First, I love my Christmas songs.
This is how I think of it: the season of Advent gets in the way of singing what I want to sing. How can you not listen to Nat King Cole in December? Or Bing Crosby, Harry Connick Jr., and Amy Grant? Even though Amy Grant did go secular, her Christmas music is a staple in Advent.
Once Thanksgiving ends, we all know it’s time for: “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” “Rocking Around the Christmas Tree,” “Fa la la la la,” “Jingle Bells,” “Silver Bells,” and “The Christmas Song” with chestnuts roasting on an open fire. And don’t forget about the Nutcracker! It doesn’t matter if the Nutcracker is creepy and the plot makes no sense. It is the holiday tradition!
My church emphasizing the Advent season makes me feel like all of these songs aren’t as meaningful as I think they are.
Sure, I know about Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Handel’s first 11 movements of The Messiah. I have been told to listen to Lauridsen’s “O Magnum Mysterium” and John Tavener’s “The Lamb.” I have even sung the best Advent hymns: “Lo He Comes With Clouds Descending,” “Savior of the Nations Come,” “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” “Bozrah,” and “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying.”
But who says I can’t have both? I want all the Advent hymns and the fun Christmas songs! Is it really a big deal that I know all the words to so many Christmas songs, but I can only remember the first stanza of “O Come O Come Emmanuel”?
Plus, if I don’t listen to the Christmas music I have always indulged in, year after year, day after day during Advent, it won’t help me feel like it is Christmas time.
I know it’s not Christmas time yet. Sure, it’s technically Advent, but I want to feel like it is Christmas time before Christmas. I am not willing to wait for Christmas while everyone else is enjoying Christmas with all the fun, trite, and meaningless Christmas songs we all know so well.
But I will admit, people can go too far. At least I am not like those heathens listening to Christmas music before Thanksgiving. And don’t get me started on those Satanists who listen to Christmas music in July. You can try to force the Spirit of Christmas too early. I know that is true.
Second, Advent prevents me from getting into the spirit of Christmas.
Look, every year I get frustrated when Advent season doesn’t feel like Christmas. And no, I have never stopped to consider the fact that maybe it doesn’t feel like Christmas because it’s not Christmas. It should feel like Christmas because I want it to feel like Christmas.
Is it not sad when you find yourself halfway through December and you realize that you don’t feel like it is Christmas?
Well, I think that’s Advent’s fault.
And sorry, but if the Church focuses more on Advent, we will have to read the words of Jesus in the Gospels and sing more about Jesus’ 2nd coming. And that means less Christmas hymns, which then prevents me from getting into the Spirit of Christmas.
I need “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing” before Christmas time.
But it’s not just the Christmas songs. I need the sleigh rides, jingle bells, the parties, Frosty, Rudolph, the lights, and all the decorations. I need these things to make me feel happy and festive inside. And I want all that during Advent.
I need to feel the Christmas Spirit in my heart!
And with all the pressure to make this month feel special, Advent doesn’t help make it feel special. Preparation and waiting? That’s too much effort. I have a hard enough time preparing and waiting for all the gifts for Christmas day. I am not preparing or waiting for anything else.
Third, I want to celebrate Christmas with our worldly, American culture
There is something truly magical around Christmas time right? We all have felt that magical feeling. I think that magical feelings comes because our American culture, for the most part, all participate in the same rituals and traditions around Christmas time. There is a sense of camaraderie I feel with other human beings at Christmas time.
We all do the same kinds of traditions, especially the decorations. The same decorations that won’t offend any religion or beliefs: the colors, the lights, mistletoe, fir trees, candy canes, gingerbread houses, holly, stockings, presents, and the Poinsettias. I think that Poinsettias did have some Christian origin, but that’s been forgotten and doesn’t matter anymore. They are just so festive right?
I just think it’s really uplifting and encouraging that I have the same traditions and rituals as everyone else. Even if they aren’t Christians, I love being united to people of all backgrounds and all traditions. You get this sense perhaps the most during all the shopping! The anxiety and grumpiness that comes with Christmas shopping is unmatched! Its just…I mean…like…there is just something truly magical about being out shopping with other miserable people when all the shops and stores are decorated and lit up.
Oh, and you can’t forget about the Christmas movies. I particularly enjoy those Christmas movies that have nothing to do with the meaning of Christmas. The Santa Claus, A Christmas Story, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Home Alone 1 & 2, Christmas Vacation, Elf, and White Christmas? There is something so comforting about those Christmas movies. And everybody watches these same movies. No matter your race, religion, or political alignment, we all watch the same Christmas movies. It’s like we can take a season and pretend that we all care about the same things. And that makes me feel rosy and cozy inside.
And sorry, but celebrating Advent takes away from this culture and these traditions.
