Ask HIM what you want for Christmas....

JESUS PLAYS SANTA IN CHRISTMAS ADVERTISING
Baby Jesus, lying in a manger, has been dressed up in a red Santa outfit, complete with cap and fur-timmed sleeves, in advertising designed to entice people to church this Christmas.

The advertising, which is appearing on billboards across the UK, carries the slogan: "Go on, ask him for something this Christmas."

The new ad is from the Churches Advertising Network (CAN) who are no stranger to dressing Jesus up in borrowed clothes. This time, the Santa outfit is intended as an attack on the commercialisation of Christmas.
Says CAN: "Our poster is a reminder that the real message is not about letters to Santa posted up the chimney, trips to Lapland and expensive self indulgence. It is found as we join the shepherds who first came in response to the message of the angels to wonder at the birth of God's Son.
"We want to help start a debate about who Jesus really is."
So far, the ad has drawn mixed reviews. The Bishop of Manchester dismissed it as "trite attention grabbing and easy sentimentality."
Church Times columnist Martyn Halsall comments: "It's too clever by half, confusing the direct, even moving, appeal in the caption with a complicated, and perhaps offensive, image of a fancy-dress Jesus. The mixed metaphor is more likely to baffle non-Christians than attract them."
Opinions gathered from shoppers in Manchester were mixed.
"Quite clever, but it takes a little time looking at it to understand it. I didn't see the Santa outfit at first," said one shopper. Another commented: "Makes you think about what you want for Christmas and why."