Why We’re Not Celebrating Christmas

This is one of my absolute favorite times of the year, but we’re not celebrating Christmas, at least not yet. We are actually just finishing the third week of Advent. When I was a kid, I thought that this meant we got to light candles at church on Sunday and not much more. Now I know that there is a whole lot more to the season of Advent and I’m learning to really celebrate it.

I love celebrating Advent because it helps me take a step back and not get caught up in the all of the craziness that Christmas has become in our secular culture. I hate the fact that Christmas decorations seem to go up earlier and earlier every year. I think I even saw decorations for sale in October this year! I also hate the push to buy bigger and better gifts when most of us don’t really need anything. We have been making a conscious effort to really celebrate Advent in an effort to keep from being caught up in the stress that Christmas has become. So I thought I would share some of the things I have enjoyed about making Advent a real season in our lives.

We’ve learned that there are really two calendars we follow: a secular calendar and a sacred/church calendar. The secular calendar is the one with dates such as 4th of July and Memorial Day, but the sacred calendar was intended to help us order our life of worship. In sacred time, Advent is the beginning of the year when we prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ as we remember His first coming. Then we get to celebrate the incredible fact that God humbled Himself and became a man for 12 full days, not just one. And each season reflects a truth about God and our relationship with Him. Now that I have practiced each of the seasons of the church year, I wonder at how helpful they are in my spiritual life. I could write many blogs about this topic and maybe I will in the future, but back to why I love Advent.

A few years back, Anthony gave me this beautiful Advent wreath for my birthday and we began a small family tradition of lighting the candles each night, saying a prayer, and reading a Scripture or devotional. Sometimes we read a fun book we have called, Jotham’s Journey, about a shepherd boy who ends up at the stable when Jesus is born. One year we made a Jesse tree as a family. We always wait to put the baby Jesus into the nativity set until Christmas day.















It seems like we make minor changes each year as we learn more about celebrating this season, always asking the question, “How can Advent help us prepare for the coming of the Lord?” This year we have purposefully held off on putting up Christmas decorations. Sometimes, I must admit that I miss them, but then I remind myself that it is NOT Christmas, YET. At other times when I’m feeling stressed about Christmas, I tell myself the same thing and then I feel so free. Also, making a conscious decision to really celebrate Advent helps me get much needed perspective during this often hectic season and choose more selectively what we will and won’t do. Lately, I’ve been imagining what it would be like if all Christians started separating the seasons of Advent and Christmas again, even if the commercial world didn’t. Would it help us remember that we are in this world, but not of it?

A Few Advent Links
Faith magazine's overview of Jesse Tree traditions
A good explanation of Advent and its traditions
An interactive Advent calendar
A list of good Advent/Christmas books