Thoughts on a Christmas Day posted 12/25/2007 12:33:18 PM | 5 kudos what's this?     report abuse tagged: christmas, traditions, memories, faith

lacyvsq

I sang in church last night -- for three services...all the same except for the people. That means I sang the same songs three times, (sort of) listened to the same sermon/message three times, got my candle lit three times, received the same benediction three times...

The program had most of the traditional 'church' Christmas carols. As we processed in to Oh Come all Ye Faithful, it brought back memories of years of Sunday School pageants on Christmas Eve in the Christian Reformed Church in Worthington, MN -- where the same song was used to process along with Onward Christian Soldiers. I can no longer remember to what age we participated in the pageants, but I suspect it was through the 8th grade.

Our family tradition was to begin opening gifts -- one per night -- from the time that they all were under the tree -- usually two or three nights before Christmas Eve. The first gifts were generally clothing items and usually provided something new to be worn to the church pageant. Each year there was a family gift of Russell Stover or Fanny Farmer chocolates, of which we were also allowed only one per evening. The remainder of the gifts were opened Christmas Eve either before or after the pageant depending on time.

I remember the year the family got the Monopoly game. My parents and brother and I played late into the evening, going to bed only after I had won!

We did not believe in Santa Claus, but each year we were allowed to go into the aluminum igloo in front of the courthouse to sit on his lap and get our share of the community dole of candy.

Last night, as we sang Away in a Manger in a key that is a tad low for my voice, I recalled my sister and I singing it and Jesus Loves Me as duets in church at a very young age -- perhaps she was three and I six? She had a hard time with high notes and I with low ones so we alternated lines on the the song. It was a great honor to be chosen for the special part -- and not just one song, but two!

Each of the services last night ended with the lighting of candles held by each worshiper. It is actually quite impressive to sit in the choir in front of the church and see the lights in the congregation spread from aisle to aisle, but the actual ritual of it seems a bit silly to me. In my childhood tradition, the service ended with the deacons handing out bags of hard candy and nuts and then we each got a large red Delicious apple. Most of the candy was garbage -- though there was usually one or two pieces of cream-filled chocolate that I liked -- but it was fun to crack the filberts and almonds and walnuts...and the thought of those apples has me hungry right now.

On Christmas Day, it was back to church for a Sunday-type church service, and then home for Christmas dinner! I raised geese for several years as a money generating project, so there was one year we had goose, but we decided we were not all that crazy about goose and went back to having turkey with dressing and potatoes and gravy... Hmm...I wangled an invitation for Thanksgiving at the neighbor, wonder if they are good for Christmas as well...

As I listened to the sermon/messages over and over last night and as I typed that word faithful up there, I think about how my faith has changed from the time of apples and nuts at the end of the service to today. Then, my faith was that a child was born that was not like any other child -- he was the only 'true' son of God, come to earth to suffer the punishment for the sins/errors/wickedness of all mankind. One of the statements made last night (x3) was that he never went to college, yet I have read a book which postulates that Jesus studied with the Druids in his teens and studied with Tibetan monks in his twenties. The sermon/message last night was partly about how many things unrelated to Christ's birth have become associated with Christmas, but in all likelihood, Christ was not born anywhere near the winter solstice -- which means that many of those unrelated things were already in place before Christ's birth was slapped on as a part of the celebrations.

I am becoming cynical now...and that is not the way to have a Merry Christmas, so I will leave off my thoughts for now and perhaps continue them on a rainy day.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS ALL!!!!!

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