A poll of over 2,000 adults conducted by ComRes on behalf of Christian Research, shows that a quarter of the population are more positive about their personal well-being now than they were at the start of the year, peaking amongst 18-24s (38%) and 25-34 (32%) year olds. Around a fifth of the population also feel more positive about their local neighbourhood, compared with British society in general (10%) and world affairs (8%).

2011 saw a series of tumultuous epic events - the toppling of Arab tyrants, the killing of Osama Bin Laden, a devastating tsunami struck north east Japan, earthquakes hit New Zealand and Turkey, CERN discovered the ‘neutrino’ and the 7 billionth human-being was welcomed onto the planet. Britain was aglow with a spring royal marriage, phone-hacking scandals bubbled-up, inner cities erupted into lawlessness, the eurozone melted down and public sector job cuts intensified. The poll shows that 58% and 54%, respectively, feel more negative about world affairs and British society in general than this time last year.

Seismic shifts have taken place – with global finance and domestic social instability featuring consistently. Volatile financial markets and Christmas’ consumer emphasis have had marginally less strong an effect on causing us to consider faith-based moral values (both 24%). The Occupy LSX protest, still encamped on the steps of St. Paul’s, has had a lesser impact (19%), as the potential insecurity of job loss (74% ‘no difference’).

Whereas, interestingly, both Arab uprisings and the summer’s civil unrest have had the most pronounced effect on triggering reflection of faith based moral values, especially amongst the older population. This may be evidence of a ‘generational effect’, reflective of those having been more fully aware of the ‘rise and fall’ of Gadaffi, Mubarak, Yemeni or Tunisian leaders. Nonetheless, it has stirred a significant minority of us to think more deeply about faith-based spiritual or moral values, the summer unrest also triggering some reflection amongst the young.

However, 53% of the population intends to participate in some way in marking the Christian celebration of Christmas, including either watching/listening to a Christmas service, attending a church service on Christmas eve or day , going to a carol service or nativity play, singing carols or reading the Bible’s account of Christ’s birth. Numbers are likely to be significantly higher in the South West (62%) than for London (48%) (does this reflect a seasonal exodus from the capital?), and similarly is far higher amongst those aged 35+ (49-62%) compared with 18-24s (62% not intending to do any). Broadly-speaking, females will be praying, singing carols and attending nativity plays, more so than men.

The British Household Panel Study has discovered a strong link between personal well-being and connectedness. Recent studies too have concluded that ‘…the well connected are more likely to be hired, housed, healthy and happy’. With the coalition government’s ‘Big Society’ aspirations rendered largely dysfunctional, those who profess a Christian faith appear more likely to ‘actively look out for their neighbour’s welfare’ than non-Christians, 62% vs  48%.

51% of those polled affiliated with the Christian faith, in comparison with 53% who identified as Christian in Ipsos Mori’s April 2011 ‘global @dvisor’ survey (higher than the average of 47% surveyed across the study’s 24 countries). Close-knit communities benefit most individuals, whereas disengagement can breed loneliness. Robert Putnam, Harvard professor of public policy, has observed that Western societies are more affluent, mobile and more individualised than ever before, but are gradually becoming more ‘atomised’.

Research conducted by Demos for The Young Foundation found a strong correlation (r² = 0.844) between well-being and ‘everyday democracy’. In other words, the ability to have a stake in influencing [policy] decision-making at a local or local community level has a definitive impact on our predisposition to feel useful/valued/in control (of our destiny?).

This poll shows Christians as more geared-up to proactively involve themselves in addressing the needs of their neighbourhoods – to ‘make a difference’. Perhaps, this is an extension of the cohesive ‘church family’ networks church-goers can experience, when united in faith, they striving to reach out and express values characteristic of the Christian faith among each of their neighbours.

If this plays out in 2012, it seems Christians do recognise the difference they can make within society, given the unpredictable shocks and changes that society seems regularly exposed to.

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I’ll be honest, the validity of comparing Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, to a toilet roll had largely escaped me up to now, that is, until the launch of the Ship of Fools and Bible Society’s co-created ‘Roll on Christmas’ Facebook nativity.

