Tis the Season

I think that people think I'm nuts. People are wondering what is wrong with me. The culture may call me a Scrooge.  Others may think I've lost my Christmas spirit.

Advent wreath and St. Lucy bread

I don't have lights on my house to be seen from space. I haven't done any Christmas baking yet (although I've celebrated the feast days of St. Barbara, St. Lucy, St. Nicholas, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and the Immaculate Conception). I haven't fallen over backwards to shop on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or Super Saturday. I haven't played Christmas music 24/7 for the last 4+ weeks. I have only started watching Christmas movies just days before Christmas.

Yep, to everyone else, it may look like I've lost my Christmas spirit.

But au contraire! My Christmas spirit has been growing and growing and this year, I feel fuller than ever!

Jesse Tree

For starters, it's not even Christmas yet (it's currently December 22)! I have been celebrating Advent, meaning, "coming." Yes, Christmas--Jesus--is coming, not, here. We have faithfully lit our Advent candles at dinner every night for the last four weeks while singing, "O Come O Come Emmanuel"--come, Lord Jesus, come! The ornaments are going up on our Jesse Tree and our Nativity scenes are missing one Key Player.

No, I haven't "done" Christmas yet because Advent is the season to prepare. We clean our homes and adorn them with decorations for the season. But a better preparation has been cleaning my soul and making myself a more beautiful dwelling place for the Lord. I haven't "done" Christmas yet because the Baby, the reason for the season, isn't here yet. We don't celebrate our own birthdays a month in advance and then hardly acknowledge the actual day. Why do it to Jesus?

"Doing" Christmas before Christmas Day, when our focus is not on Jesus, is only a distraction. We keep so busy with the hustle and bustle of gifts, wrapping paper, food, cooking, baking, ugly sweaters, decorating, parties, movies, music, and trying to cram it all in a few weeks--how dizzying! With such "noise" and busy-ness, our minds are too busy. The hours in our days are too full. Our focus is on all the wrong stuff. I can't think of a more effective way to forget about Jesus, ironically, in the season when we are supposed to celebrate Him. Too busy to pray. Too much to do, can't sit in quiet prayer with the Lord. Too many places to go, can't make it to Confession or even Mass.

When we're so caught up in "celebrating" Christmas before Christmas Day, we're left with an empty feeling. I know this is WAY too common in homes across America: it's the afternoon of Christmas Day, and suddenly, Christmas is "over." The presents have been opened, which marks the end of the day and season. With all the build-up of the last few weeks, Christmas Day is always anticlimactic. This makes no sense! Christmas isn't OVER on the 25th, it has only just begun! Christmas, the birth of our Lord, the humbling of God to become man--a little Baby--, the Eternal Word entering our fallen world in order to save us, this great event of human history is such a great event that we celebrate Christmas "Day" for eight days! That climax of the season should be celebrated for eight days of the Octave of Christmas! And all this within the Christmas Season, which goes all the way through the middle of January to the Baptism of the Lord!

Our culture "loves" Christmas to death to the point that, just when the holiday gets started, everyone else is over it. Done. And THAT is what happens when Christmas isn't properly prepared for during the season of Advent.

So yeah, people may think I'm nuts. People may think I've lost my Christmas spirit. But this year I'm properly ordering the celebrations. I'm preparing my soul more than all that other "stuff." I still think that the "stuff" is important, but only when properly ordered. And in "holding off" on all that "stuff" during Advent and waiting until Christmas, I'm actually able to enjoy and appreciate it even more.

Merry Christmas!

Don't spread it thin

I'm almost halfway through a month-long discipline right now. By the grace of God, I'm doing better than I thought I would. I thought I would feel tortured every day, but by exercising my spiritual muscles, I'm feeling stronger than my passions and stronger than the temptations that assault me.

It's the middle of November and I've been putting off all things Christmas until the first Sunday of Advent, at least.

Maybe to some people that still sounds early. To others, maybe they're wondering what's the big deal, or why am I waiting so long? But to me, it's a big deal.

You see, I'm a Christmas junkie. I love all things Christmas. Christmas baking, Christmas decorations, Christmas traditions, Christmas lights, Christmas movies, and oh my, don't get me started on how much I love Christmas music. When I was a child, Christmas was like the light at the end of the tunnel. I anxiously waited for that magical time of year. The anticipation was almost too much to handle as summer came to an end, school started, the air got chilly, fall came, and then the first snowflakes started to fly. But I'm so thankful now, that my mom made me wait for all those things that I loved. I certainly wanted to have a Christmas tree to look at over Thanksgiving dinner and I wanted total access to our Christmas music and movies, but thank you God, she did not give in. She made me wait.

Unfortunately, when I went away to college and I was under my own discipline, I started dipping my toes into all things Christmas during the month of November. I thought it was great! I listened to Christmas music for almost two straight months! I got Christmas lights up before Thanksgiving break! I was indulging in gingerbread cookies and peppermint mochas! I thought I was multiplying my Christmas joy!

But I forgot one key thing: earthly joy, the happiness that can come from the things of this world, is finite. It has its limits. It can't last forever. And as I learned year after year of loving Christmas earlier and earlier, I didn't feel that deep anticipation and catharsis of Christmas joy like I thought I would. Instead of riding a Christmas high for twice as long each year, I just divided it in half. I spread the joy thin--so thin, that Christmas morning seemed anticlimactic. Worse yet, I gave in completely to the secular view of Christmas and conceded that Christmas was "over" after Christmas morning, rather than just beginning and lasting for the next 8 days as we believe in the Catholic faith.

I literally loved Christmas to death. By giving in to my whims, enslaved by my "desires and pleasures" (Titus 3:3), bowing down to my spur-of-the-moment desires for "Christmas things" in October and November, I was taking away from the joys of the real holiday season. I was losing sight of the true meaning of Christmas, which is Christ Himself, Who alone can give infinite joy, rather than the finite joy from the world. And by bowing down to the world and my passions, I was ashamed in the presence of God.

This year, I said enough is enough. I'm reverting back to the lessons I learned as a child. Wait. Be patient. Love the anticipation rather than giving in. Christmas is taking on a new meaning again this year, that I seemed to have lost a few years back. In addition, I have a baby who will celebrate his first Christmas this year. I want to teach him the patience and discipline that my mom taught me. I want Christmas to be magical to him, too, and I don't think that can happen if I am giving in to my desires, showing him that he can have whatever he wants whenever he wants it.

It's November 18th and I have 12 more days until I can bust out my Christmas things. I can't wait!