I need to vent! I'm tired of people lecturing me that it is not appropriate to sing/celebrate/decorate for Christmas until the official start of Advent. Yes, Advent began so do I have permission to allow my kids to sing Jingle Bells in kindergarten? Really? He gets a check by his name for singing a Christmas song before Thanksgiving was over? R.E.A.L.L.Y? I'm tired of hearing the lecture from many people when I mentioned that I loved that Christmas music was playing on the radio long before Thanksgiving was even here!! I'm sick of the scrooges that complain about hating Christmas because they have no money for presents. These are the same ding-dongs that lecture me on how the early playing and the early decorating for Christmas commercializes Christmas. Umm...what?
I know the reason for the season and have people thought that this is just the reason that I hold Christmas so dear? I love that things are getting chilly outside because it "forces" us inside to be still and together as a family. I love the Christmas music - not necessarily "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" but I love "Away in a Manger" and "Silent Night" and "The Little Drummer Boy" and "O Come All Ye Faithful" and...
Why do I feel the need to defend my love of Christmas? I love that it is a time to stop and remember Jesus during these long and quiet days and nights. I love this time of year where I can stop all of the pettiness (and I do!) and focus on the exact thing I'd like to purchase my sisters or my sons or my daughter to show them how much I love them. This gift may be a little something or a big something but the intent is the same. I take the sentiments that I feel from my relationship with my Heavenly Father and I try to translate it to my loved ones. It isn't in the gift itself, it's just in the act of thinking about the particular loved one that brings me the greatest joy.
So, please don't give me any more grief for longing for snow while being tired of the drizzly rain that keeps us all depressed and wet (IN NOVEMBER) Don't give me grief for welcoming Christmas and all of its joy and blessings and togetherness. Don't give me grief for wanting to find a world that is Christmas 24/7 not because of the materialistic aspects of this particular day but because I want to hold tight the sacredness and the warmth of this awesome day in which our Savior was given to the world through our amazing Mother!
Perhaps, the rest of the world needs to embrace Christmas as part of their everyday lives instead of finding some reason to hate it all. As for me, I'll be the one with glistening tears in her eyes because of the amount of love that is bubbling within her heart. Yeah, I'm that cheesy about Christmas!
2 comments:
What?!? K got in trouble for singing Jingle Bells before Thanksgiving? Please tell me you're kidding. What's next? Rabies shots for the Easter bunny?
I *wish* I could celebrate Christmas all year. I feel a strange guilt when I break out the heavy-duty Christmas music and decorate like crazy while it's still Advent. I have some very orthodox friends who wait until Christmas Eve to do their trees and swear off Christmas music until after Christmas mass. While that's admirable, I just can't even wait half that long. Christmas music is so uplifting...and positive...and spiritual! Truth be told, I drug out my very favorite Christmas cd (with pretty choirs and stuff) in October and would soothe myself with it when I worked too late! there is nothing as calming as "O Holy Night" and "Breath of Heaven."
That's a really, really long way of saying that I agree with you! Keep Christmas all year!
I'm pretty orthodox myself but I also realize that the reason we celebrate the birth of our Savior is not to pin-point it to a particular date but to remind ourselves of what that Gift really means! It's sad, in my opinion, when people get all wrapped up in their religiosity and forget about Religion!
*stepping off soap box*
Merry CHRISTmas!
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