Episcopal Church Foundation Vestry Papers - for leading congregations

All around New York there are lights on the lampposts and covering the trunks of trees along Park Avenue. I know, many feel that it’s too early for Christmas decorations, but I love these lights. They serve almost like the Advent candles we light on Sunday mornings: a reminder every time I walk outside that Christmas is approaching.

For those of us who love Advent, and are more concerned with the meaning of the Christmas season than gifts and Christmas trees, it can be easy to feel frustrated, to become Advent police complaining about how early Christmas decorations are out this year and how they are out earlier and earlier every year.

This is a legitimate complaint, but spending a lot of time talking about it is a good way to get people to stop listening to you. You may reach a few people in your church, but most everyone else doesn’t care that Episcopalians think it’s too early for Christmas decorations. Nor should they.

Remember, much of what we celebrate around the Christmas season is constructed. Jesus wasn’t actually born on December 25, and Advent was not ordained by God in the Ten Commandments. This season, the Advent candles and the hymns we sing are tools we’ve made to help us remember Christ’s birth, God with us.

Rather than complaining, we should be offering up our alternate vision. The Advent season is full of quiet beauty. There is much this liturgical season of reflection and preparation has to offer a stressed out culture that is running around worrying about buying Christmas gifts.

We don’t need to spend too much time fighting the companies putting up Christmas decorations before the fall, or even the messages that constantly encourage us to buy. There is no war on Christmas, and if there is it’s not one the Episcopal church needs to fight. Instead, we should focus on the vision we are offered in the Advent season, one of giving, of reflection, and of love.