We can so easily get into a rut, especially at Christmas. We know what we want, and keep doing it until it becomes a habit, and habits tend to dull our senses. We react automatically. Well, maybe we should mix Xmas up a bit and expand how we celebrate it. Like, with palms as Christmas trees. After all, I don’t remember seeing Douglas Firs in manger scenes. 😉 We had a nice discussion on Facebook about changes in how soon Christmas celebrations become, and John Prothero, whom you’ve read here before, gave ideas on how we might add some variety to how we celebrate the entry of divinity into the human race. Be challenged by his thoughts, right here.
“How many times have we heard it said (or we’ve said it ourselves), "Christmas sure has started early this year!" It seems that for many people, and certainly for retailers, Christmas STARTS in October (or even September), and is DONE on Christmas Day!
I grew up Presbyterian, which, due to its austere Scottish roots, never paid too much attention to liturgy or the church year, but my first wife was Lutheran. So, for me, becoming a Lutheran also meant embracing this wonderful idea of following a church calendar year, of observing certain church ‘holidays,’ and understanding this cycle that, as C.S. Lewis wrote, stays the same every year, but changes every year.
The church's calendar year starts on the 1st Sunday of Advent. During my first marriage we started to focus on having our household decorations mirror the Advent and Christmas seasons. We would set up the outdoor decorations on the closest weekend to the 1st Sunday of Advent, which meant I was usually putting them up Thanksgiving weekend. The first household decorations that came out were the Advent Wreath, which we lit weekly while doing scripture readings that shared the Advent message.
We saw decorating of the house as preparing the house for Christmas, just as we prepared our hearts for Christmas. But for us, we observed that older tradition that dates to pre-retail consumerism: we made sure that Christmas is not just a single day, but an observance of time, or as the church sees it, a season, which lasts until Epiphany on January 6th. Epiphany is also the last night I kept our outdoor decorations lit (and we were the last on the street to do so).
Now, here I am, with a new marriage and a new home. While I do not decorate as much as I did with my ex-wife, I still decorate on Thanksgiving Weekend, and leave the decorations up through Epiphany. The Advent Candle became something special for Brenda and me our first Christmas together, even to the point where on the weekends during Advent when she’d work, I’d call her after work, and we’d light the candle, read scripture, and pray together over our mobile phones. Audrey continues to participate in that tradition as well, which unifies us as a family.
So, as we approach this Advent and Christmas season, with the snares of retail commercialism, let us really focus more on the Reason for the Season, the birth of Jesus. Let us decorate with joy, give of ourselves, and sing loudly (or softly) about the coming of the Christ Child, and finally, sing of the Birth of Jesus.”
Kick Starting the Application
What traditions still touch your heart with the presence of Jesus? What might you do that’s new to mix it up and make it fresh? Will you make Christmas a little more fresh this year?
You may read more of John just below.
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