“What is the Christmas spirit, then? It’s the feast itself. It’s the incarnation. The Son of God becomes a human son. Christ became a human person. This is the great event that warms every one of us, which warms the whole of humankind. This is the exceeding love of God for us that made Him become ‘one of us’. This is the act that casts far away the notion of ‘religion’ , because ‘religion’ is the creation of God by us humans, whereas what we have here is the revelation of God to us. With this incarnation, the path to heaven, which was blocked, is open again and our bridge of communication with God has been rebuilt. “
(Archimandrite Iakovos Kanakis in Pemptousia.org)