I recently read something about the kinds of Christmas that are celebrated. There’s secular Christmas that starts very close to Thanksgiving and ends on the 25th and then there’s Christmas that starts on Advent and then Christmas as we define it in the Christmas season and the debates about whether it ends on epiphany or Candlemas 😂.
I honestly don’t care when other people put the tree up, but I think it is a good reflection on what happens to a traditionally Christian celebration when it is secularized, and as people living in a secular society, I think it’s good to be aware of how our own celebrations can be impacted and determine whether or not we want to roll with it or do something different.
I didn’t grow up with strong holiday traditions aside from putting the tree and the nativity up and taking it back down. I kind of appreciate the blank slate now as I see the set of expectations that people have for the advent season.
My kids learn the following song in Catholic school:
Advent is a time to pray
Not a time to celebrate
Count the candles one by one
Until Advent time is done
Day by day we work and pray
To prepare for Christmas Day
I started decorating our home to match the seasons after I got married and it was important to me not to start Christmas too closely into advent. I had purchased a nice plush advent wreath in anticipation of our kids long before my first kid was born. The delay also gave a nice delay between taking down all the fall stuff and having a couple of weeks to chill before Christmas came up. We are big Christmas people. We probably have over 10 Nativities. Our Christmas tree has a ton of stuff on it and we have a bonus wreath for all the ornaments that are breakable that we don’t want the cats or the kids messing with.
With my first kid’s birthday being in mid December, this delay was welcomed because it also helped differentiate celebrating his birthday from celebrating the birthday of Jesus.
Advent is a time to wait and I think secular society is telling us the opposite. Get everything up. Be picture perfect. Make sure your cards are sent. The holy family was not picture perfect at this time. The king is not here yet. This is a reflection of my life where it is. I’m not picture perfect and likely will never be in this life and I am not with the king yet forever.
So now is my time of preparation, of waiting and watching. As I hear responses of how busy this time is, I am evaluating my advent by how much down time I have to sit with God and the holy family and wait for this miraculous event.
I had a chance to drop the kids off at a Christmas event at a church that I had never visited and was pleased to find a labyrinth on the property that I could walk. It was empty. It’s been a long time since I had a chance to walk the labyrinth alone, typically I’m somewhere as a tourist and there’s people everywhere.
The sun is shining and it’s a beautiful day. So I walked. And I had a cool new experience. Jesus my shepherd, my best friend, walking right next to me. Pointing out cool angles of the sun on the grass. Thinking with him about the people who planned this labyrinth and whether they’re here or not. And that part of their story is now part of my story. And I thanked him for walking with me now and walking with me always. And I asked him to please let me walk with him forever one day when I truly would have no cares or burdens. I told him I looked forward to walking with him and seeing what he had prepared for me and needing no words because we were in such a relationship of love that no further words needed to be said.
I am so glad I got to spend this quiet time of not doing and just being with my lord. And it’s a reminder that as the world says fit more in and be busier that the way I will be best positioned in my mission is by growing in my relationship in these minutes and hours here on earth.