Father Jessy Anthony Green is vicar of Bridbury appointed by the archbishop of Canterbury and is proud of his beautiful church building. The whole town is composed of faithful followers of the Church of England, except for Bobby Taylor of the St George's Pub and indeed Christmas tree merchant Pat Hackney, who earns his living with the holy Christmas festival but never shows his face inside the church, not even at Christmas.

But few are as faithful as Annie Brent of Annie's Boutique, who attends morning prayers almost daily and sometimes evening prayers too. "Father" Green is a sturdy and convivial church leader, who often makes an appearance at all sorts of events and never lets an anniversary go by without toasting the person in question. He is therefore a member of the broad church, a new stream within the Anglican church, which stands for a renewing of the theology and calls for more social work. Christmas is a busy time for Jessy. He has to get his church building organised and decorated with the pine branches delivered by Pat.

He has practised a number of beautiful songs for the midnight mass with some of the teacher, Miss July Lewisham’s talented children. And just as every year he has once again built a wonderful crib containing the usual figures, but this time with even more details and glitter and stars and scents than usual. This is all down to the help of Elize Banstead, wife of the stationmaster’s assistant, Jim, Angie Russel of the "Victoria Inn" and Elisabeth Waynes, the dentist’s wife, together the three of them have spent many an evening in the church to create the beautiful Christmas sphere. And when Christmas finally comes and people are crunching slowly through the snowy night to the church, all Bridbury’s church goers are overcome with a feeling of contentment and Bobby and Pat raise their glasses again to the baby in the crib.