I want to celebrate Christmas with everyone! Besides, if I didn’t, it would look like I am trying to be elitist or above those worldly, American traditions. As if I am saying that there is something better to celebrate, or that there are better traditions and customs in our Christian heritage compared to secular society. And that sounds mean and arrogant.
Fourth, Advent makes me feel bad about my devotional life.
This happens every year. I can’t figure it out why exactly, but growing up in the Church, the season of Advent always feels like this new opportunity to make changes in my devotional life.
The season of Advent gives me a real sense of something important coming. Almost like this added pressure to be more consistent in family devotions, including this renewed energy towards my faith and the things that really matter. It makes me question my own habits, desires, and rituals. And to be frank, I don’t like that. Sorry, but I am not changing any of my usual traditions or habits during Advent.
If you think about it, renewal and change? That’s for the New Year – January 1st!
Also, Advent makes me feel this unnecessary pressure to teach my kids all about the importance of Christ’s 2nd coming. I feel like I have to pay more attention to the Gospels and the words of Christ, his teachings and parables. Making sure I take time out of each day during Advent to read and teach the foundations of our Christian faith to my children? That is just more work to do when I have presents to worry about…
My kids don’t know the Advent hymns as well as they know the Christmas hymns. Teaching them new songs when they would rather sing the Christmas hymns they already know? It just feels like a waste of time…
And then add the Advent wreath: a 20th century ritual that gives me another reminder that I am not doing family devotions like I should…that I am ignoring the Church’s feast days, the holy prophets, and the stories of saints in Church history. The advent wreath is this physical reminder of the Advent season, and it gets in the way of my Christmas.
Regardless if the Advent wreath helps make the stages of Advent season by lighting candles, a ritual embraced by both western and eastern Christians, it’s just so not Christmas to me. Maybe have the wreath in church, that’s fine. But I don’t want that physical reminder of Advent in my home. It makes it feel like we are in a different season or something.
Again, that whole pressure of renewed piety and change of habits? That is what New Year’s Day is all about. Not Advent. It’s almost like the Church has decided when the new year actually begins. As if the new year begins with Advent. Of course not. January 1st, duh! Give me the countdown ball, resolutions I will break or lie about, party hats and streamers, pizza rolls and other bad appetizers. Give me the bad hangover on the morning of New Year’s Day! That’s what the New Year is all about!
I mean, how can there be a focus on the new if you are just focusing on the end and something like Christ’s second coming? That doesn’t make sense. Living life in the present with a focus on the end? That just brings worry and pointless self-reflection.
Fifth and finally, I don’t know how to celebrate Christmas after Christmas Day.
I am sure many of you can relate. Once the presents are opened and the delicious food all eaten, its time to clean up and get ready for New Year’s Day! Knowing that Christmas day has come and gone, there is always this post Christmas day blues I feel. And for me, that feeling is the realization that Christmas is officially over.
I know that there are 12 days of Christmas and that the Church historically has always celebrated all 12 days of Christmas. But I already celebrated Christmas during Advent. Celebrating New Year’s Day with everyone else in our culture completely interrupts Christmas season. It sort of cuts the Christmas season off at the knees.
Maybe that’s not how it should be for us Christians, but as they say, “it is what it is.”
Plus, I have always celebrated New Year’s Day like the pagans do in our country. And I don’t want to give up those pagan rituals and celebrations. They are too much fun!
I have heard of Christians celebrating all 12 days of Christmas. I know this one family that have different presents on each day of Christmas, new, delicious foods each day, and time spent singing all the best Christmas hymns and carols…each and every day of Christmas! Can you imagine all that work? 12 days?
I can barely do the one. After Christmas Day I am exhausted. And that means Christmas has become exhausting and I need a break from Christmas.
I think Christians in the past celebrated and feasted too much anyways. 12 days in a row? That’s overkill. I would rather just celebrate and feast whenever all the other pagans celebrate. You know, New Year’s Day, Super Bowl, and the 4th of July?
Now those are some good holidays!
Even if I were to celebrate all 12 Christmas days, that would mean I would need to add more traditions and rituals to help me understand and appreciate Christmas time more than I do. And that’s just not what I do.
What I mean:
- Learn the hymns of Advent and be more willing to neglect the silly Christmas songs that distract us from the true life of Advent and Christmas.
- Advent actually prepares us for the “spirit of Christmas,” if we truly celebrate Advent.
- We should not want to celebrate Christmas like the worldly culture around us. We should want to do Advent and Christmas differently than the world.
- Yes, Advent is a time of renewal and change. We should reflect more on our habits and devotional rituals during Advent.
- We should celebrate all 12 days of Christmas. Paying more attention to Advent will help us do so.
Caleb Skogen is the Associate Pastor at Providence Church in St. Louis.