Is Christmas before Advent this year? I found myself asking a college chaplain this question, for if God’s time is mysterious, sometimes Oxford time feels even more so – and the cycle of carol services and celebrations before the end of term has its own curious logic. For there is a festival of turkey and sprouts and cracker-pulling in November commonly known as ‘Oxmas’, one which has an important place in students’ and tutors’ mental calendars. It is a time to relax a little now a hard term is coming to an end, but also to be reminded of the traditions we can all share in and to enjoy them together as a community.

Oxmas may be a very local tradition, but the colleges are not alone in fast-forwarding quickly to the end of December. And there is certainly something jarring in hearing carols or eating turkey weeks before Christmas, sometimes even before Advent. I’m not sure I’ll ever truly get used to Oxmas, but the challenge it offers to our sense of propriety may be no bad thing. Oxmas can perhaps be a joyful reminder that the light of Christ’s Incarnation shines through space and time, ‘gathering into one all things earthly and heavenly’, and that human dates cannot constrain God’s eternal love for us, love we celebrate day by day. But for me it is also a reminder that all celebration needs preparation, that once Oxmas is over I will need all of Advent before we arrive at Christmas.