After two years without holiday lights, book by Bethlehem-based Paul Calvert offers hope from the Christmas capital

In much of Israel, Christmas can be hard to spot. In the world’s only Jewish state, it’s much easier to find Hanukkah candles flickering in windows than Christmas lights. The story is different in Christian Arab areas like Nazareth, parts of Haifa, and Jerusalem, and especially in the town where it all began: Bethlehem. These places have become famous for their Christmas cheer, even drawing Jewish Israelis to visit and experience the atmosphere.

British journalist Paul Calvert is based in Bethlehem, and is particularly fond of Christmas. Typically Bethlehem has an enormous Christmas tree set up in Manger Square, marking its history as the birthplace of Jesus, and its significant part in the Christmas story. However, for two Christmases following the terrible events of October 2023, the authorities decided there would be no celebrations, and no celebratory tree.

It was during the winter of 2023 that Calvert started to write a book about this iconic aspect of the holiday, specifically the Christmas tree of Trafalgar Square. 

In London, the capital of his home country, there is a huge Christmas tree sent each year from Norway to Trafalgar Square. “Lord Nelson stands on his big column and he was the admiral… he won the Battle of Trafalgar. Every year, Norway give us a Christmas tree because we helped them during the war,” Calvert explains, setting out the premise of his book.

Calvert anthropomorphizes a pine tree in Norway called “Evergreen” who wishes to one day end up in lights in the middle of London. “It is a poetic story about a Christmas tree that has a big ambition, wanting to be the Trafalgar Square Christmas tree,” he told ALL ISRAEL NEWS, explaining that the book is written for children but has a message for everyone.

The days in which Calvert was writing the book were very dark days both for Israelis and Palestinians. “I wrote this in 2023 over the period of Christmas,” he said. “If you remember, we just had October 7th, so that was really bad for Israel with the people that had been killed and… families are seeing their sons going to fight in Gaza, as well. But also it was difficult for the Palestinian community here in Bethlehem, because the tourism has died.”

“It's very important that we have an ambition, that we have a vision and a focus,” he insists. “The Bible says without a vision, the people perish. It's important that we have a dream and we constantly work for the dreams that we have in our hearts and in our lives,” adding, “just getting this book published and getting out is a big dream for me.” 

Without wishing to ruin the story for anyone, Evergreen manages to overcome several challenges before achieving his ambition to be the Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree, just as he dreamed. “He eventually does become the tree, and it's an adventure from him leaving Norway and coming to the UK,” Calvert revealed.

Calvert hopes that reading the story together as a family could become a Christmas tradition, reading it year after year. He has also written a follow up book about a space-bound Christmas pudding that was supposed to be served to the king, and a third book is on the way to make it a trilogy.

Despite his prolific writing, Calvert primarily works in radio. He first came to the land to work with an organization based in Jerusalem, helping to renovate a church, before ending up in Bethlehem during the first intifada in 2002.

“I came to Bethlehem to visit one of my friends from the House of Hope, a home for the blind and mentally ill,” he explained. “I started just kicking a football around just to get to know people and kids came out.”

He continued, “I started doing a lot of work in the schools, then I had a vision of starting a Christian radio station. We paid to have a show go out on Mawwal radio here in Bethlehem, it was an hour every week. From that, we developed a radio station.”

Known locally as Radio Hayah (Life in Arabic), the radio station is also known as Cross Rhythms International in the UK. “It's ten years ago this month, on the 30th of November, that we've been running the radio station here in Bethlehem,” he says. 

“Bethlehem has really been built on tourism, so everyone was feeling very bad and very difficult about the situation. We had no Christmas tree, we had no lights,” he recalled, saying that all the Christmas festivities were stopped for two years. “You couldn't celebrate anything because of the situation.”

It was in those dark days that Calvert’s story took shape right there in the Messiah’s birthplace, a city Calvert refers to as the "Capital of Christmas,” bringing some festive cheer where there was little to be found.

“Today, you know, everyone's losing their values,” Calvert asserts. “You look at the youth of today in the college campuses that are going round shouting with their pink hair “Free Palestine!” and “Jesus was a Palestinian!” and all this sort of stuff… people are jumping on all these narratives, but you're not going to get that in my book. You're just going to get some good old, classic, adventure, good versus evil type of thing,” he assured.

“You're not going to get a subliminal message that the Christmas tree was transgender or something like that. Just good, classic, conservative values within a story.” 

This year the Manger Square Christmas tree will be back in Bethlehem once more, although Calvert shared his expectations that the celebrations would be somewhat subdued, partly due to budgetary issues.  

“Last night they put the Christmas tree up and they've got some of the decorations on. I'm presuming the scouts will be marching with their bands. I haven't spoken to the mayor yet, but, you know, we're going to have more of a celebration of Christmas this year. I have a slight feeling it might be a little bit more low key,” he added. “Maybe they don’t have the money."

Calvert hopes his book will restore some positivity and inspiration both in the capital of Christmas and beyond.

“The Trafalgar Square Christmas Tree” will be available on Amazon and in Barnes & Noble in the U.S.