Because it's Advent, people!
When Travis and I first got married we decided that our Christmas tradition would be to keep the liturgical seasons as best we could. Therefore, right now the only seasonal decorations in the house are generic winter ones and our Advent wreath. On the 3rd Sunday of Advent, Gaudete Sunday, we rejoice by cutting down our own tree, decorating it, getting out the nativity scene and playing the Christmas CDs. But the Wise Men, they're on the other side of the room. We keep the decorations out throughout the Twelve Days of Christmas, which lasts until Epiphany, January 6th. That's when the Wise Men get to the Nativity. It's the weekend after Epiphany that the decorations come down.
Before we did this I always found myself done with Christmas before I even got to Christmas. I was all Yuletided out and the joy, glory and awesome significance of the day didn't matter.
Now, when I'm in the car I will allow myself to listen to 1 Christmas song per trip and I have done my Christmas shopping, but otherwise we're really trying to focus on Advent so that when the real Christmas gets here we can celebrate.
5 comments:
We're trying to focus on Advent this year too. We haven't so much in the past but I really wanted to establish traditions and we thought that this would be a good place to start. We put up our tree and all of our basic greenery but we aren't going to decorate with any red or greens until the week before Christmas. I've got some various pink and purple ribbons and such around too along with our advent wreath, some snowmen and white lights. I'm pretty excited about it all actually and think that it will lay some great groundwork for teaching our kids in the future.
Yey for Advent. I bought a devotional that I am still waiting for..come on Amazon!! I really want the season to be different than the past 26. I read Girl Meets God by Lauren Winner..which was great by the way, and she inspired me to Advent.
Erin
I agree that Advent should be celebrated and enjoyed for the wonderful season it is, but we've already got our tree and decorations up, along with our Advent wreath, which is one of my favorite sesasonal objects.
But the Christmas season is the only one of the whole year which leads people, even the areligious to believe in the general goodness of others and miracles.
The season is already really short, so I think to celebrate and honor it from the beginning can't be that bad. I also think it is possible to celebrate and enjoy Advent while enjoying the Christmas season as well.
Margaret,
I don't think it's "bad" to celebrate Christmas from the day after Thanksgiving, but it's "bad" for me since, like I said in the post, I was done with Christmas before the actual season of Christmas even begins.
Also, I think it's super sad that most Catholics don't even realize that we celebrate a whole week as if every day were Christmas - that's how big a deal it is. So, for me to be tired of it by the 23rd means I'm definitley not keeping the week or the 12 days of Christmas.
I wasn't trying to be judgemental - if it works for you, great! It just doesn't work for me.
I didn't think you were being judgemental, Bonnie. I was just stating my own feelings.
And you're right, it is really sad many Catholics gloss over a whole week of the liturgical calendar.
I didn't think you were being judgemental and I wasn't trying to criticize either.
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