My relationship with Advent was not a natural one. I grew up in a non-denominational Christian home and church, so Advent, for the longest time — up until a year ago, actually — meant “kind of like Christmas” or “Christmas-related”. Also, it made me think of candles and chocolate.
For the past several years, I’d been increasingly discontent with Christmas. After all, when you’re a grown-up you get the lousiest presents. Practical, every-day items that more often than not fall into the category of “yet one more thing you get to wash/clean up repeatedly”.
Actually, it wasn’t the presents I was disappointed with. (As it turns out, I’m one of those dorky sensible types that is excitedly hoping for that new cookware or potato masher she asked for.) It was just that, for Christmas, I wanted more. Not more stuff, more meaning. More fun. More opportunity to enjoy people. More time to enjoy Jesus, the gift I was given so long ago.
A couple years ago, it occurred to me that perhaps we have Thanksgiving and Christmas mixed up. Thanksgiving was to be a celebration of material blessing; a feast, a time of “excess”, to celebrate our material success. (Which is not unspiritual: God established a similar sort of feast for the people of Israel.) But my family and I tend to celebrate in a more “spiritual way”, and our gratitude tends to be about our spiritual, rather than material, blessings.
The idea of Christmas, then, is to celebrate Jesus’ coming to earth and the spiritual blessings God has given to us through him. But for me, at least, Christmas was nothing of the sort. I mean, we talked about the birth of Christ, there was certainly a spiritual component to our celebration, but it was never a time of worship or growth. In all practicality, most of us celebrate our material blessings at Christmas. Again, not necessarily bad…I was just frustrated with trying to force spiritual meaning into a holiday that, by all outward appearances, had none.
In spite of this dissatisfaction, I went along with things because I really try to be cooperative. I do what I’m told, I buy the presents for the person who’s name I drew, I eat the cookies, I shop the sales because this is America and this is what Christmas means. I decided that the point of Christmas was to have a time of national festivity and I wasn’t going to waste my time trying to spiritualize it. I even tried assuaging my guilt by spending less on myself/my family and giving it to those in need.
And then, a little over a year ago, I had enough. I knew I was not capable of doing Christmas this way anymore. I was fine with completely not celebrating Christmas anymore if that’s what it took, but I suspected that wasn’t the answer….because what I really wanted was more Christmas, more of the REAL Christmas, I just didn’t know how to get that.
So I prayed a lot. I studied Jewish Feasts and Festivals. I analyzed my past Christmas celebrations and read up on how to simplify the holidays.
Then one day, I stumbled across the concept of Advent. Which, like I said, previously had little meaning. But thanks to Wikipedia, I discovered a season-long anticipation and celebration of the coming of Christ. Here I was trying to reinvent Christmas and it turns out a Bunch of Old Church Guys had come up with a really great idea a long time ago. Love it when you can steal someone else’s idea.
So last year, our family went Advent. We took out some of the traditional rituals and added ones of our own. With a little preparation and prayer, I crafted my very own Customized Advent Experience.
And it made for the best Christmas ever.
related posts:
‘Tis the Season to be….Jolly?
The Declaration of Christmas Grinch Independence: The Search for a Joyful Christmas
The Declaration of Christmas Grinch Independence: The Advent Plan
Advent Wrap-Up
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