will be happy, whatever our circumstances!

Well, even if I can’t guarantee you a happy Christmas but I do know a way of ensuring that your Christmas can be happier than it might be. I remembered this when listening to an excited little seven year old the other day. She and her friends had hit on a novel way of celebrating Advent. Instead of opening an Advent calendar and munching their way through a piece of chocolate, they had decided to create their own calendar. But it is going to be a calendar with a difference. Instead of indulging themselves, they have decided to keep a daily record of small acts of random kindness performed for others in the days leading up to Christmas Day. “It’s cool,” she said. And I thought “That’s very true. And all the evidence shows that it will make you much happier as well.”

Stanford University Sonja Lyobumirsky discovered this when she encouraged a group of her students to practice five acts of random kindness a week. The results were clear. Those who did what she asked this felt a much higher degree of happiness than the control group. Researchers in Japan discovered something similar when they also concluded that happier people are more likely to be kinder than those who are sad. Indeed it’s even been suggested that those who spend time thinking carefully about kind deeds become happier. The two it seems are interlocked and mutually reinforcing.

It has been suggested too that ‘doing good’ can have positive health benefits and I’ve read that one major world study concluded that the trait husbands and wives most desire in their partners is a willingness to be kind.

Now why all this should be so I am not sure, but I can’t help thinking that it’s related to something implicit in the word ‘kind.’ Its origin in old English I’m told is ‘gecynde’ which meant natural. Now that’s a fascinating thought because it suggests that being kind should come naturally to everyone of us. For when we are being kind, we are simply behaving as we are meant to do.

I can run with that. If we’ve been created in the image of the God we see revealed in Jesus of Nazareth we are only being true to ourselves when we take kindness seriously. If anyone was kind He was, and in so doing He showed us how we can live life to the full.

So why not give it a go this Christmas? See if it works. Try smiling at someone, or say something encouraging to them. When you’re in that queue, why not let someone go in front of you. On the other hand, you might want to surprise someone with an unexpeted bunch of flowers of a bar of chocolate (as long as they’re not on a diet). Best of all, why not spare someone some of your time. It is, after all, the most precious thing you possess. So why not spend an hour with an elderly neighbour or sit with your children or grandchildren. If the research is correct, you’ll have a much happier Christmas.

Rob James is a Baptist Pastor broadcaster and writer who currently operates as a church and media consultant for the Evangelical Alliance Wales. He is available for preaching and teaching throughout Wales and can be contacted at [email protected]