What will Christmas look like in the year 2050? According to futurologist Ian Pearson, we will be enjoying a dinner of synthetic turkey, created through advances in biology and nanotechnology. A computer-controlled cooking system will ensure that each item included in the dinner is cooked to perfection, and a kitchen robot will help with the preparations. Video screens will line the dining room walls, so the dining room can instantly be turned into a beach or mountaintop or any other desirable location.
Friends and relatives who are away will be able to be present via virtual reality – images and sound transmitted over the Internet – perhaps shown as sitting at a table which appears to be located just the other side of the dining room walls. Children will receive as gifts walking talking Barbie dolls which can respond emotionally to their owners, and construction kits which can be used to design and build almost anything.
What will happen to the celebration of Jesus’s birth? That depends to some extent on the legacy which we leave to the next generation. If we raise a generation which knows nothing about Jesus, then all they inherit will be the presents and the Santa songs. On the other hand, if we faithfully pass on the Good News, then Christmas might more fully be a celebration of the time when Christ became one of us.