This inventive animation has demanded I re-think the gospel’s description of the birth of Christ. Perhaps the cloying sentimental nostalgia of repeated school performances has altered my understanding, turning the earth-bound reality of God’s incarnation into a seasonally re-heated episode of ‘Gavin & Stacey’. Let’s face it, most of us succumb to gawping at the lives of air-brushed minor celebrities, the photo-shopped, cropped nip & tuck images constantly fed us by MTV or Kerri Catona’s ‘My Road to Recovery’.

Extraordinarily, the Bible seems very matter-of-fact in its description of Joseph – disposable, colourless, light-weight (oh alright, the toilet-roll comparison is artificial at best). It’s just that, I’m not sure I buy into all the humble, unassuming, plodding nature of Joseph that the gospels hand down to us. I’m a husband and father of two. If either of my offspring had miraculously materialised out of the ether, I’d be harbouring some major doubts that the likes of which might be temporarily relieved by a nip or two of a strong malt.

Nativity plays gift us a one-time opportunity to inhabit characters caught up in a divine drama, one which is earthily anchored within a very human context. A drama with such utterly spell-binding and momentous implications, it’s a wonder it hasn’t formed the basis of the longest-running cartoon strip in the Jewish Chronicle. Tony Jordan’s BBC ‘Nativity’ did it immense credit.

Sure the ‘average’ nativity play is likely to embellish the gospel’s bald facts, may encroach on fiction, and even play out a head mistress’ mildly diverting soap-opera fantasies. Humans are given over to story-telling, to creatively coupling a compelling narrative with a contemporary twist.

En route to a legally-binding census carried out by the notoriously twitchy Herod, no doubt officiated by overzealous provincial apparatchiks, Joseph dutifully protects his expectant partner by seeking water, rest and a roof over their head – the measure of a modest, considerate, entirely reasonable man. But, slice through the murky mythology surrounding the Christmas story and there’s a need to ‘cut to the chase’. We have an incredulous husband, hotlist of burning questions on the tip of his tongue, a baby conceived by a mysterious ‘donor’, a partner who hasn’t yet ‘fessed-up, …oh, and the obligatory appearance of an angel who cryptically announces something about being the ‘chosen one’, or some such startlingly indigestible news. Cue emotional meltdown. That’s before the contractions have begun. Oh, hang on, the contractions have begun. You and I can book a room at a Premier Inn for £29 a night, via the lastminute.com app on a smartphone, Joseph couldn’t.

Christian Research’s poll conducted amongst 1,018 UK adults (the majority self-identifying Christians) uncovered that 40% disagreed that nativity plays ‘tend to make the birth of Jesus seem like a made-up story’, while a similar proportion agreed. So… what might this mean?

Reality TV serves up storylines bubbling with emotional intensity but warped by the agendas of self-serving producers. The nativity purports to describe how God comes to dwell amongst us. Hang on! This is an event of seismic magnitude, right? It contains the sorts of ingredients that the News of the World (RIP) used to cook-up and explosively publish from time-to-time. Might not the results infer that Mr. and Mrs. Average, you, me and the milkman, find the Biblical account mind-bogglingly difficult to grapple with? The Christmas story is incredible news. In fact, isn’t that the point, it is scarcely credible news. How on earth are we to deal with it?

How much more so to a contemporary audience brought-up on a diet of three-part docudramas that purportedly explain everything from the origin of the Universe, the Large Hadron Collider’s attempt to reveal the ‘God particle’ or Richard Dawkins laying-down the fundamental tenets of his godless religion.

News that innkeeper and Herod roles have grown in popularity, contrasted with Mary and Joseph which have halved over time (voted most wanted role by only 10% of males and females respectively), perhaps signals an implicit desire to reject inherited stereotypes, ditch the token tea-towels and get to grips with someone more tangible, more authentic and more resonant. Of our frail human condition - the best we can hope for is to pocket £250 quid, when (hopefully) ‘You’ve Been Framed’ shows footage of little Johnny, back-end of the wiseman’s camel, toppling into the orchestra pit. It’s human drama maybe, but without the divine spark.

Lastly, 52% from the same poll claim that they’d be least prepared to forego their computer or internet during Christmas. Might this, too, hint at our desire to tell ‘our Christmas story’, to connect, share and invite others to enter the unfolding drama of our Christmas celebrations? From that pie-eyed Boxing day email to an expression of friendship to a relative half-way across the globe to a link showing a YouTube clip of grandma cheating at pulling the crackers, with our human lives as the backdrop and with Christ taking the lead role, I’ll venture that’s where the drama’s at.

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