Dr Paul Chambers, a sociologist of religion, explores the various meanings that people apply to Christmas including its commercialisation, its secularisation and how Christmas allows us to celebrate and reaffirm our relations with others.

Award-winning poet Professor Philip Gross teaches creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. In this Christmas Lecture, he reads his new Christmas poem, which was inspired by the medieval Waits — the village musicians who came out on Christmas Eve, long before carol singing became a family...