Chris De Burgh, who had just signed his first recording contract with A&M Records, was broke and “staying at a friend’s flat” when he read Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Däniken. The book made him think “what if the star of Bethlehem was a space craft and what if there is a benevolent being or entity in the universe keeping an eye on the world and our foolish things that we do to each other?” – The stories of the Christmas hits