It is that time of year, Thanksgiving has past which means that Christmas is around the corner. People (and not just stores) have started to put up trees, lights, and other decorations. Parties, concerts and other festivities fill our weekends and even some of our weekdays. Credit cards are being swiped as stores advertise big deals to draw in the crowds, enticing people to spend money on friends and family for Christmas presents. And the rants on Facebook have started against people celebrating Christmas already and not pausing for Advent.
And it all just about drives me crazy.
Yes I'm not a fan of stores that have Christmas decorations up (not just for sale) before the Halloween candy has gone on clearance, but I'm also not a fan of seeing back to school displays in June. Yes I don't think people should go into debt in order to purchase the must have toy of the year for their child, but I also think that there are few things you should go into debt for and gifts are not one of them. Yes I get annoyed with the Martha Stewart wannabes who spend so much time and energy making homemade food/crafts/cards and then look down upon other people who purchase those items because they are not crafty, but then again I get annoyed with those people all year long - not the crafty people, just the ones who judge others for not having the same skill sets that they have.
But I get just as frustrated, if not even more so, at the people who rant and rave about how we need to watch and wait and prepare for Christmas by honoring the holiness that is Advent and all those decorations, gifts, parties, baked goods and carol singing are not Advent but Christmas that has come too early and people are bad Christians/worshipers/people if they sing Away in the Manger on December 1st. I think I get most frustrated by these Liturgical Advent Police because they are Christians who are being arrogant jerks.
Advent is about preparing for the birth of a child, the Christ Child.
While I have never prepared for the birth of a child, I have walked with many friends and family who have. And I have yet to meet an expecting parent who has not decorated the nursery before the child is born, or who has not gone to doctors appointments to make sure that both the mother and baby are healthy. Most parents make list of items to purchase or do before or shortly after the child is born. Most have thought about if not even picked out a name before the birth. I have also attended many baby showers and given gifts to children who are not yet born in order to help the parents make sure they have.
Therefore why can't the Liturgical Advent Police see that all the decorating, gifts, parties, baked goods and carol singing are ways that people prepare for the birth of the Christ Child, just like expecting parents prepare for the birth of their newborn? And instead of being arrogant jerks and being cranky whenever they see a Christmas tree up or a carol sung before December 24, we instead celebrate it and remember that the Christ Child is about to be born.
Yes let's continue, as people of faith, to speak out against the consumerism and one-up-men-ship that this season often brings so that the focus is on the Christ Child and not on who has the biggest tree or bought the most expensive gift. And let's also try and get people to celebrate Christmas beyond December 25, cause it is not like the day after a baby is born that parents pack up the nursery and put everything in the attic until the next pregnancy.
Let's just stop being arrogant jerks about it, after all Advent is not some liturgical version of "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant." We know what is going to happen, we know what we are going to celebration on Christmas Day. So let's start getting ready, preparing and even celebrating knowing that each decoration hung, gift given, party attend, baked good eaten or carol sung just builds are anticipation.
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