Santa Claus is coming to town!
Next week, in fact. On a Sunday, as you might have heard.
With Christmas and New Year’s on the way, this marks the final regular edition of Weekend Plug-in for 2022. As we wrap up three years of this newsletter, I want to thank everyone who reads and supports Plug-in. Please keep sharing it with your friends!
Next week, we’ll do our annual roundup of the best religion journalism of the calendar year. I’m still taking nominations from Godbeat pros for this list.
Keeping in the Christmas spirit, here are seven holly jolly reads:
• Peace on earth in a land of unrest (by Audrey Jackson, Christian Chronicle)
• Bethlehem welcomes Christmas tourists after pandemic lull (by Sam McNeil, Associated Press)
• Five unique variations of Santa Claus around the world (by Deborah Laker, ReligionUnplugged.com)
• Most churches plan to open on Christmas and New Year’s (by Aaron Earls, Lifeway Research)
• After cows escaped its live nativity event, this North Carolina church had a not-so-silent night (by Kelsey Dallas, Deseret News)
• When is Christmas? For church leaders, it's complicated (by Terry Mattingly, Universal Syndicate)
• Unitarians and Episcopalians created American Christmas (by Daniel K. Williams, Christianity Today)